What would you do if a user your hosting sent spam

B

BlackStorm

New member
What would you do if you got a complaint about a user your hosting for sending out spam?
Would you:
1. suspend their account and check if the spam did come from them
2. not take any action
3. suspend their account, send a notice that it will be deleted and tell them to get their files
4. delete their account and files/data

Would you issue a refund for a paying customer if they requested it? Would you be worried about them doing a chargeback if you dont give them a refund?
 
I personally would not offer a refund. I would suspend the account and find out if it was the. If it was their account would be deleted with no refund because they where braking the rules.
 
Suspend right away, usually the NOC sends the server admin the complaint that has all the evedence. Then if the user agree's not to spam un-suspend the account. Also, if your TOS is written that includes a section about spammers then you should be able to terminate there account without offering a refund. And if they do a charge back then you could probally take legal actions.

Here is my TOS: http://www.turnkeyresellers.com/terms.html
 
Suspend, Confirm, and Cancel the account if true with no refund. I have read posts were Rackshack has taken servers offline for a single SPAM report. No need to wake up to a inbox full of unhappy customers.
 
I'd suspend the account, investigate it, and if were true, cancel the account right away. Not to mention I'd also be upset that a customer violated ToS.
 
<!--QuoteBegin-chris+Oct 7 2003, 05:29 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (chris @ Oct 7 2003, 05:29 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I'd suspend the account, investigate it, and if were true, cancel the account right away. Not to mention I'd also be upset that a customer violated ToS. [/b][/quote]
i'm with him, I'd also be upset that a customer violated our tos.
 
This is where you have to be smart and think not only what you would do.... but what does the law entitle you to do.

I have heard some horror stories of companies terminating accounts for spam, then the spammer finding a loop hole in their TOS aggreement and suing them for lost data and wrongful termination.

I would take these steps:

1) contact the owner of the site and notify them that a coomplaint has been issued against their account, and you have been asked to investigate it. (Let them know whats going on).

2) if after research shows, or another incident occurs, again contact the owner. This time I would contact them by phone. Make it a personal issue, make them understand that you will not tolerate it. Then link them to your TOS page where you stickly state that Spam is not allowed on the server.

3) Depending on how the phone call went from step 2. I would either suspend the account off the bat... or give him a 24 hour period to clean his act up. You have to remember... it may not be the owner of the site who is doing this malicious activity.... it may be a user of his. So give him time to investigate.

4) After trying steps 1-3 and nothing has happened. I would copy the clients files onto a cd. Terminate the account... send them a letter in the mail including the cd.... and inform them by phone that their account has been terminated, and expect them to receive the CD in mail within the next few days.


Ive had to do this a couple of time... mainly due to users port scanning. Most of the time if you contact them by phone... point them to the TOS agreement and show that you are serious about the matter, they will sease to continue with that activity. But if they do continue to do it, make sure you are responsible enough to make sure you backup their information (including their email inboxes and sql files) and make sure they get that copy. Otherwise it may get ugly in court.
 
What would you do if you got a complaint about a user your hosting for sending out spam?
Would you:
1. suspend their account and check if the spam did come from them
2. not take any action
3. suspend their account, send a notice that it will be deleted and tell them to get their files
4. delete their account and files/data

Would you issue a refund for a paying customer if they requested it? Would you be worried about them doing a chargeback if you dont give them a refund?
Click to expand...


I'd suspend their account, investigate the issue and then decide on what to do depending on what I found from the investigation.

If I found in fact that they were guilty, I'd contact them regarding the matter and discuss their options. If they continued, I'd terminate their account and may even send them an invoice violation of the Terms of Service & Acceptability Use Policy. In my Terms of Service it actually states that the client may be invoiced for up to $500 per spam e-mail sent; I've thankfully never had a problem so far... but you never know what the future may hold.

I would by no means offer them a refund. It also clearly states in my Terms of Service and Acceptability Use Policy that no refund will be given, regardless of the reason for the refund demand. Meaning I'd be under no obligation to refund the client, and due to the fact that they actually violated the TOS and AUP, I wouldn't refund them.

I wouldn't be worried about a charge back either. The bank I bank with is extremely good, it's Barclays PLC. In the past I've had a few problems, however I've always "won" as it were. I think choosing the right bank is very important when starting up a business; I've always had my personal accounts at Barclays, yet when I started I decided to have my business account over at Lloyds TSB - Had an awful time, and quickly moved it over to Barclays PLC. Don't really know why I chose to use Lloyds TSB, yet am now very happy that I've everything at Barclays. (Actually, had I still been with Lloyds TSB I would be worried about a charge back as when the business account was with them, there was a problem - and they weren't interested in hearing my side of the story. So I quickly moved the business account over to Barclays PLC, and have had no problems at all)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Supporters

Back
Top