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  1. #1

    Charging for Backup Restoration

    Do you guys think its suitable to charge clients to restore backups of there sites from our systems?

    For example say a client messed up his own coding, would you charge in this instance?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2009
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    56

    Одг: Charging for Backup Restoration

    I would not, maybe only after some client start to request this to offten.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
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    I believe that best practice should be to offer some backups for free and if any client needs more, then he should pay for more. But restore should always be free.
    NetDynamics LLC - One-stop Solution for Hosting Needs
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Denver
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    We do it on a case by case basis. We state there is a fee on our website but generally we don't charge it.

  5. #5
    If customer itself did not made any backup and we have to restore a backup from our system for the client we will charge $20 per incident for this.

    This only apply to shared or dedicated hosting, with our vps system the client can easy restore the backup himself.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    41
    There is no harm charging. But, sometimes, providing it for free can give one a competitive advantage.
    Jweeb Solutions
    Singapore's High Quality Shared Hosting Provider Since 2007

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
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    London, United Kingdom
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    296
    Quote Originally Posted by jweebsol View Post
    There is no harm charging. But, sometimes, providing it for free can give one a competitive advantage.
    I would also suggest the same, What was in your mind?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
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    Portland, Oregon
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    2,992
    Quote Originally Posted by NodeWest-Dan View Post
    We do it on a case by case basis. We state there is a fee on our website but generally we don't charge it.

    ^^ Same scenario. The policy is in place mostly for habitual requests. I don't mind restoring a shared account if the user fudged their code and can't find the error (whether or not they created a copy of the file first) since pulling a backup and handling the restore takes < 10 mins. But if I began having to do this on a daily basis for the same client, we will likely assess the retrieval fee at that point. It's a case-by-case situation. In our case it would have to be OK'd by the client before proceeding, but most are pretty good about keeping local backups too.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    493
    I dont charge for this. However, if it was to be a constant hassle, of course I would have to draw the line somewhere.
    .

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Kansas
    Posts
    1,266
    No charge for it here either. But there's no harm in charging for it.

    Chad
    Webmasterbabble.com Webmaster Forum
    Come join us at webmasterbabble.com

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    Data center
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    Nope. I dont think this will be suitable in this competitive web hosting market. Clients do not want to pay more for anything.

    I dont think charging for backups is a good practise and can bring bad reviews to your company.

    BTW, do you backup servers everyday?

  12. #12
    We wouldn't charge for it, but if it costs you something, ultimately the money has to come from somewhere. If it's a pretty rare request, you can build it into the cost of your hosting services. If it takes up a lot of your time, then you would want it to either be a separate fee, or baked into the cost of providing backups (if that's a separate service from the hosting itself). One way to handle this is that when the customer first asks to restore a backup, let them know "we provide the first restore (per month, per year, whatever) for free, and that future restores will cost (whatever you want to charge)". That way the customer is given what they want without feeling badly (a free / included restore), while also setting expectations for the future in case you need to charge.
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  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by searchbar1 View Post
    Nope. I dont think this will be suitable in this competitive web hosting market. Clients do not want to pay more for anything.

    I dont think charging for backups is a good practise and can bring bad reviews to your company.

    BTW, do you backup servers everyday?
    Well you don't charge for the backups, you will charge to restore a customer website on request of this customer and for this you can charge an amount.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Cybertron
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    HostGator has or had (who knows) a good model for backups;

    Free = if you provide the backup

    $15 = if they have to do it for you

    Time + work = $$$$$, but if it's an easy 2 click task, then it's at your discretion to charge or not. Just make sure it's listed on your site or TOS so the customer doesn't get a sudden surprise.


    Quote Originally Posted by searchbar1 View Post
    Nope. I dont think this will be suitable in this competitive web hosting market. Clients do not want to pay more for anything.

    I dont think charging for backups is a good practise and can bring bad reviews to your company.

    BTW, do you backup servers everyday?
    Quote Originally Posted by hostingking-com View Post
    Well you don't charge for the backups, you will charge to restore a customer website on request of this customer and for this you can charge an amount.


    All procedures are charged to the customer. Backups are an operating cost and should be included in whatever fee the customer is paying to use the hosting service.
    Last edited by WPCYCLE; 07-16-2013 at 09:27 AM.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by 48-14 View Post
    HostGator has or had (who knows) a good model for backups;

    Free = if you provide the backup

    $15 = if they have to do it for you
    I do think this model does work well as it encourages users to generate backups themselves.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Buffalo, UK
    Posts
    161
    If it's not the last daily or weekly back, or a backup currently on disk then there might be a charge. Normally it's free though!

  17. #17
    Don't charge for backups initially for any restore unless a particular client is consistently running into issues. Then I would let the client know that they are in excess and ask them what they think the problem is that causes them to need a restore. If you can tell there is a lack of experience try to give them some pointers and if that does not work let them know that they could be charged for the restores. Put anything like this in your TOS just for clarification. May be even in their welcome email as well. If the customer knows there could be extra charges in the future this may motivate them to fix the issue that is causing them to need restores or motivate them to be more careful with their data.

    If the customer rejects or gets upset about the restore charges then back of and continue to be help full but some may understand and except the fee as long as it is not excessive and unwarranted, especially if they have the ability to restore there own account but choose not to out of either laziness or lack of knowing how to.
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  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Florida
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    Our TOS states:
    A Backup Retrieval Fee may be required in order to process a backup/restore request (if a backup is available) to prevent abuse of our system...

    Backup Retrieval Fee - $1 per GB
    We've only needed to charge this fee once before and it was because the client refused to take his own backups even though he kept deleting the wrong files every week. Surprisingly, once we invoiced him one time for the restore, he magically learned to stop deleting his files.

    I highly recommend a similar policy if you find yourself doing a restore for the same client multiple times a month. It's easier to waive an existing fee than it is to impose a non-documented one.
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  19. #19
    Time = money.

    If you have properly set up your hosting platform, then your customers should be able to access their own backups and restore from them without requiring your support. (cpanel has a few plugins that allows customer to restore their own bacups, and so does r1soft, etc...)

    If you have to actually spend your time (or your employee's time) to do something, then you should charge the customer for this work.

    Our TOS includes a statement that backups are best-effort and we make available backups to the customer's account. Anything above and beyond the automated system will be charged at our normal hourly admin rate.

    (I don't offer low-cost budget cheapo hosting, so our customer's actually don't expect free stuff like account/file restores. This is very different than the low-cost industry, where customer's tend to expect many hours of dedicated hand-holding to be included in their $5/month plan.)
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  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Panama
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    267
    Would not charge for this 1, 2 ,3 times. 4 times or more I would charge a static monthly fee like managed services or something or maybe teach the client a better way to save/recover his stuff (cron/backup job etc)
    Offshore Hosting & High Privacy in Panama
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