Web host taking the piss!

[BNMedia]

I have hosted all my sites at Vault Networks for the last year and had no problems with them. To cut a long story short I told them that I wanted to upgrade my server to fully utilize server side encoding which I will be using on ElevatedX very soon.
After 48 hours they failed to reply to my upgrade request and so I have taken my business to Webair who are setting my up with a nice new quad core box as I type.
I sent a fax to Vault networks on 2nd December cancelling my hosting services and then submitted a ticket with similar information.
However, I receive a message back saying that as a full months notice wasn't given they intend to charge me $194 for an extra month on a server I won't be using!
I have replied suggesting that I was in fact 1 day over their 30 day cancellation policy and asked them to kindly reconsider their petty decision.
Are they taking the piss?

Is their any International department of fair trading to take this up with?

At the moment I just feel like dropping a huge pile of shit on their data centre!!! Well maybe not just yet as my transfer over to Webair is still in progress!

Needless to say I'm not a happy chappy at the moment so just venting some steam!

[Tamashi]

It depends on the terms you agreed to. If you accepted to cancel your subscription with a 30 days prior notice, and you were one day late, then you have nothing you can do. Afterall, you agreed to these terms. You can take it to a lawyer, but you'll lose the case. Unless there's a specific rule in their terms which you can counter them with.

[wild johnny]

I would suggest to you that you not let bad business by them draw you down to their level.
You made your decision to leave them and they are being butts about it so vent and then do what it takes to close the door on the past.
Yep you could hire a lawyer, or look for another way to make waves for them. But the frustration you are going to go through and all the time you spend dicking with them is all that worth the 194.00. And by the way this thread you just posted about them could of already cost them that amount in new business..

I hope it works out for you..

[Tamashi]

Indeed. I very much agree with the poster above. Just pay them their last month, it's not worth the trouble (and money) to hire a lawyer and go through all the trouble. Even though it's not "nice" of them, business usually isn't about being nice, but about money. It's about the extra $194 they will see on their bank account.

On the other side, you can also choose to just not pay them. But then they have all rights to open a legal case against you, a case they will probably win. Up to you.

[BNMedia]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies.
Hiring a lawyer never entered my head to fight this and yes I realize that I did agree to their terms and conditions.
I just see it as very petty and am trying to negotiate with them. It's sad really as they have been good to me until now. They have since offered me 10% off any dedicated server to stay with them. Nice gesture, but not really of any use seeing as I have just had a new one built specially by Webair.
Guess I'll have to suck it and see!

[ez12]

It took me four hosting companies to find the one that didn't screw me over..

Good luck with your new hosting service

[BNMedia]

My negotiations failed and it looks like I will be coughing up $194 extra.
It makes bank charges look like sweet f.a.
Oh well, you live and learn!

Webair will be my 5th host. I first started out with two different shared hosts then had two dedicated servers at different hosts.
My Webair server is the first fully managed solution I have gone for and all seems to be going OK so far. Their techs have been working around the clock importing everything and tying to get all content ready to make the switch. Very impressed with that. Today has been the only bit of a downer for me as their are some final tweaks that I have been waiting all day to be completed and I could have done it myself hours ago! I can get impatient though and hopefully everything will work out great.
It will be nice to concentrate on running our sites and not having to worry about Apache failures, etc..