can i sue hostgator?

Is it possible? Yes. But why would you want to go to all the hassle and expense of suing them just to recover $15? Have you even thought what you would "sue" them for?

Or have you been watching too many American movies and think that "suing" is something everyone should be doing?

And if you're running a serious business, why do you not have backups of your sites that you can upload to a new host within a couple of hours?

Sure - you can sue anybody. The problem isn't suing, it's winning in court. And if you lose in court, you may have to pay the other party's court costs. So, you'd better be REALLY sure you have a solid case before you go that route.

something or several somethings are missing from this story. are you saying they just randomly deleted your websites data?

It's possible, but suing (in the US at least) is very time and $ consuming, you have to weigh time/money spend vs likely outcome.

So,you didn't pay on time or what?

This happened to me about a year ago. And, after prodding the live technician, I got him to admit that they were hacked.

I only had a few sites up at the time, and I hadn't created a backup because I was under the impression that HostGator backed up my files every week as long as I did not exceed 20,000 MB.

Well, I was stunned to find out that a backup for my files did not exist! I never got an answer on what that was about.

However, it was a lesson learned. The bottom line is that it's your business, so it's up to you to backup all of your files. You have a few options for doing this. You can get flash drives as big as 20GB I believe, or you can get a portable hard drive to hold your backup.

You could also backup right to your PC's hard drive, of course, but I wouldn't recommend this, especially if you have 20 GB of files and growing like I do. Also, if you rmachine, were to crash, you may not be able to recover your backup.

As for suing, you could, but if you read their customer agreement closely you'd see that you wouldn't have a leg to stand on on this one.

You could sue them, yes, but whether you would win the case or not is the real issue.

VERY unlikely you would win a judgement against them...

Get different hosting accounts, and do not rely on just 1 hosting provider...

Also, backup your sites as others have suggested.

you could. but would you win.

its prob in the t and c they can delete any account for no reason so you prob screwed!

is it worth it ? it could cost you more! haha

Do you want to be known as the Internet Marketer that sued someone over $15 bucks?? yikes.

Every thread leaves a thread.

Can I ask why they deleted your account and then impolitely asked for $15.00?

Seems to me that therein lies the heart of the matter, and as for suing Hostgator, I would first check t's and c's, and then laugh off the $15.00 as they are one of the best hosting providers I have used.

Last year, without knowing I lost my whole business, my blog, and all data because my web host went bust without my knowledge, I lost over $500, and due to UK law I am unable to sue.

So be thankful it's only $15.00 and don't be known as the marketer who tried to sue HG and lost.

ok, I disagree with who say you can sue them. This is the disadvantage of not having your own servers, these guys can get you down anytime.

I had a worse experience costed me much more than money (a lot and a lot of time because of a mistake on justhost).

You must be joking, no wait you're from Romania, so you may be serious.

By the sound of it you owe them money before they will re instate your account, so whats there to sue, pay your bills and get access to your website again. Stupidest thing I ever heard of!

dude, if you are really that hard up for 15 dollars give me your paypal and ill give u the damn money

actually, no. i wont.

seems like every time i see you post lately, you are looking for some "get rich quick" scheme.

grow up man. no matter what anybody told you, IM takes hard work. its not some instant gratification type business - which you seem to think it should be.. then when you dont make a fortune overnight, you get mad and want to find 'faster' ways to get 'rich' by suing people over a 15 dollar balance.. wtf is wrong with people these days

if i were the hostgator founder, i would welcome your lawsuit with open arms. then i would counter-sue your ass for posting derogatory statements about the company on forums.

now lets think about this, who would win?!!!

YOU - the person who is so hard up for cash you want to sue someone over losing 15 dollars

OR

THEM - a multi-million dollar company who can easily pay for the best of lawyers...

so again, i ask you - who would win?!

I don't think you will get anywhere suing HostGator unless you lost a lot of money because they closed your web hosting account without notice. I don't think HostGator would shut down an account without notifying its customer. The only times I have seen them do this is when they find illegal or adult material that goes against their TOS.

According to your post, it seems like HostGator has a backup of your website. It also looks like they are willing to get your website back online.

