Rapidswitch reported to Police for data theft and sabotage

tmpuls · 27th June 2008

After purchasing 2 dedicated servers with Rapidswitch.com earlier this month, one running Linux the other running Windows 2008, a problem came up with one of the servers with installation of iso image.

Sales had said before purchase that install from iso of even operating system was possible through remote access system Rapidswitch.com claim that they offer and virtual cd drive feature. After spending 3 hours with Rapidswitch.com support trying to use this remote access keyboard and mouse system it transpired that it did not work properly, Rapidswitch claimed some cable problems, but in the end they said virtual drive could not work either. They also refused assistance in mounting the iso image. The technician at customer side claims that throughout this issue there was a some feeling of an attitude issues with at least some of the Rapidswitch.com support staff.

When asked to either fix the problem or refund the money for this server but everything was prepaid through VISA card, Rapidswitch.com technical support manager started a runaround of excuses in circles trying to avoid the issue of refund. When sent email saying they would have to refund money for the server/service that did not function as promised or otherwise be subject to complaint to VISA, they decided to terminate the business account, cutting off WITHOUT ANY PRIOR WARNING also the other server running Windows 2008 and that was in no way connected to the problem of the Linux server and which several people have worked on for 9 days configuring systems, data, databases etc., causing the organization thousands of pounds in loss due to loss of data that Rapidswitch have in effect hijaced.

Even after Rapidswitch.com was being made aware that their irresponsible action to cut the server off without notice was causing the organization thousands of pounds in loss as workers were cut off without notice and their data and all configurations are now lost, Rapidswitch still refused to reconnect the server even to allow recovery of the data. Perhaps they deleted all the data and cannot reconnect it?

As a result and on the advise of solicitors Rapidswitch have now been reported to the Maidenhead Police Department for data theft and sabotage. Police Case Reference is LC312112408.

Is this what the level of UK hosting companies is coming to?

administrator · 27th June 2008

Hi Tmpuls,

It will be interesting to see if RS respond to this as they are on the board, however you may want to review posting here before the case is resolved as it would damage your case against them should things go further.

I would imagine RS will not be responsible for any data loss as is common with most hosts in the terms of service, unless they acted illegaly which caused the data loss. As the law is greater than a contract.

(i believe)

ChrisOlver · 27th June 2008

Good thing you had backups eh?

-Chris

edb49 · 27th June 2008

OK, let's say we are in this situation:

Client places an order and says in the notes they want us to install an OS not on our standard list. RapidSwitch Sales cancels order and explains this is not something we will do, but the client can attempt it on an unsupported basis. Client places another order once advised of this information. Client is unable to install their OS, makes threatening phone calls to staff which the management listen to the recordings of. Client claims they will contact their card provider and say that RapidSwitch has committed fraud, to seek a chargeback. Client refers to the cancelled order as "proof" that we should support their unusual OS. We remind them that the order was cancelled, and sales contacted them afterwards to let them know our position on unusual OSes.

In this situation we would issue a full refund and cancel the client's account.

We don't comment on specific clients or situations, needless to say everyone can draw their own conclusions. This will be my only contribution to this thread.

ThomasC · 27th June 2008

You have reported his company to the police. I imagine any solicitor would instruct the company not to communicate further at this point. I know mine would.

If your client can effectively loose thousand of pounds from downtime, the responsible thing to do would be to have some form of backup in place...

What if you had a hardware failure such as the machines hard drive failing resulting in downtime and if it was the only drive in the machine extreme data loss.

I would also be interested to hear how much you paid for the machine.
Your situation sounds mission critical and should be spared no expense!

One other thing I would point out is Ed posted at 08:55 PM.
I'd hope this is his personal time and he is relaxing and reading up some WHC gossip!

UH-Matt · 27th June 2008

Why oh why oh why did you post to a public forum about this? What are you hoping for? Seriously, if you really are reporting this to police and considering persuing legal action then you should not post ANYTHING to public forums, it just goes a long way towards harming any chance you have of any favourable outcome.

I am not taking sides, but if a customer threatens a chargeback to us, we immediately refund and cancel all services....

administrator · 27th June 2008

Thread Locked, some posts removed.

Issue apears to be mostly client at fault, evidence supplied showing Rapidswitch did tell the client the custom OS would not be supported and a full refund was/is being issued hence termination of services.