Greetings!

Let's say a guy named Jack hosted by Host A has already paid for a full year hosting.

And Jack feels that he needs to transfer to Host B because for unknown reason Host A is not hosting him well.

Jack pays Host B for another full year of hosting. And unfortunately Jack found out that Host B is more worse than Host A. So, he decided to go back to Host A.

Question: Is Jack entitled for a Free Hosting in Host A since he has not yet finished his one year term of hosting? Is it the responsibility of the hostmaster to keep old files of Jack so that whenever Jack decided to return he can simply apply the DNS entry? Or does Jack have to pay anew?


What about the responsibility of Host B? Is he bound to safeguard the files of Jack since Jack has not yet finished his one year of hosting there too? And if Jack decided to go back to Host B is he entitled for a free hosting too? Or likewise, does Jack have to pay anew?

What is the ruling on this?

Thanks.


:)

Thats probably a grey zone which is not covered in most TOS. But even if the host A is not engaged to host him IMHO most "nice" hosts would do it.

Your best bet is to ask the host directly. There are no set "rules" of what is "supposed" to happen. If Host A is a good host, Jack probably wouldn't have left in the first place and in light of that, Host A will probably make him pay.

Jack should have never paid annually. :)

Originally posted by Bogdan
Jack should have never paid annually. :)
:dunce: You would think Jack would have learned his lesson with host "A" about paying for a year in advance with a host he has no experience with.

If Jack signs a one year contract that is not outright cancelled, then Host A is obligated to keep Jacks account running for a year (unless Host A refunds Jack and both parties nullify the contract).

On the hosts books, it would be counted as unearned revenue.

Chris already said what I was going to. Jack has not learned anything yet, like not paying annually for unknown service. Jack needs to educate himself rather than go on repeating the same costly mistakes over and over.

As to the issue of hosting, in the best case scenario, if the account is paid for a year (there have been no refunds), both hosts would allow hosting until the end of the term. Legally, they are bound to do so. If Jack paid for a year of hosting, Jack is entitled to a year of hosting (it isn't free).

As to whether the files are still on the server, they might have been deleted from host A after Jack left. Hopefully, Jack knows enough to have copies of his own files and not think any host is responsible for them. If not, that's something else Jack needs to learn, taking responsibility for his files.

Originally posted by nopzor
If Jack signs a one year contract that is not outright cancelled, then Host A is obligated to keep Jacks account running for a year (unless Host A refunds Jack and both parties nullify the contract).

On the hosts books, it would be counted as unearned revenue.

That's right. If you don't get the money back, why cancel the service. You just keep everything there and change the nameservers.

ebird

i know who host A is :D :blush:

It sounds like 'The customer' canceled the account and moved to a new host. This means the record is closed with Host A. S/he then moves to Host B, finds out that a server reboot is normal, and now wants to move back. It should be treated as a new account as it now either needs to be reopened or re-added. A good host may tell you to host monthly and give the first month free, but someone giving you the remainder of the year because you canceled and found out they were not bad is a customers mistake.

[QUOTE}Legally, they are bound to do so. If Jack paid for a year of hosting, Jack is entitled to a year of hosting (it isn't free[/QUOTE]

This is not true. If you cancel an account and try to open it back up, a company is not required by law to give you what you already paid for. If the customer never canceled, then the host probably doesn't even know s/he left and it should be no issue.