Why are they demanding payment of $15? Is it a bill to pay for your web hosting account or...?

^ Exactly.

I guarantee the hosting was just suspended for non-payment.

I went through this myself. But I didnt even think about suing them for it.

Instead, I spoke with their customer support (which is actually quite helpful, maybe the OP should give it a try.. lol)

They had been charging me for 5 months of hosting, even though I was hosting my page somewhere else. I just let the balance go, thinking it would automatically cancel my subscription.

Turns out it didnt. They kept billing me even though I wasnt using their hosting. But all it took was speaking to the customer service.. They removed the charges from the account, no questions asked.

Anyway, you are most likely having to pay them 15 dollars to restore your hosting, which would restore your site. Unless you change the nameservers to somewhere else, but even then, they will still keep billing you until you actually cancel the subscription.

But either way, not once did "suing" them cross my mind. And trust me, it was a hell of a lot bigger than a stupid $15 bill.

In Soviet Russia, HostGator Sue you

LOL! Funniest thread. It will cost a lot to sue them and if you're annoyed over $15, the amount you get from hostgator won't cover your expenses.

I know someone who had a really bad experience with their customer service. There were "payment issues" when trying to log in and said they needed to contact Host Gator. They didn't use the chat but called them I guess and was repeatedly put on hold and disconnected. I thought that it was strange since their customer service reputation is amongst the most applauded. Just goes to show you nothing is perfect I guess.

LMAO! It would cost you more than 15$ in suing hostgator, lol!
So, better forgive them rather than suing them.
As, forgiveness is the attitude of strong people and not the weak.

With discount shared hosting of any of the low priced companies, you do not get automatic backups, however they all offer a way to backup but you have to do it manually. It takes time and effort on your part.

If this was me I would pay the fifteen bucks, happily!

No*- You cannot sue HostGator - since they are considered a Country and a Corporate entity they are protected as an individual from prosecution due to diplomatic immunity. Duff v.s. Us "2011" .

I'll IM you the bill for my my legal consultation*

* By law I need to, apparently, divulge that I am not now, nor have I ever been an attorney and that my legal opinion (a satirical response) is worthless and probably illegal in itself. - Regardless you will receive a bill, because asking a legal question in a public forum implies that you are entering a unilateral agreement with anyone who chooses to answer you. You v.s. Me "2011"

Consult an attorney.

Things you should know before thinking of bringing this tiny issue into the court. I understand your losses but:

1. Was the content of your site not offensive to their policies?
2. Do you have any hard evidence that can make you win the court battle?
3. Is it worth suing?

Please think twice. I just posted recently about x10hosting deleted my account and I just left them and pull-out my whole business, leaving them bad feedback to some hosting review sites. Why should I waste more time and money? I had better things to do, so as you... just my opinion..

Why would you want to stress yourself going through this route. You may have a reason for wanting to sue Hostgator but that reason is not properly put here. So i don't see the reason why you should. That time can be put to better use to make more money.

Another example of the world going mad, try to sue HostGator for the sum of $15.00, I am unsure of the USA courts attitude to this, but I am sure in the UK a good lawyer would advise you to swallow the cost, as it would cost you far more in their fees alone, and then if you lose will you have to pay HostGator's costs?

More than likely so you would then be broke, and a laughing stock, please take this advice and don't worry about it, and put it down to experience.

Its possible of course...but its very expensive...thinks

Sometimes they'll suspend your account if they propagate your domain name to a different internal server, and you fail to respond to their 'edit host' emails request. If this is the case, then u might have a tough case on your hands because by rights, they have sent you prior notification.

But man, you sure got some guts in ya to even think about it. I'm sure you got some serious money too. Ya know, once i rang up for some tech support and just happened to ask the guy: "how many staff you got in your tech support department?"

His reply: "oh we're down today, only 109!"

it depends, you can always start a lawsuit, if u dont win it it will cost u dearly.
Unless you are losing thousand of dollars in revenue and have consulted a lawyer that is pretty sure to win the case for you i wouldn't do it. Pay the $15 and learn from your mistake...make daily backups!