Hi Everyone

I've been hosted with bargainhost.co.uk for 2months and entered a 12month contract of £xx.xx PER/MONTH

Today I recieved an email telling me that they will no longer accept monthly payments, and so within 7days I will have to pay the remaining 10months fee or they'll cancel my account.

This seems damn unfair, and im sure you'll see why!

here's the email I got:
Hello Darren,

we regret to inform you that BargainHost can no longer accept reoccurring charges for hosting accounts, this is due to our merchant account providers going out of business. We do not have alternative methods for collecting the payments monthly so we require hosting accounts be paid for the remainder of the year.

You hosting account will expire on 8/08/2002 you have not been billed since your first payment of £xxx setup fee plus £xxx per month, total including VAT of £xxxxxxx. To pay for the remainder of the year the price is £xx times 11 months, total including VAT is £xxxxxxx.

Payment of £xxxxxxx must be paid by cheque/postal order or cash (cash must be sent by recorded or registered post for security) cheques/postal orders must be made out to our parent company CODE QUEST and sent to the following address:
Bargain Host
65 Trent Avenue
Willington
Derbys
DE65 6DN

We must receive payments within 7 days to avoid the suspension of your webhosting account, if payments are late your account will only be reactivated on receipt of payment. If you want to end your service with us then please reply to this email as soon as possible so we can terminate your account.

We hope this arrangement has not deterred you from using our services but this is all due to unforseen circumstances.

Thankyou for your patience.

Kindly Reply to : James Innes
IT Manager
http://www.bargainhost.co.uk



What i'm wondering is what shall I do next?

hello,
Well you have 2 choices really either pay up front for the time remaining or find a new host.

i know where they are coming from though, monthly payments mean you get charged more for processing fees.
So much so infact that we only allow monhtly billing on our larger hosting packages, such as Gold and Plat. smaller accoutns we have quaterly billing on them - to reduce costs.

Ask if you could pay quaterly; if thats not an option, then move hosts.

You should voice your concern with them though.

most people do not like to turn away money.. they maybe could form some sort of arrangement with you.

Hope that helps

Craig

If you signed a contract for reocurring charges for 12 months, they have no right inforce the fact that you have to pay for the remaining 7 months ahead.

Regards,
HostEXP:cool:

k, what id say is that the host is running low on cash, they are looking for people to pay in advance to support their business, they can easily find a different billing method if they looked in the simplest of places.

If it were me in your situation I would recommend you go to a different host asap, dont tell your current host about it, simply sign up with a different host, get the sites up and running on the new host by IP address only then when the big switch comes then grab all your current data, switch your domain names, put a redirector on the old hosts address while the DNS propagates and voilla your job is done.

nobody should need to pay an enture year up front, its truly unreasonable, get out of there before the place goes bust is what i say.

Good Luck

Originally posted by dazzas.co.uk
...What i'm wondering is what shall I do next?....


Read the contract that you have with the vendor. See if the contract specifies the payment terms. Check to see if the contract can be changed unilaterally by the vendor. Check to see how the terms of the contract can be changed -- usually a certain notification period is required, and you can either agree to the new terms or opt to cancel the contract.

They ahave extended the period to 28days.

Im lucky coz my domain is registered with a different company, so it's easy to switch the DNS to whoever I wish

I studied some law once. OK, that was Swedish law (and there are some crucial differences in English and Swedish contract law, but these don't aply here), but the basics are the same.
First, you can challenge the host if you have a contract that clearly specifies that you will pay monthly. Check that out before you begin to make a thing out of it. In Sweden, the contract law is pretty much up to interpretation by the two parties and a court of law. In England you're going by the letter. The latter means that a single word here or there, or the lack of the same, can change what you think was the meaning of a contract completely.
Second. I would change host anyway. If they're trying to pull a stunt like this, they're short of dough or are simply dishonest people or both. That means that the service they're offering might be worse. It can also mean that they're about to shut down business, and this is a try to bring in a much dough as possible before they do it.
If you begin to make life miserable for them, they can also give you **** back just for the hell of it. Not by arguing that you claim is wrongful, but simply by messing around with your account.
Get a new host a tell the world about the jugheads your paying now.

D

I understand where the host is coming from. It's not fair to their customers, but I understand.

It's been hard, in the past, to get a merchant account for anyone in the hosting business. Mainly because it is so incredibly easy for almost anyone to start up a hosting company.

You've all heard 100s of hosting horror stories, I'm sure. This is why ALOT of hosting companies go out of business, get chargebacks, get cancellations. This is also why merchant accounts don't like to take chances on hosting companies.

We DID have a merchant account that ONLY allowed us to charge monthly - not quarterly, etc. - because of the high risk involved. Well, with some of our packages - that breaks down to about $2 a month for the actual hosting charges....but then we had to pay about $1.00 in fees....making our net profit barely worth the effort. :bawling:

We finally found a great company that allows us to charge in whatever increments we want/need to. However, this is not a cheap merchant account. :rolleyes:

I'm not sure if there is any perfect solution for hosting companies - and I do feel sorry for your hosting company. It sounds as if they are not at fault and only doing what they can, with what they have to work with.

--Tina

Originally posted by AffordableHost
We finally found a great company that allows us to charge in whatever increments we want/need to. However, this is not a cheap merchant account.

Completely off topic, I know, sigh, but would you mind telling me which company?

It's EMS - and they've been wonderful to work with. We can setup automatic recurring billing at different intervals (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.) or we can charge them one-off.

They are a bit more costly - but you DON'T have to have an authorize.net account or anything else to get the recurring billing, etc. to work. It's really easy...you can start taking payments as soon as 60 seconds after you sign up. No upfront fees. I think it's $40 a month and 2.50% discount rate.

PS: There's a link on our website - but you can access their site directly. I just won't get the referal bonus if you go directly to emscorporate.com. :D

--Tina

Maybe they were using Instabill when Instabill took a diver? Whatever the case, if whoever they were using shut down, with little to no notice, this is one of the possible results. It's difficult to find a decent merchant provider in a very limited timeframe, and tough on clients, I grant you that. As far as legalities - that's probably a better issue for an attorney familiar with the laws of the locality in which the host resides.

Remember, too... Dealing with the legalities & getting lawyers involved is probably a lot more work than just moving hosts. And, anyway, hosts are even worse than lawyers at chasing ambulances... :D

Why are you asking a forum full of hosts about legal issues? Pack it up, move on to another host. That's what I'd do.

Maybe I am misunderstanding something...

If they aren't requiring you to pay off the next years amount, is there a problem at all? They are saying pay if you can, if you can't then your account will be canceled. So at worst you don't pay and move on to a new host. I do agree they can find another payment method pretty fast, but if you find their service to be solid and want to stay and have the money then pay them and everything will be fine. If one of the above doesn't apply then move on to a new host. There should be plenty you can find that are as good if not better then who you are currently with. I highly doubt it would be worth any trouble to argue with them saying you went into a contract for 12 months of monthly payments.

In this case Dazzas, if you currently pay month to month with this hosting company, this is legal. Kind of discouraging to say, but this is how the famous line "host xxxxxxxxxxx retains the right to change any or all of the above Policies, Guidelines, and Disclaimer without notification." Month to month pays itself off by level of service, but not he level of payment. You can threaten chargeback, but the company will see otherwise, and send you to a collection agency. My adviced words are to change hosting companies ASAP. This is the best and in this case, most appropriate option.

From all of us here at our hosting company, our thoughts and prayers go out those all those involved in the World Trade Center's and The Pentagon's tragic incident.

J. Strong

it is 100% legal. i would move though, if they are not getting a new merchant provider something is up with them as well