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Loss of data

Peo

Peo

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If a webhost looses a customers data, what kind of compensation can a customer expect to get if any? Lets assume it's the webhosts fault, the whole account gets deleted and there's no way to restore it.

If you are a webhost, does your TOS say anything about such a situation?

It hasn't happened to me, but I'm just wondering.
 
I suppose that is impossible pre-write all possible situation. Of course that should be written and that is there and money should be send back. But if you are as web hosting provider whould like to be here and saty you need to take measures to prevent that in any case.
That is what we try to do and that is our aim
 
In my opinion, its best to set a couple hundred dollars on the side. You can't just refund later on down the road or that doesn't look good to you as a web hosting company. Most people do not read the terms of service page at all.
 
My question is can a customer in this situation get a compensation from the webhost? Maybe a couple of free months of hosting or a one time payment? Or do you think it is the customers fault for not having a backup and the webhost shouldn't pay the customer anything?
 
I think the customer should be very careful to read any TOS he is presented with before he pays for a service, and if that particular hosts TOS stipulates that they will not take back ups, nor be responsible for any data loss that may occur then the customer should absorb this and consider it when making the final purchase etc ...

By extension though I've often felt that hosts should have their full TOS, and a page of say 10 1 line bullet points putting across the most salient facts in non legal lingo as well (some hosts do this already of course), because lets face it, maybe 1 in 20 customers actually looks through an often VERY large and confusing TOS ... if that.

If a host does lose data, then obviously they have failed to provide the service they sold the customer, and should give a full refund for that particular term (monthly, quarterly or whatever). Any further compensation they give should be seen less as a duty, and more as a way to appease a customer whose data has been lost / affected.

As for financial recouperation - its a really difficult one and I dont know quite how to play it to be honest. For instance, who makes a judgement upon the value of data lost - neither the customer or the host are particularly suitable in this case as inflation/deflation of the theoretical value can happen all over the place . Perhaps some hosts should try an insurance scheme, where the customer pays a little extra each month, in the knowledge that if an issue isnt resolved to hist satisfaction, he can claim a certain amount of money (agreed upon before by host and customer) back.

This could be legally difficult though, and I really have no idea how you would overcome that.
 
I believe the customer should be compensated in some way if it is the web hosts fault. Fortunately most hosts will have external backups, so some data should be able to get recovered.
 
Even though I agree customers should be compensated somehow, I don't see why it should be in the form of money. The customer should be responsible for their own data eitherway, keep your own backup. It's not hard or time consuming.
 
Well I think that the customer should be compensated in the form of a couple months of free hosting.

However this should never happen in the first place. A host is some what responsible and should be keeping backups as should the client.

I have suggested that all my clients keep backups even tho I keep 2 remote backups of my own [monthly and weekly]
 
Although we perform to two types of backup (cPanel's own backup & rsync of / to tape) we encourage customers to make there own backup's. If we loose clients data and they don't have a backup of data, we'd work out the best option with the customer - but thankfully the few occassions we've had to restore from backup (due to clients deleting content / databases) our backup's have worked well for us :)
 
We do offer complimentary backup services but do not guarantee these backups. As such is the case, clients are responsible for their own backups. However, we have multiple backup systems in place to help prevent this scenario.

Should it arise, I would refund the customers for the month (or the rest of the billing period should they cancel if prepaid).
 
Volt.Networks said:
We do offer complimentary backup services but do not guarantee these backups. As such is the case, clients are responsible for their own backups. However, we have multiple backup systems in place to help prevent this scenario.

Should it arise, I would refund the customers for the month (or the rest of the billing period should they cancel if prepaid).
Click to expand...

Same here.. offer backup services, but the TOS has it plain and simple they are for "administrative" purposes and not guaranteed; the client is responsible for backups.
 
Most companies have an indemnification and limited liability clause concerning the loss of data. As a client, you should ALWAYS make backups, backup the backups, and backup the backup of the backups.

A serious host would also offer said client with an additional period of services on the account for free in order to maintain the valued business the client has given the company so far.
 
I believe that each such issue should be reviewed and if there is fault from the side of web hosting service provide compensation should be paid
 
We had a clause in our TOS about data loss... It basically said that it's not our fault, that we're not guaranteeing your data, and that you need to have regular off-site backups. It said that we do our best, but mistakes happen and we won't be held liable.

That being said, if anything like that ever happened, not only would I have a backup on hand that's within a month old, because I used to have the server setup to use my computer as a backup site, I'd also be willing to offer you... Maybe 4 months of free hosting, depending on your plan.

It's basically a failure though. The host is supposed to host your data, not lose it. :)
 
When I ran my hosting company my TOS said:

hostname will not be held liable for any datalose due to Hardware fairure, Software failure, Human incompetance ect. You are responsible for taking backups.
 
OMG if it was any more true I wouldnt know what to do.... WOW Thats was Stupid on my behalf

I wish people would realize these common mistakes and fix them but what can I say... not everyone thinks that way
 
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