What to do when your host disappears?

[perfectnumber]

I was wondering if anyone knows what can be done about your host taking your money and going out of business? Has anyone had this happen to them, and if so is there any recourse. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but that will most likely not get my money back. Funny thing is I have another host right now that I happy with, but it has become a matter of principle. Heck I don't even care about the money really. Anyone can be chumped, but that doesn't mean that you have to let it happen again. These people shouldn't be able to start another company.

Here are the hosts to look out for:
Idlehosting.com
LTDhosting.com
Vovex.com
All of them are dead, disappeared.

My story starts with a host called idlehosting.com owned by B***y E****r. It has been "idle" for months now. Basically, it was horrible, and he was horrible for so many reasons. You should read the crap this guy sent me. It's hilarious. He really hated me by the end. But my primary problem with him is that he never returned my emails when the service was down for days at a time. I did email him at a email.com address. He disappeared months ago, but came back with LTDhosting.com. When I found that out I sent a message to him requesting he return my money or reactivate my accounts. I didn't really need it, but like I said it was the principle. He didn't respond himself, but I did get an email that same day:

>>> "Hello, This email is to inform you that Vovex has acquired your account from IdleHosting... Once setup, you will have the remainder of your year + time lost (we basically are adding 2 months to your year)...." <<<

That was from Vovex.com, owned by J******n C*****t according to the whois. I then asked vovex.com

>>>"Why did it take B***y E****r 2 months of complete downtime and loss of my sites to forward this to vovex? And is Vovex in anyway related to idlehosting or LTDhosting, or B***y E****r?" <<<

Keep in mind that I did send Billy emails requesting the same from him earlier, after idlehosting.com disappeared.

Here is their reply:

>>>"Idlehosting had many follies that weren't actually there [sic] fault. It was
there fault, in the choice of choosing a horrible datacenter (one that is trying to be shut-down by many hosters).

He (B***y E****r) is affiliated with us in that he has "stock" in us. He invested in getting Vovex going a serveral months ago and if it weren't for him and a few others we would not be as strong as we are today. LTDHosting is a Reseller of ours, but as far as I know the only
thing B***y has to do with it was the fact that he registered the domain.

It isn't as easy as some people think, to run a hosting company. B***y simply chose his datacenter based on price and as you can see it wasn't a very good choice. Thats why Vovex doesn't lower there prices for anything. To offer good service, you have to charge a reasonable price." <<<

So he is investing in "stock" with my money. Just great. Anyway, I did get an account set up on vovex.com. It lasted about 2 weeks before they disappered.

Then I noticed this on a forum:
>>> Vovex Technology has proven to be a reliable and affordable hosting solution for the past 10 months of business. Vovex Technology currently hosts a total of 378 domains on 3 linux servers. <<<

So, since vovex.com has disappeared, does that mean there are 378 ticked off customers out there?

If I were as disingenuous as these people I'd start my own webhosting company, lure people in with great prices for service for a year and provide it for about 4 months and disappear. Is there anything stopping people from being able to do this? Seems like quite the racket to me. I sure wish I was a slimeball; I'd actually have money then.

Thanks everyone.

[LP-Trel]

This is where you learn to take a proactive role in choosing your hosting provider.

Searching and searching then when your almost done search some more.

Pick out about 30-40 webhosts that meet your requirements. Price vs. resources.. and make sure its reasonable. ;)

After that make sure you research every single company and if you don't like what you see, mark it off.

You may not want to do all this work but, it is required. Buying webhosting is almost like buying a new car. The purchase can be smooth but, how is the after purchase dealings with the company?

Good luck to you! :banana:

[deadserious]

I have seen that idlehosting person be extremely rude and would bet all them companies are actually just the same person pretending to be others and I doubt there was ever really such thing as stock, but I dunno for sure.

This stuff really does suck, but unfortunately it happens all the time. I guess your best thing is to research research research research before choosing a host.

What can be done? Hmmm report them to the bbb, to the authorities, file charges, do a charge back if you used your credit card or report them to any payment services you used, things like that maybe.

[jagan]

Pls Take Care Of Following:-

a) Are the server his own or he is taking reseller package
b) Know more about company Network
c) Demand For Clint Lists

[Greg]

I always check them out here first or see if they have had an bad press on WHT or HHO, i'm not sure if companies would let you have a look at their client lists, im sure i wouldn't

[jmweb]

their is certainly a lot more disappeared hosts then that, I heard about 2-3 hours dissappearing a day.

[jmweb]

good thing is most of people turn into our clients :D

[James]

speeking from the host who had to shut down POV.
I told my clients i was closing down shop and gave them extra time to find a new home. I gave them a webhosting comp name that i know the owner from. at lest i was nice enuf to tell my clients. but hosts who are out there to scam people just make the up and comming business look bad.

advice for you and anyone who had a hosting provider dissaper.
1. do a charge back, do it as SOON as you find out the host closed shop tho. other wise your out of luck if you ate to long.
2. find out where the person lives that ran with the money and call the cops for more infomation on what can be done. they might not be able to help you but if you find out a few former clients and they call as well they might be able to at lest go knock on the door and ask questions.

3. dont even bother reporting them to the BBB if there not paying to be listed in there they will not be listed in there. (not to shure if the BBB would keep complants about business not listed)

4. keep a backup of your site on your hard drive!
5. keep a backup of your site on your hard drive!
i hope this helps in your search for the guy who stifed you.

[fe4rlessone]

I also was a "client" with Idlehosting.com... I then sufferd their downtime, and was also moved to vovex.com which lasted less time then I could make my new webpage.. BUT unlike the story you posted, I was/am a personal friend of "B***y E****r". My services on Idlehosting were great, I never got downtime until from what i heard, the server was hacked and the money he had invested was removed from his account which it was all stored, in this matter he had no way to keep his data center (or his server) up and running, another close friend of mine loaned him half of the payment to keep it running, that is why you sufferd downtime then it came back up and then went back down again, then B***y returned and moved us to vovex.com were we lasted for what was virtually no time at all, then as you say he disapeared, the only part about this that really bothers me is that i was not warned before my site was gone, so i have no backup of anything i did with my site, and the domain was/is registerd in the name of B****y E****r and there is nothing i can do to recover it, i tried to transfer it so i could gain controll of it, now namecheap.com has control over it and i am not B***y E****r so i can not do anything about it, i used my domain for less than 3 moths after paying for a years of it.. I guess i have nothing to do other than wait for it to run out and re register it on my own when it wont be in his name. if B***y reads this PLEASE EMAIL ME OR CONTACT ME ON AIM, or if anyone can help me or has anything to say, you can email me at fantasy_scripter@hotmail.com, thank you Jeremy

[jmweb]

2. find out where the person lives that ran with the money and call the cops for more infomation on what can be done. they might not be able to help you but if you find out a few former clients and they call as well they might be able to at lest go knock on the door and ask questions.

Calling the cops wont help at all, unless you live in the U.K. American cops drop the ball big time on things like this. I suggest contacting a lawyer if your in the states.

[fe4rlessone]

this peson was a friend of mine that has not been online in a long time now, i know were they live i am not interested in calling the cops in the town, i just want to know how to get control of a domain that i paid for that is not registerd in my name.. b***y e****r didnt steal my money. he did what he said he was going to do, but no longer has the services of providing the web hosting so i just want my domain

[Felxi]

Even when i first closed down felxi.com i made sure that the people i had (only a few) found a new host first and i made them aware of the whole story, didnt bull $hit them 1 bit.