Hi,
I am very upset with my current soon to be X hosting service. Here's the problem. I decided to go to another service because the one I have has nothing but problems, from billing problems to going down a couple times a week. I know they go down because I run netwhistle. Anyway, I went and got a new service and didn't tell the old one for fear they would do something to my account. I wanted to keep my old account until everything was resolved. It felt wrong not telling my old service so I e-mailed them last night...Now I cannot get into my account this morning. I thought I had paid until the end of the month. Is this a normal thing for them to not let me get into my account? When I try to connect it says 503. I know this change can take a while to propogate throughout the net, that's why I didn't want to move my files until I was sure of that. Now I can't update my site. It seems like dirty pool to me. Is this common practice with hosting services?

Well, you asked them to cancel your account? Not sure what the wording was that you used, but if you said that you wanted them to be aware that after this month, you no longer wish to be billed... what exactly did you say?

Yes I did ask them to cancel my account at the end of the month. I told them I would remove my files by the "30th" and write a follow up letter, which I would have finalized at that point. What didn't they understand I wonder? I just wanted to be nice give them some notice. Shouldn't I be able to access my files until that time since I paid until the "30th". That is crap. It's plain bad bussiness. I shouldn't have told them I was leaving until the "30th". Had I known....We learn by our mistakes. I guess both parties has learned something. I will take the loss of what my site would have made and grin a bear it. It wouldn't have been too much it's more the idea of the whole thing.

As long as your paid throughoout the end of the month you have access to your account through the end of the month its the law. You should call them up and explain it to them, if they still dont grant access to your account sue them for the cost of the website design and any potential sales you may have lost.

And yes this kind of stuff is very common, many hosts exp. smaller ones take it personally when you move away from them. Of course this is not always true as there are alot of very good hosts out there many which frequent this board.

The best plan of action is always to leave your old site up and running as long as possible before pulling the plug - at least till DNS changes go through (plus maybe a few extra days just in case it's not resolved fully). Then find out when you next bill is due and email them a few days or so before explicitly requesting they close your account before the next billing period. While most hosts will probably do the right thing by you as far as closing accounts go it's always better to assume they won't, unless you're on a fairly personal 'speaking' level with them.

Possibly your email is being answered by some bored out-sourced tech support who scans it, and then pokes a few buttons, and *poof* you're gone. The net is pretty impersonal sometimes.

I've never done out-sourced tech support but I'd imagine it's not the highlight of their existance, and lacks that personal touch of an owner/operator/direct staff type.

My latest thrill from an ISP I left was checking my credit statement yesterday and noticing they actually refunded me like they said they would (had serious doubts about their 30 day money back claim) *lol*

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

I haven't complained about their support...as a matter of fact they have been ok in that department, I will always give credit where credit is due. It was the other issues that have me upset. No, I don't want to sue this company I just want to update my site until all these transferring problems correct themselves. Live and Learn. Thanks for hearing my story, I feel much better now. I will just be patient and wait for my new hosing service to resolve things. One thing did freak me out...my old host took upon themselves to let me know that they knew who my new host was. I never mentioned that in my letter. I thought that was a little juvenile.

Oh ok, I should define that a bit I suppose. By tech support I was refering to whoever administers the accounts etc (ie. the person how opens and closes the accounts). Charles made a good point about it sounding like a small host (I was looking at it from the other end - big impersonal ones), and your follow-up would seem to reflect the former. I agree! That is pretty odd. It seem like whoever it was spent a bit of time chasing your DNS around till they found your new host.

Sounds like you're better off without them, even if it's cost you some time at your old host. (the secret, stalking squirrel) :)

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

Originally posted by CanDo
One thing did freak me out...my old host took upon themselves to let me know that they knew who my new host was. I never mentioned that in my letter. I thought that was a little juvenile.

Sounds like they have a bit too much time on their hands...