Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: Legal Issue

  1. #1

    Legal Issue

    We had a client who is not contactable anymore. He was a reseller. One of his clients also did reselling he is also not contactable.

    Now one of his clients who has a huge site has contacted us to give him access and data of his site.

    We had not deleted anything before that client contacted us now we are in a fix what to do here. How to validate his claim over the site and give him his data and close the issue.

    Remember he is our third level client.

    US -> Reseller -> Reseller -> Him

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    6,616
    How long has the client not been contactable? Do they owe you money. The issue here is you have no contract with the end user and as its two levels down it could get messy legally if one of the resellers accuses you of stealing clients. In theory the client could cancel and move to you but its a tricky one.
    Russ Foster - Industry Curmudgeon
    Freelance Sysadmin for Hire - email vaserv@gmail.com

  3. #3
    He contacted us running ip traces and finally found us that is a long story too.

    Our direct client has not paid for us many months. I know the easy way is to delete everything because that is covered by our TOS. But i have checked his site and a lot of effort has gone into it.

    We do not need to host them, just want a way to hand him the data without looking at future liability and let him go away with another host.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,178
    I don't think you would run into any issues simply providing a backup of the account to the user, but you would need to verify that the person you are speaking with is the actual customer in some way otherwise you could give out confidential data to somebody that is not supposed to have it... That could get you in a whole heap of trouble.

    Either do it *very* *very* carefully or don't do it at all.
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,800 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  5. #5
    How about validating the domain ownership, will that be enough?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,178
    What steps you take to verify the person is up to you, I was just making sure you knew that it was something you should definitely put a lot of effort into (to cover your rear.)
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,800 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    1,596
    Would it work for you if you have the person to cancel their account with their current host, who is a reseller? And then sign up with you, and you could easily move their data?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    1,018
    Quote Originally Posted by indiaberry View Post
    Would it work for you if you have the person to cancel their account with their current host, who is a reseller? And then sign up with you, and you could easily move their data?
    If the Reseller was to notice this though, they may say that the host is stealing clients of Resellers, which would be bad, both legally and for the hosts reputation.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    In Earth!
    Posts
    41
    I suggest you don't do this.
    It can give you a bad rep + legal issues.

    Thanks

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    I'd consider turning the account on for a short while, and let the end user take the data he needs. No identification needed, you'd not be touching the data in any way.

    Just a personal opinion though, IANAL.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by ldcdc View Post
    I'd consider turning the account on for a short while, and let the end user take the data he needs. No identification needed, you'd not be touching the data in any way.

    Just a personal opinion though, IANAL.
    My opinion exactly.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    65
    If the original customer isn't contactable, and hasn't paid for many months, do you think they have the money to make this legal?

    I can see everyones morals, behind there statements, and yes at the end of the day it always boils down to the legalities.

    However show a little care for the end customer, who got screwed out of his data. I know that really isn't your problem, however, charge him for a data backup, once verified it's his account.

    Somehow come to some terms of means with him. If you can show he tracked you down, and he contacted you regarding his account, you have done nothing to breach any terms of contract, and i highly doubt anyone would get far in a court of law with this proof.

    Just my 2 cents.
    Cheers,
    Ty
    Get Boosted

  13. #13
    It really is not your responsibility to provide any resellers customers files whatsoever. If they are under your reseller then it is their responsibility to have their site(s) backed up off site.

    If you give this person these files that they may or may not be entitled to then you may be called out on the carpet for it.
    Some lessons people have to learn the hard way.

    I would suggest that you make a provision in your TOS agreement stating that if a resllers' account is terminated due to non payment. All accounts under that reseller would be terminated or transferred to you if the customer so wishes to remain on the server. Make sure that all your resellers have a revised version emailed to them.

    Then you don't have these types of issues. If your not getting paid for this resellers, then he/she are no longer your client legally. You are allowed to contact their clients and inform them of the situation and offer them your services.
    Turbo Charged Shoutcast Hosting!
    Turbo Host USA

  14. #14
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    238
    also, whatif the client did not pay Reseller #2 and Reseller#2 did not pay Reseller#1 and #1 didnt pay you, should he get his files?

    i personally would have disabled reseller#1's account 24 hours after non payment and been done with it. but now this clients has contacted me...

    if client can prove to me that they paid their hosting bill to reseller#2, then i personally would release his data and also hope that reseller#1 finds out and makes a legal claim against me. after reseller#1 pays my back-due invoice(s) i will give them my attorneys contact info.

    it would really take a person with alot of gull to legally complain while owing me money.

  15. #15
    I'd suggest you consult a lawyer regarding this .
    If you do provide him the backup but the reseller becomes aware, you might find yourself in some legal hot water
    if you don't provide the backup the client may sue for the backup.

    Knowing your legal rights and options is your first step, anything short of could cause a larger headache.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •