Poor web hosts

[Tai]

So most web hosts claim to have 99% uptime or whatever, I'm wondering if this is challengeable and if you are entitled to a refund if 99% uptime is not the case?

About a month ago I took out a Shared hosting package (Business) with webhostuk (for work) and the downtime has been really bad. In the first 2 days it went down twice, so I sent them an email saying I wanted to cancel and get a refund, they sent a reply avoiding the question and apologised saying they had a power cut...

In the following few days there was more down time so I sent another email saying it was unacceptable and that I wanted my money back. They ignored the complaint again and directed me to a post on their forum regarding service status...

It was ok for about a week after that but now it's down again so this is just ****ing shocking, I've never known unreliable hosting like this before. The site is ready to go live soon so I cannot have it being unavailable all the time because not only wil we lose business but I'll get it in the neck for choosing a **** hosting company.

What can I do?

 

[ixtrix]

well, from their site info
30 Day Money-Back Guarantee - does that still apply?
99.99% Uptime Guarantee - means very little if doesnt say a timespan
like any service on the ,its trial and error, i would cut my losses and change , may even get ur money back

 

[afshangrudar1]

How did/are you paying? If you paid by business credit card you can cancel and get a refund probably.

 

[Tai]

How did/are you paying? If you paid by business credit card you can cancel and get a refund probably.

Yes I paid a year through business credit card, but money isn't my department so not really sure what you mean, how do I cancel the payment? I wasn't aware it was possible, surely the payment's been made and that's that?

@ixtrix yeah got 10 days left of that

 

[Alecs]

I don't know anything about the laws in the UK but I'm pretty sure there's something you can do. You paid for a service that they aren't bringing to you. We've got here an organization that defends the comsumer rights so you probably got it too.

 

[Tai]

I've sent them another support ticket asking them to action the 30 day money back garuntee (because I hadn't actually seen that before) so we'll see what they say.

 

[afshangrudar1]

Talk to your accounts/finance department, because you paid by business credit card you can claim you didnt recieve the good promised and want to withold payment. Tell accounts/finance department to ring your credit provider and explain the situation and they will refund the money instantly. If they have broken their service level agreement they have no legs to stand on so if they send you a letter demanding payment tell them their broke thier SLA and support didnt respond in a suitable time scale. Tell them you will complain to nominet if they dont drop the matter and they will piss off, not worth the legal fees and bad press for them.

I went on a business trip to Canada last year and someone cloned my business card and used it to buy timber to build a house lol, got the money back instantly.

 

[Tai]

Lol. Ok good to know thanks

 

[ixtrix]

i would disagree a little there, they do provide a service (just badly it appears) ,so card issuer wont do anything as far i know , there have been a few posts about them , mostly bad , like no live support for days etc
ive had a similar experience recently trying some services , and i just learn from mistakes and just move to another host
i went wrong by following a review sites advice , after i realised the provider was crap , i dug into the review site and found it was owned by the same person as the provider given best reviews lol ><

 

[afshangrudar1]

if they have broken their service level agreement, technically that is a breach of contract. They seem to have done this on two occasions - with less than 99% uptime and not really 24/7 live chat / instant support. There is also a money back guarantee that they have not honoured so I really dont think they have a leg to stand on

 

[ixtrix]

i agree, if they say money back it should mean money back
but on the uptime, 99.9% does not say 'during any month' or anything similar, they could have been up since net started and only now having downtime..... but i really doubt it myself lol