Is This Extortion?
 

So, as I said in another thread, I am having problems with this hosting company: www.hostonce.com about me losing money due to their negligence. They canceled my account, saying I broke a rule in the TOS (which technically, I did'nt, along with never having the intention to do so).

When it all comes down to it, if we were to take it to court, I would win. Nuff said about my end of it.

So, I simply sent them a 'support ticket' that said: "Fine, if you want to be sleazy, then so be it, I just want my domain name transferred to a different registrar so I don't have to deal with you guys anymore."

This is the e-mail they sent me:
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There is nothing sleazy about having terms and conditions. You agree to these when ordering with us and it specifically forbids the reselling of our service. We do not offer services to be resold on at a huge profit.

If you wish to make a complaint about our refusal to allow you to do this, that is your perogative.

Obviously if you are going to be making complaints, we can take no further action on your account or domain name as this may jeopardise any complaints procedure. The domain name will therefore be parked until the matter is resolved.
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Keep in mind that what she is saying is not true, in the e-bay auction, I specifically said "one year free hosting" meaning I would pay for one year. I never mentioned the company.

Because I'm sure she's aware that no domain = a pause in business on that site = no income.

Is this extortion? Holding my domain as 'ransom' to get me to stay quiet?

yep

I would say so. I woudl contact a internet lawyer, and sue for all the profit you are losing by it being held for ransom, and all the hits you are losing.

how can they hold your domain? just go to the registrar and change the DNS info

hell yah thats extortion..

take them to the cleaners bro!

anyone know a good internet lawyer?

Just go change your DNS info to point to a new host.

even is hostonce was the registrar of the domain? I don't know much about this particular area.

If the domain is in their name, it's their domain, not your's, and they can park it if they want.

Yikes, you let them register your domain?

yes, but in the whois query, it shows me as the owner, shows the as technical contact.

Who the hell is this hosting company? You should be able to sue them for revenu lost, traffic lost, mental exuastment, shit go buy you 100.00 worth of traffic and send it to that url for each hit you should be able to sue for 50.00 for possible lose of revenu *shrugs* I know shit about law so imo i would talk to a lawyer like RIGHT NOW lol

TOM

If you're the owner of the domain, you can change all those contacts. Make em point to you. You can also move the domain to another host by changing the DNS info.

Seriously sue their ass! Btw, who do you guys use for domain registering, do you use multiple ones?

dude they HAVE to release your name to another registrar if you are the OWNER of the domain.

Err.. hybrid, ICQ me if you want & I'll help you evaluate what you can do to solve this.