Hi,

We have reseller accounts. We'll terminate an hosting account because of it used many server system resource. But our customer paid yearly by credit card. He used his account for 6 months. So what can we do now? Must we refund the money? What are you doing in a condition like this?

What does your TOS state? If it states something about abuse of the server than I wouldn't refund money to him or her.

I'd recommend as follows:
1. Explain to the customer that they need to move their account to another host, and give them a reasonable amount of time to do that.
2. Give them a prorated refund for the unused period. I'm assuming that your TOS says you don't have to give any refund, but I think it's the right thing to do.

Just saying "used many server system resource" is a bit vague. I'm going to assume here that this is a repeat offender. I agree that your TOS should be written to handle this type of situation. In most cases I would also agree with letting them know that the type of account they have in inappropriate for their use, let them find other service and pro-rate them.

You can ask your customer check the script they're using.
Usually it's related to mysql database.
Script optimization will help to reduce resource usage.

I'd recommend as follows:
1. Explain to the customer that they need to move their account to another host, and give them a reasonable amount of time to do that.
2. Give them a prorated refund for the unused period. I'm assuming that your TOS says you don't have to give any refund, but I think it's the right thing to do.


I would agree with this.

It is very unprofessional to just disconnect the user.

You first need to contact the customer and tell them what script is causing the problem and that it will be shut down until they fix or remove it.

Peace,

I recommend running the linux process command and seeing the process and the scripting causing the vast amount of system resources. Then I would notify the customer and give them a 14 Day notice to move their services to another host if the resources can not return to normal. However, I could agree more that if in the first place the resources are reaching that level they should be required to move to another host altogether.

Sincerely,

<<signature to be setup in your profile>>

Must we refund the money? A full refund out be out of the question.

2. Give them a prorated refund for the unused period. I'm assuming that your TOS says you don't have to give any refund, but I think it's the right thing to do.Agreed. The decision would ultimately depend on the customer's attitude though. The more irate, the less likely I would be to issue the refund.

Yes, providing a prorated refund is ethical.

Also, as suggested by everyone give ample time for them to move. Don't just shut them down in a day.

We cannot unsuspend the account. Because then the server be down. So we'll refund the money for unused period. Also we gave them a time to get backup.

Thank you for all of your usefull answers.

We cannot unsuspend the account. Because then the server be down. So we'll refund the money for unused period. Also we gave them a time to get backup.

Thank you for all of your usefull answers.


That will be fine. May be you can create a recent backup and give them a link to download.

We cannot unsuspend the account. Because then the server be down. So we'll refund the money for unused period. Also we gave them a time to get backup.

Thank you for all of your usefull answers.

I'm curious, did this happen all at once? Their site was fine for 6 months, and then one day all of a sudden they started using lots of resources? Or was it a gradual increase?

It is very unprofessional to just disconnect the user.

You first need to contact the customer and tell them what script is causing the problem and that it will be shut down until they fix or remove it.

Peace,

I agree yet so many hosts are doing this now over resource usage - not even giving customers a chance to resolve it. There is many ethical ways of doing this, for one you can offer them an upgrade if you have on available, And secondly give them a chance to resolve the situation.

But Im sure much wont change your's or any other overselling hosts mind. I know some big hosts like dreamhost are becoming notorious for doing this. I have at least 3 friends who used to be on dreamhost, paid yearly and was totally terminated for resource usage not even given a chance for resolution. Thats not right.

And what I think is odd too, when these people that got kicked off other hosts for resource abuse when they are on other servers you cant even notice it at all. I think a lot are using overall HTTP requests as cause for resource abuse violation, again this is unethical and wrong.

I may be getting into too deep of thought here but I think shared hosting is becoming a joke, everyone wants to host sites that get no hits, they wanna push inexperienced users to buy servers and vps, etc.

But by all means keep doing it, keep on with the "resource abuse" terminations, it just sends people to go out and look for premium hosting. I dont ever understand what happened to upgrading? Its because even the highest level plans at most hosts are oversold garbage that they NEVER plan on giving their customer the full allocation.

I dont know the situation with this host here but I bet its something like that.But he is basically saying he isnt gonna give the client a chance, just find out IF he has to refund them,

Here is a new way to put it.

How much do you feel the customer deserves back? The whole thing? Nothing?

Consider, did the customer have a chance to use exactly what he bought?

Then, produce your outcome.

I totally disagree about the part of the fact of totally disconnecting the customer without discussing resolution. I own my own hosting company here in Abingdon VA and I have resources when my customers used up resource I am scrambling to find a way to relieve those resources for more it part of business.