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  1. #1

    Thumbs down Collecting agency ?? 3 month advance notice to cance?

    Guys! I had to post here to see if anyone had a similar issue or not. At this time I will not provide the name and instead share my experience.

    I have a dedicated sever in Germany and I joined them several years ago. The server would go down very often and their support is pretty much non existent. Could take them about 3 weeks to actually resolve an issue. and to be honest their prices are inflated.

    Anyway, I decided to cancel the server as it is no longer needed. I emailed them before the end if the paid for term and then they told me to cancel via the portal.

    To my surprise, it stated that the request received and that the server will go offline in 4 months and basically they say they have a clause in the terms and condition that a user has to give a 3 month advance notice!!!! since I canceled a day after the billing period began... BAM 4 months more to pay or so they say.

    They have NO SIGNED document and I do not recall them mentioning the claus before nor do I remember even seeing it in the terms and conditions.

    I keep emailing them to stop sending invoices and to take server offline but they just play word games and keep sending the invoices and tell me that the contract expires in x amount of time.

    Contact? wtf I signed nothing. so I tell them to send me a copy of the signed contract and they ignore the email.

    I read on some forum they hire collecting agency for unpaid invoices but I don't see that possible if A) nothing signed and for all I know they clause may have been added to the html file at some point after joining B) I am not even in their country

    Should I just add them to the spam list / block list and forget about them and also probably not a bad idea to mention who they are so others are aware. They already have bad reviews on the web.

    They used to automatically bill the card but then they no longer offered the service and instead had a bunch of e wallets and one time cc processing. Each with an added fee ranging from like 5 euro to 25 euro!!!

    I also told them that should my card be automatically be billed I will file a chargeback immediately. (not sure if I ever added the new card details)

    So what would you do in this case!?

  2. #2
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    You do not need a signed agreement to have a binding agreement. In most situations, the terms of service is a binding agreement between provider and user. If the ToS mentions a 3 months cancellation term, then this is a binding agreement.
    It would be silly to insist on signed agreements being the only legally binding agreement in this business would it not? after all, you would certainly not be happy if they simply suspend a service and say you have no signed agreement so no agreement at all.
    About collection agencies, they do not have to be in the same country at all. In the European Union it is very simple to collect a debt between clients from member states for example. Many countries have collection agencies that would be willing to work with a provider from Germany to collect a debt.
    I think you should ask for solid legal advice from legal counsel in this situation. In what country are you located yourself?
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by swiftnoc View Post
    If the ToS mentions a 3 months cancellation term, then this is a binding agreement.
    Unless living in a country where 3 months is considered unreasonable.
    Consumer protection laws of the country of customer prevail above country of supplier.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    Well, you accepted their ToS, that's more than enough. If your contract (yes, contract) has a 3month cancellation term than it is like that.

    If you sign a phone or internet contract over 12-48h you also can't tell them after 3 months you would like to cancel now and if they charge your card you will file a chargeback.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nik- View Post
    Well, you accepted their ToS, that's more than enough. If your contract (yes, contract) has a 3month cancellation term than it is like that.

    If you sign a phone or internet contract over 12-48h you also can't tell them after 3 months you would like to cancel now and if they charge your card you will file a chargeback.
    Exact rules depend on where you live.

    E.g. in the Netherlands, a supplier do can have some conditions like a 1 year minimum term.
    However after the initial year, the consumer is allowed to cancel any service at any time giving 1 month notice.
    Any terms requiring a longer notice period would be thrown out as unreasonable in court.
    At least if you are a consumer, and didn't order on behalf of a company.


    If the TS (who says he has been with that company for several years) lives in a country that has similar consumer protection laws, he may be able to invoke those.
    He would probably still have to pay at least a month though.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maxnet View Post
    Consumer protection laws of the country of customer prevail above country of supplier.
    That is an interesting statement, can you point us to the relevant articles on that? what is a supplier appoint the law of his residence country valid in the ToS and states that only a specific court is allowed to take notices of any disputes over the ToS?
    We do not know if the Topicstarter ordered privately or as a business, as a business he would certainly have less protection then as a consumer/individual.
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  7. #7
    Thank you for the replies,

    I am an individual not a company and been using them for about 4.5 years

    I am pretty sure the terms did not include 3 month cancellation policy back then and that it was added later. So yes, I do not expect to be bound to that if it was added later. Something that I cant prove and neither will they be able to. As I said, its an html page on the site so it can be changed at any time as their is not signed document.

    Besides, the server keeps going down and they offer very bad support so that alone gives me the right to be exempt from the silly 3 months cancellation term. don't you think?

    I am in south amercia

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by swiftnoc View Post
    That is an interesting statement, can you point us to the relevant articles on that?
    Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters
    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...1R0044:en:HTML

    Article 16

    1. A consumer may bring proceedings against the other party to a contract either in the courts of the Member State in which that party is domiciled or in the courts for the place where the consumer is domiciled.

    2. Proceedings may be brought against a consumer by the other party to the contract only in the courts of the Member State in which the consumer is domiciled.

    3. This Article shall not affect the right to bring a counter-claim in the court in which, in accordance with this Section, the original claim is pending.

    It is quite easy to take a debtor to court in another EU country though.
    Fill in a standardized form, and mail it off to their local court: https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_...orms-156-en.do
    Before any customers reading this think they can get away without paying anything just because they live in another country

    But yes, any consumer protection stuff is heavily in the customer's favor.
    To the point that if the consumer is dissatisfied with the service provided, he can take you to his local court... Even though you didn't ask for foreign customers...


    what is a supplier appoint the law of his residence country valid in the ToS and states that only a specific court is allowed to take notices of any disputes over the ToS?
    Dragging a consumer to a foreign court is not possible.
    Will only stand if the customer was local at the time the contract was agreed to, but emigrated later.

    Article 17

    The provisions of this Section may be departed from only by an agreement:

    1. which is entered into after the dispute has arisen; or

    2. which allows the consumer to bring proceedings in courts other than those indicated in this Section; or

    3. which is entered into by the consumer and the other party to the contract, both of whom are at the time of conclusion of the contract domiciled or habitually resident in the same Member State, and which confers jurisdiction on the courts of that Member State, provided that such an agreement is not contrary to the law of that Member State.

    BTW we once had a debtor in our own country that did argue we should have taken him to the court specified in our ToS, instead of in his local city.
    Judge pointed out that a defendant can always be taken to court in his own city, regardless of terms, as that wouldn't be of any disadvantage to him.
    So that is always a safe choice.
    Last edited by Maxnet; 12-28-2014 at 05:31 PM.

  9. #9
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    Oct 2012
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    What's the company we are talking about btw?

  10. #10
    I prefer to withhold that detail for the time being.

  11. #11
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    @lookingaround You should resolve the issue with the web hosting provider. If you have been with them for 4.5 years, that should mean something. However, I would suggest you to review their Legal documents (SLA, TOS, AUP, etc.) and to see whether they are right to claim 3 month notice. It might be like that or it might not be. If this provider has changed its Terms of Service without sending any notice to customers, you need to find whether this is a violation of their own terms or not.

    Whatever you do, I would suggest you to be polite and all the claims you make to be based on any service agreements. Otherwise you will not come to agreement. You might be formally right or formally wrong, I don't know, you should find that and resolve with the web host.
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  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
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    You're in South America and they're in Germany. Just ignore it. They won't send it to collections over a few hundred euros, and even if they do, no collection agency will have luck enforcing the claim. Too much hassle from a jurisdiction perspective.

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