dedicated hosting rip off - please advise

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Hi Folks

I help run another forum which has many thousand members and a few haters, we started getting denial of service attacks and cheap host told us to look elsewhere. I chatted to a UK hosting company in their live chat and logged the conversation, I told him we having issue with denial of service and could he offer a package with a level of support that could protect us. He said that this was not a problem and their support team would notice straight away and block their IP's etc etc. he recommended a dedicated linux server which was approx £1000 per year,
£1000 paid our site lasted 7 hours then account suspended due to level of ddos effecting their other users and it has remained like this for 48 hours, they refuse to reinstate site, say they cannot deal with the level of ddos and refuse refund as "company policy says no refunds on dedicated server" even after only 7 hours service.
they suggest having DNS elsewhere ! or taking the site elsewhere, and they keep the £1000! they say distance selling act doesn't apply to this, what can we do...surely this cannot be right?
keymaster

In reply to a post by keymaster:

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Hi Folks

I help run another forum which has many thousand members and a few haters, we started getting denial of service attacks and cheap host told us to look elsewhere. I chatted to a UK hosting company in their live chat and logged the conversation, I told him we having issue with denial of service and could he offer a package with a level of support that could protect us. He said that this was not a problem and their support team would notice straight away and block their IP's etc etc. he recommended a dedicated linux server which was approx £1000 per year,
£1000 paid our site lasted 7 hours then account suspended due to level of ddos effecting their other users and it has remained like this for 48 hours, they refuse to reinstate site, say they cannot deal with the level of ddos and refuse refund as "company policy says no refunds on dedicated server" even after only 7 hours service.
they suggest having DNS elsewhere ! or taking the site elsewhere, and they keep the £1000! they say distance selling act doesn't apply to this, what can we do...surely this cannot be right?
keymaster

From what you said you need is a two stage firewall, one dedicated and one on the server. A couple of suggestions to do in the future..

If your running cpanel get lfd installed.
Lock down sshd etc
Switch off the ability of users to ping the machine.
Limit folders with 777 permisons and if you do need them move them out of the html root.
Update update and update again.

Make sure your not using forum software which is known for security weaknesses ..
I would go also with a monthly rolling hosting contract ..

Hi
Problem is we wasted £1000 on this one that lasted 7hours total and they will not give refund.
thank you for your information though I will save it for if we ever get back online
thanks
Key

Can you name the company in question? If they are registered you might be able to take further action.

It sounds like they might just be reselling a dedicated server from elsewhere and don't want to have to give a refund as they'll loose out.

Matt

In reply to a post by uno:

Can you name the company in question? If they are registered you might be able to take further action.

It sounds like they might just be reselling a dedicated server from elsewhere and don't want to have to give a refund as they'll loose out.

Matt

sounds like a £80 dedicated server a month jobbie or semi managed dedicated server

I'd very much agree with you there.

I doubt they have paid for the year in advance.

If the OP has paid by credit card, you may be able to raise this with your card company.

Matt

In reply to a post by uno:

I'd very much agree with you there.

I doubt they have paid for the year in advance.

If the OP has paid by credit card, you may be able to raise this with your card company.

Matt

OP said (taken at face value )

He said that this was not a problem and their support team would notice straight away and block their IP's etc etc. he recommended a dedicated linux server which was approx £1000 per year,
£1000 paid our site lasted 7 hours then account suspended due to level of ddos effecting their other users and it has remained like this for 48 hours,

Interestingly dedicated servers should not affect other servers unless the DDos is so huge it brings down the peering gateways or the hosts firewall etc. Otherwise its a vps masquerading as a dedicated server.

I agree.. but until we know what company it was, or more information; a lot is going to be assumed.

Matt

Hi Lads,
thank you so much for all your posts which I missed, yes it is an £80 per month + set up fees etc came to £950 paid up front for the year by bank transfer, the company is eUKhosting.
I would say firstly we were missold this as we informed the salesman that the reason we were looking to change was that we had a problem with denial of service attacks...he said (and we have the log) this would not be an issue as their engineers were 24/7 and would spot the issue immediatly and block IP's if required.....in reality we were online for 7 hours on day 1 and they suspended the service - it has been like that since.
The "engineer" night before last said they couldn't stop the attack and we should have read the terms and conditions, nothing he could do, we were effecting other customers, I asked what he wanted us to do, he suggested we take business elsewhere or at least dns. we then received an email in the morning (day 2) saying they were unwilling to put site back up but no refunds were offered on dedicated linux servers from "senior systems admin".
I asked if this would be covered by distance selling laws with 7 day cooling off period, the "accounts department" said it wasn't".
many thanks
Key

It's widely known that eUKhost resell servers for several datacentres in Maidenhead. Despite what their site says, it appears they just use Poundhost and RapidSwitch.

According to various sources on the internet, the majority of their support is based in Indian with a UK "front" for legal reasons - so they may have a lack of understand of their obligations under UK law.

I would first drop a call to consumer direct - they may be able to give you some further advice. Then put your refund request to the hoster in writing, recorded delivery giving them sufficient chance to resolve the issue and issue a suitable refund with X days. Keep a copy of the letter and proof and then if they fail to respond, consider taking the matter further by way of legal action should you feel acceptable, or a county court small claim.

Edit: I've just looked at their site. Was it a full dedicated server, or a "semi-dedicated" server? I would assume the latter when you were told it was affecting other users.

Matt

Edited by uno (Wed 26-May-10 14:10:55)