AussieHosts Had a Downtime, Didn't Have Any of My Backups, Lost All My Data, and Then Cancelled My Subscription

Hello,

This must be the worst day for my business. So I recently bought a subscription with AussieHosts with an OzBargain exclusive coupon code. I setup my website, and started my business on it. Countless hours poured onto the website to make sure all is well, and working. It must've been $2000-$3000 worth of web development, and marketing. Business started quite well, got some sales, etc.

Today AussieHosts had a downtime for more than 10 hours. When my site was restored, it was my site from 2 weeks ago, which is pointless because I had sales the past 2 weeks, and I added more products, with images, etc. I even added more plugins to make it more usable after feedback from my first customers. I asked to restore to the latest, but they said they don't have any of my backups, so I lost all my data, which I had business obligations/commitments for. And now, because I was a tad angry at them on email, they cancelled my subscription, and asked me to move away in less than 2 days.

I am obviously angry and not happy with the whole situation. I know I can bring this to ACCC, but besides that, what else can I do? I am now left without a working website. I have lost all my sales, and all information about my customers, which means I can't fulfill those sales, which would be a big problem if those customers chase after me.

I am in deep trouble.

Please help.

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Comments

  • +1

    I shall refrain from the obvious trite comments about responsibility for backups…commiserations dude, I feel for you…same thing happened to me about 6mths ago (different host though), thankfully my investment in web development was utterly insignificant in comparison, so rebuilding (with another host) wasn't too onerous!

    Think of it as a valuable lesson in not trusting anybody else with your data! :'(

    • The irony is, my auto backup failed, and I sent them an email about it. That was just a few days ago… And now, I've lost everything. So yes, I did do my part to ensure backups, but how could they just cut me off, and leave my business without a working website, and then kick me off?

      • +1

        Yeah, no argument it's piss poor form on their part…you could be sure they've got sleazy outs in their T&Cs though.

        I'm currently battling over a SLA with a mob who is making it difficult for us to back up our client/provider/referrer/service databases…they're promising much in the way of their own data security, but when you read the fine print they're guaranteeing nothing on our end…whereas I just wanna be able to export the critical data in a format that we can control. Ironically, the mob we used before these guys had no issue with allowing end-users to export their own data?? :/

        Your unfortunate experience is a sobering reminder that regardless of promises, we need some level of autonomy over our own data.

  • +2

    Don't run your business on two bit providers?
    If your business is valuable, invest in something reliable to host it.

  • I just filed a complaint on the ACCC website. I don't know what can happen or will happen. Anyone has any experience with ACCC?

  • +6

    The only AussieHosts code on here is for a $4.95/mo business plan.

    I'm not trying to be mean now but it's obvious you didn't do enough research about hosting, especially for a business. You claim your development was worth several thousands and yet the backbone of the site the thing that serves it up to customers was apparently only worth $5 a month. Along with this you relied on them for backups. These are two cardinal sins when it comes to business hosting.

    Basically all you can do is try contact the customers with unfulfilled orders and try to fulfill them or refund. Then start from the ground up, this time with a more reputable host and taking care of backups yourself.

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