Streamline.net - [un]limited service

parker13 · 15th April 2008

Hi,

I Signed up with the following "unlimited" web hosting package from
Streamline.net:

http://www.streamline.net/uu.php

They recently informed me that they will be suspending my site in 5
days' time due to excessive usage. In the mean time they've moved me to a slow
probation server.

I've been using the site as an Ubuntu package repository and it has become
quite popular, so I can understand their concerns.

However, one of the "features" of their service is the following:

"Un-restricted Visitor Bandwidth:
Bandwidth (data transfer) is a measure of the amount of data transferred by
your Website. For example if your Website is a total of 1mb and 1000 people
view it in one month the bandwidth used for that month would be 1000mb (1Gb).
If we cannot host your Website due to high bandwidth we will refund the entire
hosting fee."

So, they should refund my entire fee - I paid for 2 years and have used the
service for 20 months.

However, they are saying that my site is taking up CPU and not bandwidth, so
they will not refund. They will not even refund the remaining 14 months' fee. I dispute this because the site is doing little else besides people downloading packages.

Surely if the server cannot support the downloads due to insufficient CPU
then they are not providing an "unlimited" service.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

Garry.

administrator · 15th April 2008

Give up, you shouldn't have been abusing it in the first place.

parker13 · 15th April 2008

I wasn't abusing it, it was an unlimited service which I paid for fair and square.

Surely the point of an unlimited service is that you can download a lot of stuff.

Also, is it fair to kick me off 8 months into a 24 month contract with no refund at all?

BionicInternet · 15th April 2008

You do realise that Streamline are just reseller of Fasthosts - all be it very big Resellers.

aguk · 15th April 2008

Read their T&Cs

Quote:

Unlimited use policy
High bandwidth usage: Streamline.Net offers an unlimited use policy by maintaining very large ratios of bandwidth per customer. In rare cases, Streamline.Net may find a customer to be using server resources to such an extent that he or she may jeopardize server performance and resources for other customers. In such instances, Streamline.Net reserves the right to impose the High Resource User Policy for the consideration of all customers.

High resource use policy
Resources are defined as bandwidth, processor utilization or disk space.Streamline.Net may implement the following policy to its sole discretion:When a website is found to be monopolising the resources available Streamline.Net reserves the right to suspend that site immediately. This policy is only implemented in extreme circumstances and is intended to prevent the misuse of our servers. Customers may be offered an option whereby Streamline.Net continues hosting the website for an additional fee.

Suggestion is next time buy hosting with someone who provides limits. In fairness I would hope they would at least refund the remaining fees.

parker13 · 15th April 2008

Yes, I do. However, it's Streamline's policies which I'm debating here.

The site I was hosting was legitimate and just got popular over time. It's fair enough that they can't cope with it any longer. However, they should not advertise that they will refund the "entire hosting fee" due to high bandwidth and then argue the fact that there is a difference between high bandwidth and CPU usage - when downloads from an ubuntu repo is obviously going to take up more bandwidth than CPU time.

At the very least they should also not argue over refunding the cost of the additional year which I've paid for in advance.

JamieBeeston · 15th April 2008

You get what you pay for..

Why dont people understand this..

Pay a decent amount, get decent service..

Pay nothing for everything and see what you get..

I do however agree you should be refunded for your remaining time if they can not offer a satisfactory alternative.. next time you see Unlimited on Disk or Bandwidth.. run away!

BionicInternet · 15th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by parker13

Yes, I do. However, it's Streamline's policies which I'm debating here.

The site I was hosting was legitimate and just got popular over time. It's fair enough that they can't cope with it any longer. However, they should not advertise that they will refund the "entire hosting fee" due to high bandwidth and then argue the fact that there is a difference between high bandwidth and CPU usage - when downloads from an ubuntu repo is obviously going to take up more bandwidth than CPU time.

At the very least they should also not argue over refunding the cost of the additional year which I've paid for in advance.

When you think about it - the shared system policies arnt theirs, its Fasthosts rules - which are crap - so they wouldn't have moved you at all. They have no control top do that, the FH 2nd line engineers would of done it.

I know a few people at FH so if you want their contact details, just drop me a PM.

parker13 · 15th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamieBeeston

You get what you pay for..

Why dont people understand this..

Pay a decent amount, get decent service..

Pay nothing for everything and see what you get..

I do however agree you should be refunded for your remaining time if they can not offer a satisfactory alternative.. next time you see Unlimited on Disk or Bandwidth.. run away!

Thanks, I've learnt my lesson and I'm moving to a dedicated server elsewhere.

"If you pay peanuts...", as the saying goes.

I'm just annoyed that they will not refund the remaining 14 months.

BionicInternet · 15th April 2008

Yup - there are PLENTY of good dedicated providers here - take a look through and do the usual tests.

Sash! · 15th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamieBeeston

You get what you pay for..

Why dont people understand this..

Pay a decent amount, get decent service..

Pay nothing for everything and see what you get..

I strongly agree, people need to realise that as virtual as the net is, real world rules apply here to.

If someone offers you "unlimited" petrol for £10.00 per month, you would'nt believe it. Yet many people are happy to believe it with providers like this.

BionicInternet · 15th April 2008

If you get offered space and or bandwidth unlimited, you to walk away - its neve runlimited the small print will have some fair usage policy.

JamesSykes · 15th April 2008

Surely they have to refund those 20 months? It's fair enough that they have decided to close your account due to high resource usage but in turn they must refund you.

If they don't then just use moneyclaim online and fill out the form. That should wake them up.

BionicInternet · 15th April 2008

Definatly - I think they & fasthosts have a no refunds policy!

edb49 · 15th April 2008

High disk IO will cause high CPU load, so they've got you over a barrel on that one.