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Rapidswitch - November power catch up Invoice
Hi guys,
I have 2 servers with them both paid for whole year upfront, first one was paid up to March 2023. and second one up to June 2023.
I just received an Invoice that states I have to paid some kind of "November power catch up for (than server number)" for every server I have for November 2022 and probably upcoming months.
So basically despite I paid servers for whole year upfront I have to paid now more because of energy price that increased. I thought when you pay for some period of time this means price will be locked down for that period.
How things are with other providers? Anyone else in same position as me? Just opened ticket to check what is going on with RS but don't expect answer before noon tomorrow noon.
I hope this is just mistake, don't like this kind of business practice. Why I would like to pay for longer period of time if not to save myself of price changing.
Comments
Yes, this is silly. Providers usually hike price with the next billing period.
I am wondering if this is legal at all in the UK as you paid for service already.
Yes silly because what options I have now, I cannot cancel already paid servers as I will lose more. If it was month to month I will probably eat up that for one month and will look for other options for second month.
Clearly looks like an extortion to me. We will see what they have to say as ticket was opened, waiting on answer.
Yes this extortion
Yes you are fucked
Thing is, more hosts may do this, even the big ones like OVH, because they know the smaller clients with a couple of VPS/Servers don't have the ability to go against them legally. Sure you could try your luck in a Small Claims court or hire a lawyer, but in both cases you may loss access to your services even though you have paid upfront and in the end, may not get any compensation.
I do remember only mess with Rapidswitch as I do remember ordering 12 years ago a few server and due to mess with prices they did cancelled the whole order as unable to fulfil the order. I am wondering how they still in business?
Don't think so.
Reference: https://myservers.rapidswitch.com/Terms.aspx
They added those terms some months ago apparently.
Yes I'm aware of this, but didn't really expect they would go with that. When I ordered and paid for servers the war just started, they had an opportunity to refuse payment for longer period of time as they could expected mess up on energy market.
This is a bit sleazy business practice that you made a mistake in decision and pass expenses to clients later.
So you were aware of those terms when you signed up and you still decided it would be a good idea to pay long term with them, knowing that they could increase additional fees at any time?
Doesn't sound like it's their fault. as it is yours for still choosing to go through with it.
They added this like in June this year when they decided to go with first price increase and I ordered and paid for both servers before that.
On top of this I asked them in June if price increasing apply to me as I already pre-paid for servers for whole year they said no.
And now they sent me Invoice for some kind of "power catch up". This is all about bad business practice. Have you ever heard so far that someone got price increased on already pre-paid services before contract ends?
And do you all read terms when you already have agreement with company about service level and payment? You usually already asked all and covered all topics before agree and buy with their sales agent. I'm not new client for them, I'm with them for years.
They are fairly big company and should fulfil all aspects we already agree with in ticketing before I paid. And when you pre-paid for some time upfront you have the right to expect price will be locked down for at least that period of time you already paid.
Your opportunity to get out of the contract was when they changed it back in June.
~ SMARTHOST
>
I don't have a contract I already paid for year upfront, and they said in June increase will not affect me. What I'm supposed to do?
This is pretty poor on RapidSwitch's part. I agree that you should've had your price locked in for the duration of your term as if they cannot adhere to their longer term pricing then perhaps they should not be offering it at all!
This comes as no surprise to me. How RapidSwitch/iomart are still in business is beyond me. They're alright in terms of reliability/uptime but when it comes to billing & actually requiring any support from them (remote hands etc.) they are woeful.
Time to Rapidly Switch and get a pro-rata refund?
Hire @deank as your lawyer and sue them.
After this poor move from their side do you really believe they will issue some refund if I move servers? This is their answer (they not mention nothing about the fact that I already paid them for both servers one year upfront, like it is normal that you can change price for already paid services)
"The ‘November price increase’ is a backdated charge to cover the increased power cost for the month of November. As we bill one month in advance, the first invoice with increased costings - which is issued on the 1st November - covers the service period for December, so an additional charge has been issued, to cover the service period of November, when this increase came into effect.
The exact cost of this additional charge is the difference between your monthly cost pre, and post-power cost increase.
I hope that makes sense, let us know if you have any further questions.
Kind regards,
Blair
Iomart"
Depends what the terms were when you signed up because they're recently added in this clause about wholesale energy price being passed on but it may not have been there when you entered into your contract with them. There needs to be a "meeting of the minds" when you enter a contract and I think it's reasonable to assume that your price was fixed at least until the next billing term renewal:
Jan (no sign): https://web.archive.org/web/20220128151735/https://myservers.rapidswitch.com/Terms.aspx
May (clause added in): https://web.archive.org/web/20220521103021/https://myservers.rapidswitch.com/Terms.aspx
So sometime between Jan and May it was added in. I see you bought annual in March so if it was added in after then, you may have an argument with them.
Furthermore, I can't find anything in their terms about them being able to just modify their terms without their advanced notice and communication (unless I missed it).
thanks for that, this for sure could be used as an argument but I'm afraid they will force payment, it is time to see other options
you may end up terminating your service and get refund but before you start your fight just backup your data
Should be backing up the data regardless of the situation.