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That does not mean OP is wrong. But if we do not want to hear similar stories, just modify LET-rules so that no criticism is allowed. If that's the way we want to go...
What?
Criticism is always welcome, but if your story makes no sense - then its no longer criticism, it's just throwing shit at the wall. And it will get the appropriate response.
Case and point:
The weirdest thing here is OP complained what.. 3 months ago? But stayed with them for that 3 months anyway?
Absolute bollocks, will never order from them again. Service outage, data loss, and all the data has been exposed to whoever compromised the server. That's a bit crap, but whatever, I could accept it for the cheap price. Despite renewing my VPS service just 5 days ago, they refuse to cancel my service and issue a refund (only $12). Gonna make a paypal dispute and just avoid them in the future.
(This incident aside, their actual servers have been adequate the past few years, but I can no longer trust them to run their servers securely.)
Their responses:
That's how abusive relationships go.
P.S. Looks like OP made another account or asked a pal to vouch for him. Poor kid.
Welcome to FraudRecord!
What would be fraudulent about opening a dispute? It's been 5 days since I renewed a 12-month service, my data has already been lost and exposed, and they are no longer able to meet their "99.9% uptime guarantee" from the current 48-hour downtime.
The address is a virtual address via scanmypost.co.uk. They are going out of business, so that address won't exist anymore.
Is there a cooling off period in the contract? If not, tough shit.
Is there a waranty of security? If not, tough shit.
What does the TOS say about that gurantee? Did you not read the TOS before you sent your payment?
PayPal chargebacks are the sign of a cunt. FraudRecord is the douche for your cuntiness.
I understand what you're saying, although I didn't feel the attitude or hostility was really a requirement here.
While their TOS do state that refunds are only applicable under certain circumstances (which mine do not fall under), there are still local laws and regulations which apply — a TOS can't overrule local laws. In addition, while the TOS doesn't specifically state an uptime guarantee, their website does ("we guarantee 99.9% uptime"), which would be false advertising at the very least.
I don't understand how you could support them under these circumstances. They've failed to run a hosting service properly and keep it secure. I'm not asking for any extra money, just to cancel my only-just-renewed service and refund the cost of future unused days.
An uptime guarantee is usually backed by an SLA resulting in some form of refund in the event of breach of this guarantee, this is usually to client credit or in the form of extension of the service due date, again depending on SLA.
Opening a dispute over $12 isn't really worth it for the amount of hassle you can potentially cause yourself not just now, but also with future providers - The vast majority won't touch you with a bargepole if you're dispute happy (regardless of the reason for opening said dispute).
If there's a 99.9% uptime guarantee, you need to question this and query what the SLA is and what their intentions are in terms of reimbursing you for not meeting their guarantee.
The laws and regulations of the United Kingdom, per the terms you agreed to.
I don't have an opinion one way or another. Ishaq is good, and Ishaq is bad. This topic was started by an asshat with an axe to grind as a hitpiece. You showed up looking like a sockpuppet (new account, posting now that the OP has gone quiet) and threw out the "IMMA CHAERGBACK" card, and you get what you give.
@PHDan
I'll be completely honest with you, I don't know who Ishaq is. Only reason I came here (and created an account) is to see what others were saying in regards to the recent incident with BudgetNode (and provide my personal experience) — I even stated in my first post that I was satisfied with their service and pricing, up until now. Only reason I moved onto a dispute (which isn't a direct chargeback - I assume paypal review the individual cases) was because I felt their handling of the situation was unsatisfactory, and I'd rather not be locked into their service for another 12 months given their lack of security. That being said, if you and others genuinely believe I'm in the wrong here, I can drop the dispute. I would've personally expected better customer service for issues like this, but I guess you get what you pay for.
@WSCallum
I was initially hoping that asking for a refund wouldn't be too difficult for them, given I had only just renewed my yearly subscription to the VPS. I wouldn't expect them to do the same if I was, say 6 months into the subscription. But after only 4 days of use (2 with an outage), I was hoping they'd be able to provide a cancellation and refund so I could take my business elsewhere.
I appreciate your response though, I'll see what they respond with as a resolution before escalating any disputes.
With PayPal you have to declare one of two things to open a dispute:
Neither of those situations apply here so the dispute is based on false claims.
