<nettime> my website suddenly got popular, and now I have to pay

[J-D marston <mars0139@umn.edu>]

[subject line changed from 'Subject: nettime-l-digest V1 #1340' @ nettime]


I'm wondering if any folks have had experience with this, fighting this
type of policy, or what rights - if any - I have in refusing to pay or this
policy... I've included my letter below.

Dear Rhizome-

I signed up for your starter plan (w/ Broadspire) some time ago -
usemenow.com.  While I was out of town this past weekend my website
suddenly became all the rage, thru various link depots, and my Traffic
jumped to stratospheric proportions.  In that time Broadspire did not take
the site down - seeing as my bandwidth had been egregiously exceeded - but
instead decided to take it upon themselves to keep the site up - at a cost
to me of over 700 dollars.  Obviously I cannot afford this, being that I am
not a commercial site, I would have never requested to keep it up at those
traffic levels.  Nor would I ever agree to exceed my bandwidth by that much
- the most telling proof is the fact that my plan is the cheapest plan
available, which allows for 1gb of traffic a month.  I got in total, 290gb
in 4 days.  In my past experience with webhosts, these kind of numbers are
a red flag, and they pull the plug and throw up a 'bandwidth exceeded'
error message, but not Broadspire.  They only pulled it when they attempted
to charge my credit card over 718 dollars.  I need to know what, if any,
legalities you had in your relationship with Broadspire as they are
refusing to communicate their policy on bandwidth overages.  If indeed
Broadspire's legal contract is to charge overages without consent from the
owner, I would sincerely reconsider your relationship with Broadspire, and
at the least, let your hosted folks know about this.  It is unacceptable
business policy.

Yours,
Jd Marston



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