Letshost.ie suspended my hosting without notice.

pug_

Sully wrote: »

Its a tough call.. if the OP pushed the boat and went to far, broke the hosts T&Cs I dont see the problem with calling the client, asking for it to be removed, suspending the site for breaking the T&Cs.

Don't forget this is an online only business, do you honestly think it's OK to shut down a persons business because they made a comment on and Internet forum? I don't care how defamatory the original comment was this could well be the OPs livelihood we're talking about here, and to just decide to remove that from them without prior notice is extremely unprofessional in my opinion.

The OP was not told in the phone call that the site would be suspended, they were just told to remove the post or there would be consequences. The implication is that if the post were to be removed the consequences would not occur. The post was subsequently edited thereby technically removing the original content as per letshost.ie request which should have resulted in no consequence to the OP, instead the site was suspended. The only thing that can be inferred from this as has been stated already is that the site was suspended because of how the post is currently worded, which is only opinion.

jor el

I've just been reading through the Letshost T&Cs. All the terms relate to what you host on Letshost's servers. So, you can't put porn on it, you can't use it for SPAM, etc. This is all fair enough. Then there's the part on abuse. I believe that this is the section they refer to, that supposedly Di11on is in breech of:

Abuse:
Any attempts to undermine, slander, libel, threaten, or cause harm to a Lets Host server, customer, employee, or the company directly is strictly prohibited and is grounds for immediate termination without refund. In addition, we will pursue all attempts to the fullest extent of the law.

So, you're not allowed to say anything abusive about the hosting provider. Fair enough, if you put these comments on the website hosted by them. But they are trying to impose a condition of hosting, onto something that's completely outside their contract with the owner of woddentoys.ie (whom they had yet to confirm was di11on). It's my understanding that this is completely illegal, under contract law, and they should not gave done it.

The right thing for them to do in this situation was, since they believed a post on Boards was defamatory towards them, would be to contact the Admins and ask them to review and edit the post in question, citing their concerns of defamation. The Admins would have taken this seriously and investigated. Failing that, they could have PMed di11on (since Letshost have an account here) and asked that he edit his comment as they felt it was unfair.

They didn't do any of this though. They behaved very unprofessionally, and made him edit the post under threat of removal of hosting service, and then penalised him anyway.

Orion

Commander Vimes wrote: »

no it definitely doesn't say that

http://citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-affairs/consumer-protection/consumer-rights/consumers_and_the_law_in_ireland

What that link doesn't cover is internet/mail order purchases. In those you do have a 7 day cooling off period from the day you receive the goods. And no reason is required to return them. However, you are required to pay the freight costs for the return unless it's being returned due to a fault.

Sully

Macros42 wrote: »

How could they have known that the op was going to answer the phone? I still think it is disgraceful that they would call him.

What has that to do with anything? Im sure when she registered hosting she gave her business line, and im sure on the website its the business line - id imagine it would be answered! As for the call, I suppose its not the best - a letter or email wouldn't of went astray but if the post was a threat to them, I suppose they felt a call would sort the issue out pronto.

And regardless of their T&Cs, their behaviour has to my mind been completely unprofessional and I, for one, will never have any dealings with them.

Clearly the company does good business if there still about and most people who dealt with them on Boards are supporting them. I see where they are coming from by not responding immediately. As for the suspension.. depends on the post. I'm confused as to why they suspended it after the call and not before? Maybe they wanted to double check the poster was there client and not a staff member? Also the whole DNS changes has me baffled completely.

I stand by my opinion (possibly on the other thread) that the reason they restored his account was probably because their legal advisor choked when they told him what they'd done without any documented proof that the poster was the client. A phone call is not documented proof.

They claim they have proof and there legal team confirms this.

di11on wrote: »

As a previous poster pointed out, I'd just like to remind people that after they called me, I edited the post to directly address the issue they had with the original post. They mentioned the line which in their opinion was defamatory, and this is the line I edited.

So, I actually edited the post per their request but my hosting was subsequently terminated regardless.

I think you said in the last topic they never mentioned suspending (they never terminated your site, be careful - you keep saying that!!) your account and when you complied with the request they did anyway. I don't like that, I think they should have informed you they would. I would have understood if they asked you to change it, the matter would be closed if you complied. Clearly, this wasn't the case. Rather bad PR there.

Note: Your site was never terminated. They suspended your site without warning - after a call asking you to change the post, and then reactivated it for some bizzare reason.

miju

Sully wrote: »

What has that to do with anything? Im sure when she registered hosting she gave her business line, and im sure on the website its the business line - id imagine it would be answered! As for the call, I suppose its not the best - a letter or email wouldn't of went astray but if the post was a threat to them, I suppose they felt a call would sort the issue out pronto.

what macros was getting at is letshost.ie would not have been 100% sure that the OP was the owner of the website. Just because some has a banner / link in their sig doesnt mean they are the owners of a site.

two of the links in my sig aren't mine (though i did develop them), so if i was to say "x host" is **** and then that host presumed I was the owner of all those sites and rang the owners , what do you think the response would be from the completely clueless site owner?