Doesn't matter if it's 5 minutes or 5 months. Once it's processed it's done. PayPal takes their cut of fees and that's that. You may get your full amount refunded but the merchant doesn't get fees back. The merchant gets to lose money for having you as a customer.
Disputes and chargebacks are there for true fraud, not for tempertantrums.
Note: Chargebacks cost $20 in PayPal fees to the merchant so if you do chargeback then you will be on FraudRecord and rightly so.
@PHDan
Having been on the receiving end of PayPal disputes myself, the $20 fee only applies to credit card reversals, not disputes through the platform. I have also given them the opportunity to refund me themselves, which also reverses the transaction fees (unless things have since changed). I'd even be okay if they just took the transaction fees off the refunded amount and did a partial refund.
Unfortunately I can't remember what options came up when opening the dispute, but they had an option for services/intangible products which are not as described. I'll wait to see what BN offer as a resolution before proceeding with any disputes, but I'm not happy with them in terms of customer service at all. I'd have expected them to be able to process a refund in cases like this.
That's the SNAD, which specifically says the item is different than described by the seller. Everything you received is as described. You just feel like it should be something different.
Nope, not for a while now:
@PHDan
Alright, seems they changed their policies on refunds. Still, I'd be happy for them to refund me, minus the transaction fees and 4 days of server time if it's really that big of a loss for them.
In the PayPal UI, the dispute option is listed as "Item is not as described" and doesn't explain how far different it needs to be from the description. I figured failing to meet the "guaranteed" uptime and failing to maintain security of my VPS's data would come under that (I certainly can't imagine anyone would be satisfied with a hosting provider where such an incident occurs).
Perhaps I am in the wrong though, I honestly didn't expect a negative response when I made my initial comment. I'll just keep watching the situation and see what they offer.
I'm reading this as a Harrison Ford Bladerunner voiceover.
Great, agree completely. The fees, the time used, the time it takes to manually refund, the time now needed to deal with your dispute on PayPal and provide documentation to PayPal to counter your dispute should come out to about $12 so carrying the 8 and moving the decimal, would get you $0 back.
@PHDan
Come on mate, you and I both know it doesn't take long to issue a refund — especially when most sales/payment tools provide this built-in at the click of a button. Not to mention that the dispute still hasn't been escalated to PayPal, so no evidence or documentation is required on their behalf.
It's not even about the $12 really, I just don't appreciate them holding onto my money when they've failed to provide a satisfactory service.
If so, just sue and get it over with.
I want my $1.25 right now!
Don't worry baby, Mr Jesus will still love you
They restore the service but all data has been lost!
and they offer 7 days extension for everyone who needs the extra 7 days, without data, what should we do now?!
here is the full message:
https://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+are+backups
If you wanted to be a huge asshole, you could file chargeback to paypal, provide proof of lost data, win the case, and then dispute any fraudrecord about yourself which the host made and possibly even have the host lose api access to fraudrecord if they actually add your details despite losing all of ur data and refusing a refund therefore forcing you to go through paypal.
Ultimately the fault is yours for not having backups but the host is even more asshole for not refunding under such cases when requested by affected client. Its possible that fraudrecord would remove your details if its from budgetnode only.
Dont resell a 12 USD VPS lol. Its same as putting ur critical business software into cociu's raid5 storage vps and run it from there. While it might work just fine, its not meant for it.
Another chucklefuck that didn't bother to read the terms.
Yes, I know what are backup, I've been with them for over 3 years, Just hope to recover from this.
First of all, it's not 12 USD VPS, I pay more actually, regardless of how much I've paid, I can't get a refund or file chargeback!
been with them for over 3 years, Just hope to recover from this, and let's hope for the best.
it's everyone's fault, no one to blame! I know how to backup, just never imagine this would happen, like you walking in the street in-country for much of time and get hit by a car, without noticing... they rest all accounts, so I shouldn't be the one to complain as I was in the wrong server or bad management.
They change this all time, it's dynamic terms to protect themself in case anything like this happens.
Bullshit. Now I definitely know you're a liar.
https://web.archive.org/web/20181214084205/https://budgetnode.com/tos
https://web.archive.org/web/20161020202504/https://budgetnode.com/tos