At least 20 web hosting providers informed their customers on Saturday via e-mail to download data from their accounts before they shut down servers on Monday.
Over 20 web hosting companies informed customers Saturday, December 7 that they plan to shut down on Monday, giving their clients two days to download data from their accounts before servers are shut down and wiped clean.
The same message has been sent by 20 companies
The alphabetical list of the 20 companies that notified customers about their impending shutdown includes:
- ArkaHosting
- Bigfoot Servers
- DCNHost
- HostBRZ
- HostedSimply
- Hosting73
- KudoHosting
- LQHosting
- MegaZoneHosting
- n3Servers
- ServerStrong
- SnowVPS
- SparkVPS
- StrongHosting
- SuperbVPS
- SupremeVPS
- TCNHosting
- UMaxHosting
- WelcomeHosting
- X4Servers
A user who was impacted by his VPS provider’s shutdown said that not all customers might have shared the email notification online, with others. So, the number can be over 20.
These defined 20 VPS providers which offer cheap low-end virtual private servers use the same email template to send their clients. They declared the reason of this sudden shut down as challenges within the hosting business:
“Dear Customer,
Over the past few months we have been met with many challenges within the hosting business. Some that have not been overcome. As result of this result will be closing our doors. We will be shutting down this Monday 12/9/2019. We are taking this time to let our customers know so that backup and retrieve all of their data before then. We deeply apologize for this inconvenience.Thank You.”
This e-mail points to the fact that all 20 websites are part of an affiliate scheme or a multi-brand business ran by the same entity. First, customers suspected an exit scam. However, after received the e-mail, several customers confirmed the shutdown with the support staff at their respective VPS provider and saw a copy of the same message in their web hosting dashboards. Moreover, there is no information about refunds.
No information about refunding
“Exit scam” is now still being mentioned in several places because most people in the industry think that the company behind all these VPS providers is running away with the money it made in Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, without providing any service.
VPS providers seem like ghost companies as they don’t have physical addresses and business registration information.
A source in the web hosting industry called this issue as “deadpooling” — namely, the practice of setting up a small web hosting company, providing ultra-cheap VPS servers for a few dollars a month, and then shutting down a few months later, without refunding customers.
Some of the customers found a new provider during the weekend to avoid a prolonged downtime on Monday when the 20 providers are set to shut off servers.
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