My issue has been cleared up.

Ouuuuuuch!

Damn, I'd be pi$$ed! If you think you can take legal action, go for it...try for that 30,000 you planned on making :)

That is really a kick in the nuts and they could be in a lot of trouble if you go through with this. Just make sure to research EVERYITHING! Make sure it doesn't say in their ToS that any loss of data is not their responsiility or some scam like that.

Good luck dude!

Though I haven't heard both sides of the story, but from what you're telling us....it's really RackVillage's fault. Firstly any good host would do a backup for you at least weekly, secondly they shouldn't have waited a week to tell you it's gone, and thirdly they should have backup drives in case the hardware fail, or in this case, mysteriously deleted.

I hope they didn't promise you a regular backup when you first signed up. If they did I would be very angry =P

I wish you luck sincerely and hope you'll get your site up soon again.

BGnM,

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. Almost every comment coming out about kikko and their newest incarnation RackVillage has been lousy, especially in the area of technical support.

Did they have you agree to a contract before signing up? Check to make sure the most recent contract you signed with doesn't free them from any liability from this damage. If you did agree to this the lawsuit will have one heck of a competing argument. You'll still have options available to sue for unlawful business practices, just make sure to fully understand your position before making it in a court of law.

Best of your with your entertainment site. I'm confident anything with 10k visitors per day of popularity can grow to that level again. ;)

Sincerely,

-Matt

My Issue has been resolved.

Why would you allow such a moneymaker to be down for a month? Why not cut loses after 2 days and go elsewhere?

Irrespective of any failure of the reseller or web hoster to backup and restore your site, don't you think you have your own responsibility to protect yourself?

Why do you not have your own backup?

Did your contract with them include backup?

Under their page: http://www.rackvillage.com/network.html backup seems optional:
Administrative and backup services available

Interestingly, their TOS page is unavailable ( http://www.rackvillage.com/tos.htm )

Kikko page now directs you to Triservers.com which appears to be one in the same.

Was unable to find references to data backup services being included with plans.

It would appear you have made a poor choice in hosting companies - staying with them only demonstrates that reliability is less of a concern to you than getting a deal or free services in exchange for pain. If so, that doesn't support your arguement that you've been damaged through the downtime.

The question remains, why did you not backup your own data?

I'm not trying to be unsympathetic, although I am to some degree.

I'm assumming you got a $10-20 plan, if that is so,

you probbaly can only sue for $20 , they offer a service, if they can't provide it, you can't sue them for $5000 when you only paid them $20 for web hosting.