I have a question for whoever has the legal abilities at answer it. I have a customer (mortgage company) that is 3 months late on their hosting bill. I usually don't let bill go this long (TOS says 45 days), but they just paid me good money to finish their website, so i'm being lenient. I gave the owner an ultimatum, pay up by the end of this month, or i'm suspending your account (and sending his newly designed site to him on a CD-rom for him to deal with finding a new host). Now, he has an internal mail server to handle all of their office email. I have modified the MX record for his domain, so that all mail gets sent to his server. He is claiming that he isn't receiving all of the emails his customers are sending him, and wants to pursue legal action against me for loss of business. I was under the impression that when you modify an MX record, the emails go DIRECTLY to his server and the no mail ever actually hits my server. My server has been up, non-stop for over a month, and before that there was minor outages (5-10 mins) and none of my customers have complained of a mail issue (they are all receiving emails fine). So, if a customer of his is havign issues sending him email, its a problem with his internal server correct? THerefore, he has no legal ability to sue me? I dont' own or run his internal server, he has another company handle that. I'm just trying to figure out how serious i need to take the guy, or if he has absolutely no grounds for suit at all. I should also mention, he's a computer idiot, so its like explaining things to a 5 yr old. If anyone can help me, it woudl be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I just asked my dad, whos a laywer, he said it may differ in different countries, but in the UK, he said that there would be next to no grounds for a law-suit, unless he could prove that he lost e-mails, and lost business, which by my computer knowledge would be practically impossible. My dad said if this guy turned up asking him to be his lawyer then he'd send him home :D So if its the same in the US and the UK then I hope it all works out for you :)
Hope this has helped :)

If your TOS is written properly he has no basis to sue you anyway.

I would also think that if he was having problems receiving emails he would have told you about this a long time ago. Do you communicate with him through those very same emails that he claims to be losing?

Rob

When we get a customer who request a MX record change, we absolutely do not guarantee their email delivery.

Your best bet is to continue to stand your ground and explain/reexplain to this person that you are not at fault here. If he isn't being ridiculously hostile, you should maintain a friendly composure and explain that you would help him if you could, but you simply can't - you set up the MX he asked you to - which means you are no longer handling his email at all. If the email is not getting to you, it's because of either:
a) he gave you the wrong record info for his server
b) his own mail server is the problem

A lot of delinquent customers like to act angry when they owe people money. They try to turn the tables so they can either delay payment and avoid their responsibility. If this is the case here, all you can do is be firm and not cave in about the money - send him to collections if it comes to that.

Not to scare you, but in the US people can try to sue you no matter what (it's an unfortunate truth about this country). Frivolous suits are formed everyday against perfectly innocent companies. While the person doesn't have a case, the whole process can still be very costly for you, as you would most likely invest in a lawyer's time to consult with you, draw up formal paperwork and talk to the plantiff. Even if the case gets thrown out, someone has to show up at a moderation or a court appointment for the judge to decide that and make it so. However, it takes effort on the part of that customer to go through all this law suit stuff too, so if they owe you money - they are usually blowing hot air. Just keep these things in mind anyway.

He is just making a lot of noise he has no grounds. If you have an atty on retainer tell him find talk to my lawyer and buzz off.

I thought even more, did they start this after you asked for your money?

If so they are using this not to pay, I'd cut the shoe stings.

jcwebii,
You mentioned at the end that he may not want to go to trial, cuz it woudl cost him money to go get an attorney. Well, he is one. lol. I think he's just using that to scare me though, because he doesn't have any sort of case that woudl hold up in court. I keep records of all of our conversations, so i can present the whole story to a judge if needed. Thanks for all the help guys!

Hey, Matt.

Actually, what I meant was that the customer might not want to bother suing someone because of the effort, paperwork, hassle. (A lot of the frivolous suit people end up just defending themselves anyway - don't really have the money to hire a lawyer up front - they are trying to make money off heckling others and suing innocents - without going into detail I will just say I have seen this first hand.) The one who ends up having to worry about wasting money (and even more time) is the plantiff who was taken advantage of.

But I do agree with you, based on what you described - I think this guy was just trying to bully/use scare tactics.

(By the way - it seems like lawyers love to threaten to sue people too - even if they are an attorney of garbage disposal they will bark about suing you for IT problems. They think because they have the title "Attorney" the rest of us will bow down to them in fear screaming, "please don't take my soul!" :stickout:

Anyway, hope everything works out okay. :)

Tell the mortgage company you have foreclosed on their internet home due to non-payment . They should be able to understand that.

thanks gordo, hilarious

Originally posted by Gordo
Tell the mortgage company you have foreclosed on their internet home due to non-payment . They should be able to understand that.

lol i like that one i will use it on customers who dont pay me when the owe us money. :)

...and the most important thing to remember is.....

If you are properly incorporated as a C or S corp or perhaps some form of LLC. That even if he takes you to court, you can write off everything and your personal assets won't be at risk.

For what it is worth, I think the guy is just trying to turn the tables on you. Make him prove that he lost business.

Khem