I am refering to reseller plans where you pay a monthly fee and and are supposed to keep all the profits you make from your customers! (no commissions / no affiliate program)

Question: Can and do web hosting companies ever steal or to put it more mildly, keep your customers if you are a reseller and you wish to change the hosting company that supplied you with the reseller account?

I started to signup with a host on a reseller plan but then hidden in the fine print (all most missed it) it said that if you ever decieded to leave you would "forefit" any and all clients that you had hosted to them upon leaving. Now I'm wondering if they were just running a crooked game or if this is standard proceedure on reseller plans?

Not standard procedure - make sure you read the fine print. However most hosts at wht and in the marketplace deal with 'bulk' reseller setups that all they do is provide the space and bandwidth - the rest is up to you (tech support, billing your customers, etc)

-David

And the winner is....
A crooked game!

...and I very much doubt if it is standard.

I think if a reseller dissappears without a trace and his clients come to you complaining and the reseller is unreachable it is okay to take charge of their clients.

Good thing you read the fine print. ;)

That is not a normal TOS clause and would definitely make anyone wonder, about doing business with that type of company.

Even though one can transfer accounts away, before terminating the Reseller accounts, it does pay to read any companies TOS/AUP before doing busines with them. eMails for questions is suggested as well.

changing host you shouldn't be allowed to take over though. Only if the reseller scams their clients.

Originally posted by pixel_fenix
I think if a reseller dissappears without a trace and his clients come to you complaining and the reseller is unreachable it is okay to take charge of their clients.

We don't take this position. The clients are not ours, and we take lots of efforts to make sure the servernames and such are as generic as possible. If they do find a way to track us down, we will give them hosting if their reseller gets disabled for whatever reason, but we don't pursue them by any means.

Otherwise you'd get things like a reseller going on vacation, maxing out the CC, not paying, getting the account terminated, and when he/she gets back, getting mad at you for 'stealing' the clients. Just one scenario out of many.

-David

I have to say that sounds outrageous to me! How could I host with a company that , in my opinion, is willing to steal my clients?

I would NEVER host with that company... my clients are a result of MY hard work and advertising. Just because I decide to change a host should have no bearing on my clients.

my .02 :banana:

I am sure you could get a case in a legal battle. Make them pay for each client and each penny of advert to get them. ;)

Originally posted by Reseller2004
I started to signup with a host on a reseller plan but then hidden in the fine print (all most missed it) it said that if you ever decieded to leave you would "forefit" any and all clients that you had hosted to them upon leaving. Now I'm wondering if they were just running a crooked game or if this is standard proceedure on reseller plans?


It's a crooked game, no doubt. What's the name of this 'company'? I'm sure some of us would like to know.

Very nasty, I would not recommend anyone sign up with hosts that have such clauses.

Thats a load of bull IMO. Shady to say the least....

Yes, I agree that they were attempting to take advantage of their resellers. I don't remember the exact name of the host because it was a few days ago and I had looked over quite a few reseller plans at the time.

Even if it is in the TOS, it doesn't really mean anything.
Your clients would be paying through your payment processor account, not your hosts. When you change hosts you change the DNS and there is nothing your reseller host could do to prevent your clients from changing. As long as you keep your own backups of all your client's sites there is nothing the reseller host could do.

Exactly. I didn't mean convert them to your clients just take care of them until they move somewhere else. Besides who knows what the reseller was charging them in the first place.

How are you billing them, and how are they domains tranferred/registered?

If it's all at your end, then just set up a new reseller account elsewhere, move your customers, then cancel your account. If it's all done in a day or so these guys won't even notice you're gone till you tell them to.. umm.. take their reseller account and shove it. ;)