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  1. #1

    Web design company out of business, can't update website. Please Help!

    One of my clients is in dire need to update their website, however the guy they hired to create the website will not return any phone calls or emails, and his address is abandoned. His neighbors say a lot of people are looking for him for financial and other reasons.

    Today I had them contact hostmonster where the site is hosted and they said they couldn't do anything. This company is a non-profit organization and they just need to update their website. They are trying to help people, but they can't even get the emails sent from the website because they are all going to a non-existent account.

    Does anybody know of anything they can do to get access to this website to update it? Worst case scenario they have to create a whole new site, but then this one is still up with wrong information on it. People would get confused. What rights does a company have to their own website if some shady company made it and then left town? Would legal action do any good here? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

  2. #2
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    Unfortunately, only the admin who has full access to the hosting account (as well as to the domain account) may able to update any data for that website.

    So the hosting provider (hostmonster) also said they couldn't do anything? I think it's a dead-end, cause even the host provider itself couldn't help. What if your client (that non-profit organization) provides some more legal documentations or something like that to hostmonster, and see if hostmonster could help them?

    Just prepare for the worst case and get ready to create a whole new site, domain, etc. Make sure that the client has the full ownership/administrative access to both hosting and domain accounts, so this issue will not re-occur.
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  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by nismyst View Post
    One of my clients is in dire need to update their website, however the guy they hired to create the website will not return any phone calls or emails, and his address is abandoned. His neighbors say a lot of people are looking for him for financial and other reasons.

    Today I had them contact hostmonster where the site is hosted and they said they couldn't do anything. This company is a non-profit organization and they just need to update their website. They are trying to help people, but they can't even get the emails sent from the website because they are all going to a non-existent account.

    Does anybody know of anything they can do to get access to this website to update it? Worst case scenario they have to create a whole new site, but then this one is still up with wrong information on it. People would get confused. What rights does a company have to their own website if some shady company made it and then left town? Would legal action do any good here? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
    Hostmonster can't do a whole lot since your client does not own the Hostmonster account.

    Hopefully, your client does own the domain so for quickest resolution if they can't find the guy.

    1) Open a new hosting account themselves
    2) Change their domain nameservers to the new hosting company (If the nameservers are changed to the new hosting company, the old site basically disappears from the "net" even though Hostmonster is still serving the files up.
    3) Create email addresses and such
    4) Rip off the old website if they don't have the code source and upload to the new hosting service.
    5) Advise them to always keep a copy of their paid website development for themselves.

    "Legal action" could take months/years.
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  4. #4
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    Usually in cases like that, and yes we do have quite a few of them. What I advice the client to do here is to officially write in a letter to us explaining the circumstances and what they would like us to do.

    After that, we will most probably email the Admin of the site and give him a reasonable amount of time to answer and if he does not do it we will suspend the account, which is a whole lot better than what HostMonster is doing.

    I do believe I have seen things like that happening quite often and thus we do believe as a company that such cases should not be left said "We Can't Do Anything". It's just plain and simple and it's also quite irresponsible to allow such things to happen. I'm not saying HostMonster is incorrect, I'm just saying they could have done more.
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  5. #5
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    Sad to here the troubles. We used to see a lot of similar kind of stories here. I could not blame the client for not having his back up, as he may not be a technically sound person. But from hereafter I would suggest that he should try and study atleast the basics and keep the backup always. It is not as hard using the control panel. Wish the very best for a fast resolution for this issue.
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  6. #6
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    I would wish such things never happened, but unfortunately they does. HostMonster should have some policies in place that makes it possible for people to gain access to their accounts again provided they have documentation to show that they really do own the website.

    Always have things in your name.
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  7. #7
    What is web application they are using? I suppose they have all source files and if they hire someone else the problem will be solved.
    Of course if he paid in advance and that guy disappeared - no one will be able to help in this situation.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by aodat2 View Post
    Usually in cases like that, and yes we do have quite a few of them. What I advice the client to do here is to officially write in a letter to us explaining the circumstances and what they would like us to do.

    After that, we will most probably email the Admin of the site and give him a reasonable amount of time to answer and if he does not do it we will suspend the account, which is a whole lot better than what HostMonster is doing.

    I do believe I have seen things like that happening quite often and thus we do believe as a company that such cases should not be left said "We Can't Do Anything". It's just plain and simple and it's also quite irresponsible to allow such things to happen. I'm not saying HostMonster is incorrect, I'm just saying they could have done more.
    Such cases are often resolved through legal procedures. Provide the host with your legal documents claiming ownership.
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  9. #9
    Is the website loading now? What is the domain?
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by hostnesta View Post
    Such cases are often resolved through legal procedures. Provide the host with your legal documents claiming ownership.
    We don't only rely on Legal Procedures. Getting a lawyer to endorse everything would cost you too much to even think of doing it. Usually if it happens in with our clients, what we usually advice is to have a letter scanned to us with the company letterhead, proof of incorporation with names of owner(s) then you'd have to sign a waiver and produce ID of owner as well which would be sent to us in order for us to proceed with a backup of your data which will be sent/downloaded.

    If it's legitimately yours, then you should not have a single problem giving us what we require in order to get things done. It's fairly simple and we do not require anyone to go to lawyers and etc which could make bills go to the thousands. Having it legal is good but it's not a MUST.

    But at the end of the day, we still can't transfer hosting accounts even ownership is obtained.
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  11. #11
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    If you value your domain and website, never allow anyone to register a domain for you or to host your website on their hosting account - EVER.
    Hosting is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by nismyst View Post
    Would legal action do any good here?
    Certainly a court order telling the registrar to turn over the domain and the host to turn over the content, will take care of it, but whether it's worth the time and money to obtain that is questionable. If the client can show clear documentation that they are the rightful owner of the domain, and that the account holder is unresponsive, the registrar will probably turn it over, but if the documentation is not very strong the registered owner is going to get the benefit of the doubt.
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