Sully wrote: »

They claim they have proof and there legal team confirms this.

have you been in touch with their legal team to confirm this??? they can claim alot of things to be honest but until they post up this screengrab they claim they have i will be of the opinion (and im sure the majority of others will be too) that this "claim" is just a damage limitation exercise.

as it stands IMO letshost.ie have acted very suspect , even you allude to the DNS changes being very strange. so why you believe their claim of proof is beyond me



Clearly the company does good business if there still about and most people who dealt with them on Boards are supporting them. I see where they are coming from by not responding immediately. As for the suspension.. depends on the post. I'm confused as to why they suspended it after the call and not before? Maybe they wanted to double check the poster was there client and not a staff member? Also the whole DNS changes has me baffled completely.



They claim they have proof and there legal team confirms this.




I think you said in the last topic they never mentioned suspending (they never terminated your site, be careful - you keep saying that!!) your account and when you complied with the request they did anyway. I don't like that, I think they should have informed you they would. I would have understood if they asked you to change it, the matter would be closed if you complied. Clearly, this wasn't the case. Rather bad PR there.

Note: Your site was never terminated. They suspended your site without warning - after a call asking you to change the post, and then reactivated it for some bizzare reason.[/QUOTE]

Orion

miju wrote: »

what macros was getting at is letshost.ie would not have been 100% sure that the OP was the owner of the website. Just because some has a banner / link in their sig doesnt mean they are the owners of a site.

That was exactly my point.

Sully wrote:

They claim they have proof and there legal team confirms this.

They also claim they have a screengrab but haven't posted it - despite the OP welcoming the original post being replicated. TBH they can claim what they want as far as I'm concerned. Their behaviour is completely unprofessional imo - irregardless that they may feel and other may agree that they are acting within their T&Cs. Just because they may have the law on their side doesn't mean that they're right.

GuanYin

The thing that gets me, is that regardless of whether the OP is a private or business consumer, he is still a consumer PAYING for a service from the web hosting company.

If the service is not up to par, he is entitled to express this opinion. He wasn't using their service to express negative opinion so I'm very dubious over what legal control they have here.

In any case, I've emailed this thread to just about everybody I know who works in or looks for web hosting. I've also talked to a journo I know about the issue.

The amount of potential business this company has lost because of the pure idiocy of their actions warms my heart.

forbairt

Macros42 wrote: »

They also claim they have a screengrab but haven't posted it - despite the OP welcoming the original post being replicated. TBH they can claim what they want as far as I'm concerned. Their behaviour is completely unprofessional imo - irregardless that they may feel and other may agree that they are acting within their T&Cs. Just because they may have the law on their side doesn't mean that they're right.

I also have photoshop ... er I mean screengrabs ... ... (unfortunately it wouldn't be legally binding)
[no I don't have screengrabs of the incident but I could conjure up some if required .. hence they aren't worth much to be honest and one wouldn't be able to prove they haven't been tampered with]

Having still to see said screen grabs I have to say that if they were at fault it would have been a lot better for them to come forward and say .. sorry ... we screwed up we're only human.

TOS or no TOS stating that you can't say bad things is a bit crazy in my opinion ...

Services and products will always be put into question ... NTL / microsoft / McDonalds ...

You don't see them disconnecting people for saying bad things do you (though maybe in one or two instances )

If lets host had seen the post on boards it would have been in their best interest to respond and say we're unaware of the situation ... can you please pm / email us and we'll try sorting this out for you ASAP ... if we don't receive a mail we'll assume this is a spam post by a competitor /bad mouther and ask boards mods to remove it.

I might "add" I am in no way connected to the company in question

Sam Vimes

Macros42 wrote: »

What that link doesn't cover is internet/mail order purchases. In those you do have a 7 day cooling off period from the day you receive the goods. And no reason is required to return them. However, you are required to pay the freight costs for the return unless it's being returned due to a fault.

ah i see. that would make sense of course because you can't tell if the item is as described until you actually see it

miju

forbairt wrote: »

one wouldn't be able to prove they haven't been tampered with]

when you mess with certain filters / colors then it is very easy to see if something has been photoshopped.

astrofool

Regardless of what a company puts in it's T&C's, the correct response would have been to look at the issues the customer is having, solve them, at which point the customer could then post a cheery response that everything is now going perfectly and can recommand the company.

Cutting the customer off is stupid and idiotic, and whichever employee of LetsHost that did it, should at least get a stern reprimand. If this is company policy, then the directors deserve to be shot for being shortsighted and blithering idiots.

Thankfully, web hosting is not a hard thing to do, and there are many alternatives out there, most of whom value their business enough, not to cut the customer off. I'd hope the OP has switched over by now, rather than trust his livelihood to a gaggle of nincompoops.

The second issue is that there doesn't seem to have been a follow through of contacting the customer first before cutting him off. Were I to be malicious (possibly a competitor in the wooden toy business), I could make an account, put that sig on it, give out about letshost, and enjoy the extra business I get by LetsHost (aka bunch of blithering idiots) taking my competitor offline.

Anyway, *clap* *clap*.

Boggles

Anyone else even a small bit creeped out that this guy trawls the internet searching out people who have said bad things about his crappy little company.

