Jamie Z.

I signed up for this service, bought a domain name etc. and hosted my photo album with this company. Setting up the photo album was easy as they provide the software and automate the installation. I was happy at this point.

I needed to make some modification so, as is recommended, I backed up the site, and made the changes. I was happy with my work. A few days later I looked back at my site and found it had been blocked. I tried to access my account and it was blocked. I was able to use their support system to ask why and a couple of days later got a reply back to tell me that I had abused their terms of service. I wanted to know what crime I had committed and it turned out that I was using too much space on my unlimited web host. They claim there is no limit but of course it is limited. I do not even mind that they lie about it being limited but that they did not tell me or warn me, just froze the account. Backing up is a normal practice but if you backup your site that doubles the size of the files and the sudden increase triggered the account being frozen, no email or polite mention, just froze the account. This is certainly not a company to trust with a business account.

Let me be clear, I do not mind limits but I do expect communication. They should have emailed me and told me that they did not like the increase but they just froze the account.

Their claim is that I read and agreed to their terms of service...

Hi,

The website was suspending for breaching the following terms and conditions,

7.8 Data warehousing: You acknowledge that the Services and any Material may not be used for the purpose of data warehousing such as (but not limited to) storage of backup or archival data, mirror sites, or personal multimedia content such as movies, music, photos or other media.

7.9 Peer-to-peer media (including files) sharing or streaming: You acknowledge that the Services and any Material may not be used for the purpose of peer-to-peer file or media sharing, streaming, BitTorrent, Tor or other similar forms of data transmission.

7.10 Content delivery networks: You acknowledge that the Services and any Material may not be used for the purpose of providing or participating in a content delivery network.

Kind Regards,
Ben... but like 100% of the public my life is too short to read and understand everything. I am not a file sharer or a datawharehouser, I was just putting up a photo album using the tools they provided. Like most people I made the assumption that given that I used the tools that they provided on their web site to choose and create my web site that I was working within their terms. But they claim...

Unfortunately we have limited control over what is available in the Applications section of Plesk.

We do ask that customers abide by our terms and conditions, which is why ticking that you agree to and have read them is required in order to register a hosting account with us

Kind Regards,

Luke... I was made to feel like a criminal for using their service as provided. To be fair they did refund the unused part of the agreement but I had to wait before I could transfer the domain names to a more reasonable provider. There are many providers and many are open and upfront about what they offer. 1and1 tell you how much you can increase your usage each month before you trigger a block but as I am only a light user I moved to a provider that only offers a limited size (25gb) but provide a good service.

I always used to read the reviews before travelling. One day I noticed that the hotel that my friend was opening was listed and read the reviews. I was surprised to see that he had several reviews aready. One of the reviews was from a very angry customer who had had their money stolen by the maid and the hotel receptionist had been rude and unhelpful. This was all very interesting as the hotel had not opened yet and had not taken any customers yet. There were no staff, no maid to steal or receptionist to complain to. Another hotel had started bad mouthing before the hotel had even opened its doors. I now read the reviews with a lot more scepticism.

I have been with this company for over a year and provided all the required verification when I opened the account. This week when three payments are going in they decided to freeze those payments and demand new verification. I do not have any utility bills at the moment and am not going to get any as I leave this country very soon. I cannot do this on demand and why should I? Is it reasonable that they hold my money to ransom in order to demand that I comply? My account was OK so if they want more details they should ask and deal with that separately without freezing my account, that is unreasonable. If they think I have done something wrong they should say what it is. I have done nothing different. I think that they just want to freeze the money so that they can gain interest. If they mess enough people about they hold a lot of money.

Further to the reply -

Verifying an account is of course important but irrelevant in this case. My account was verified a year ago when I opened it and if you wished to verify it again for some reason you should contact me and discuss that. It is not a reason to freeze the account. These are two separate issues.

You only freeze an account if you are accusing me of doing something wrong. You do not freeze an account just because you wish to check some details or update my details.

It is a completely unreasonable way to behave and makes me look unprofessional to my customers. They may assume that I have done something to give you just cause to behave in this manner but you have not stated any cause to freeze my account.

1 week after you froze the account and I had contacted your company to ask why, you then ask for verification to free up the account. I do not wish for it to be freed as I cannot trust your company to act in a reasonable or professional manner. All I ask is that you return said funds to the relevant customers and I will ask them to pay using Paypal.

Update 18/06/2017 - After 2 weeks of having the account frozen they write -

We have transferred your request to the relevant department. We will notify you via email as soon as we have any updates regarding this issue.
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So they are have still not returned the money to my customers so that I can ask them to pay using a trustworthy company.