I picture a hairy man, dressed in linen pj's and tissue boxes, surround by jars of urine trying to type with huge finger nails.

Orion

Commander Vimes wrote: »

ah i see. that would make sense of course because you can't tell if the item is as described until you actually see it

Yep. iirc it was actually brought in to law to combat the hard-sell tactics from door-to-door salesmen. But it translated well to these.

forbairt

Boggles wrote: »

Anyone else even a small bit creeped out that this guy trawls the internet searching out people who have said bad things about his crappy little company.

In fairness the webmaster forums in Ireland are monitored by most of the big players in hosting within Ireland.

themadchef

If they have the orignal post which they deem to be against their T+C's then i'm baffled as to why they don't just post it up here so everyone can make their own minds up.

To come on here and say it was (without backing it up) is all a little unprofessional imo. After all this is where it all started.

I'm beginning to wonder if they really do have a copy of it at all.

jonski

themadchef wrote: »

I'm beginning to wonder if they really do have a copy of it at all.

Does it really matter ? , they suspended the a/c after the post was edited . The OP has quoted from memory what was in the original post before the edit and they haven't corrected this .

miju

themadchef wrote: »

I'm beginning to wonder if they really do have a copy of it at all.

TBH I very , very much doubt they have the screengrab of the original post as they claim which is one of the reasons no further reply has been given.

If only the had of just put their hands up and admitted they were out of line. But instead they begrudingly held onto the shovel and decided to dig that hole a little it deeper :D:D

I.S.T.

Letshost were one of the providers we consdered for hosting, glad we didn't go with them now!

To me it's the equivalent a high street retailer critising their landlord so he comes over without warning and locks the shop up.

Mylow

And still no sign of screen shots

The Muppet

miju wrote: »

TBH I very , very much doubt they have the screengrab of the original post as they claim which is one of the reasons no further reply has been given.

If only the had of just put their hands up and admitted they were out of line. But instead they begrudingly held onto the shovel and decided to dig that hole a little it deeper :D:D

QFT

I am amazed that any company could make such a knee jerk reaction to such an incident. There is no doubt that their actions in this instance has casued immensly more damage to their company that the original post did. I say that as a Lets host customer.

I can understand their silence since their original statment, Their actions leave them on very dodgy legal footing should the OP decide to pursue the matter.


In the absence of proof that they were defamed the op was perfectly within his rights to express his opinion and would override any T&C they have. I would also doubt if their T&C apply in this site.

mneylon

It transpires that they have a blog, but they don't seem to be using it much except to promote their services ...

forbairt

blacknight wrote: »

It transpires that they have a blog, but they don't seem to be using it much except to promote their services ...

They also have a hidious Joomla favicon I mean HELP!!! (note if they are reading this please change your favicon)

kerplunk.

di11on wrote: »

Hi folks,


The first communication I received from letshost.ie telling me why my account was suspended, was after the fact and the reason given was as follows:
My website is currently suspended and my business offline - because, apparrently, I posted a negative comment about them. They have pulled the rug out from under my 100% online business.

Unfortunately di11on there appears to be a number of odd practices in the Irish hosting market, I think it may be better to go with foreign hosting companies check out this post on boards

jonski

kerplunk. wrote: »

Unfortunately di11on there appears to be a number of odd practices in the Irish hosting market, I think it may be better to go with foreign hosting companies check out this post on boards

Thats a very strange and old post to be dragged up into this thread , is there another motive ?

kdcireland

They are a great company,

I use their VPS Systems and they look after me big time, I am running a company - Kilkenny Discount Computers, they always make sure everything is looked after for me and keep me updated on anything changing,

Maybe I would be upset if someone posted bad stuff about my company, and probably i would just suspend their account until a written apology came in the door.

But i will say letshost.ie is a good company and the best hosting provider in Ireland.

Ricki Brennan

theTinker

wow I must say that I was quite shocked to hear that they simply removed your hosting like that, because they didn't like what your experiences had shown you? wow!

Very very unprofessional behavior, To even bother tracking down your account from a public forum posting, is extremely unacceptable, childish and quite disgusting for a business entity to behave so..
I'm really surprised a manager in there actually authorized it, instead of looking at it as an opportunity to pro actively improve relations with a disgruntled customer(who would then most likely pass on good words about that experience)

I use LunarPages for my hosting needs at the moment, i switch sometimes but ill definitely be staying away from LetsHost.

pug_

Isn't this nearly 2 years old at this stage?

RangeR

Let it die peacfully

EKRIUQ

kdcireland wrote: »

They are a great company,

I use their VPS Systems and they look after me big time, I am running a company - Kilkenny Discount Computers, they always make sure everything is looked after for me and keep me updated on anything changing,

Maybe I would be upset if someone posted bad stuff about my company, and probably i would just suspend their account until a written apology came in the door.

But i will say letshost.ie is a good company and the best hosting provider in Ireland.

Ricki Brennan

Can I have a spam sandwich with that please

mickoneill30

EKRIUQ wrote: »

Can I have a spam sandwich with that please

Pretty crappy spam. A thread that nobody would ever read again has been revived so now lots of people who didn't read the thread to start with will see it for the first time.