Breach of terms of service agreement?

What is the name of your state? Missouri.

I am from Ireland, but the business I have a question about is in Missouri. I am interested in how the law stands there. I probably wont persue legal action.

I have signed up for a company, VSK, to provide a game server for me and my friends to play on.

On signing up for this service I signed the following Terms Of Service agreement.
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The minimum rental period for game server is 1 month & web hosting 1 year payable in advance, the setup fee and all monthly charges are nonrefundable.

Trial periods may be granted on a case by case basis. If a trial period is granted, setup fees are still required and are nonrefundable.

The service we offer may not be rented, or transferred to anyone without express permissions being given in advance by VSK Gaming Servers.

We reserve the right to stop or prevent you from modifying the services we offer in any way that may be damaging.

You will not be contacted when your server contract expires, If you do not renew your server before your renewal date it will be automatically deactivated and reallocated.

Failure to pay for services rendered may result in legal actions.
VSK Gaming Servers does not provide refunds, failure to abide by the Terms & Conditions of the this agreement will result in suspension of the services we offer and the forfeiture of all prepaid rental.

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The company have a support forum to discuss problems with their service.

They have rules for the forum, to stop people posting the same questions repeatedly.

Disobeying these rules results in a ban from the forum.

I read a post by someone asking a simple question regarding a down server.

The forum administrator banned the person from the forums, as he obviously has the right to do

However, he then shut down the persons game server, dispite the fact that the poster had not broken the Terms of service agreement.

I disagreed with this and asked why they had done such a thing.

They immediately shut down my server also and have given me a partial refund, the amout of which i do not yet know.

Is their actions legal?

Is there a legal formula as to how much I should be refunded?

Thanks.


nb. The thread in question is here...

[url]http://www.vskgamingservers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4433[/url]

Unless they have deleted it.

Also be aware that they changed the forum rules to add the "continue to be our client" bit after they banned me and locked the thread.

"These are the rules & you will abide by them if thou wishes to be able to use our forums & continue to be our client"

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by Mr Wolf
What is the name of your state? Missouri.

I am from Ireland, but the business I have a question about is in Missouri. I am interested in how the law stands there. I probably wont persue legal action.

I have signed up for a company, VSK, to provide a game server for me and my friends to play on.

On signing up for this service I signed the following Terms Of Service agreement.
--------------------------------------
The minimum rental period for game server is 1 month & web hosting 1 year payable in advance, the setup fee and all monthly charges are nonrefundable.

Trial periods may be granted on a case by case basis. If a trial period is granted, setup fees are still required and are nonrefundable.

The service we offer may not be rented, or transferred to anyone without express permissions being given in advance by VSK Gaming Servers.

We reserve the right to stop or prevent you from modifying the services we offer in any way that may be damaging.

You will not be contacted when your server contract expires, If you do not renew your server before your renewal date it will be automatically deactivated and reallocated.

Failure to pay for services rendered may result in legal actions.
VSK Gaming Servers does not provide refunds, failure to abide by the Terms & Conditions of the this agreement will result in suspension of the services we offer and the forfeiture of all prepaid rental.

-------------------------------------------------------
The company have a support forum to discuss problems with their service.

They have rules for the forum, to stop people posting the same questions repeatedly.

Disobeying these rules results in a ban from the forum.

I read a post by someone asking a simple question regarding a down server.

The forum administrator banned the person from the forums, as he obviously has the right to do

However, he then shut down the persons game server, dispite the fact that the poster had not broken the Terms of service agreement.

I disagreed with this and asked why they had done such a thing.

They immediately shut down my server also and have given me a partial refund, the amout of which i do not yet know.

Is their actions legal?

Is there a legal formula as to how much I should be refunded?

Thanks.


nb. The thread in question is here...

[url]http://www.vskgamingservers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4433[/url]

Unless they have deleted it.

Also be aware that they changed the forum rules to add the "continue to be our client" bit after they banned me and locked the thread.

"These are the rules & you will abide by them if thou wishes to be able to use our forums & continue to be our client"

**A: yes and no.

A little brief there HomeGuru.

I dont think their forum rules count as a legaly binding contract.

I didnt sign it, even with a check box.

Their terms of service is a legaly binding contract, it says so at the bottom. I did sign it with a check box.

I did not do anything against their terms of service agreement.

How can they legaly stop their services?

My concern is that they will most likely keep the set up fee of $25.

If this is the case what is to stop them from signing people to their service, arbitrarily stopping service, then keeping the fee, and giving some other poor guy the server space.

I cant believe that is legal.

Could someone please explain in more than one word answers.

Thanks.

If it is legal, I believe the community should be warned.

If I cannot do anything legaly about it, then I intend to warn the community by posting the details on the most popular forums of the games for which they rent servers.

How far can I go before my posts count as slander against them?

What are the laws dictating what is slanderous?

I intend to post the details of the thread in which they informed me about terminating my service.

Along with a warning to the community that they have no rules, except the whim of the owners, regarding shutting down service.

Thanks.

[HomeGuru]

I'll defer to hexy on this one.

Thanks a lot HG....

Now to your issue. First, you need to learn something about Libel and Slander in the U.S.

Defamation and libel are defined as a false statement that injures someone's reputation and exposes him to public contempt, hatred, ridicule or condemnation. If the false statement is published in print or through broadcast media, such as radio or TV, it is called libel. If it is only spoken, it is called slander.

Defamation is defined as an untrue statement which causes you to be held in contempt or ridicule and as a
result causes you damages.

Libel is a defamatory statement made in writing and slander is one made orally. A defamatory statement may either be a false writing, a picture or visual representation which exposes you to contempt, hatred, or ridicule, causes you to be shunned or avoided, or tends to injure you in you occupation.

O.K. now that that's out of the way you have a few problems.

It is legal in the United States for a business to decide not to do business with you. And unless you are being excluded due to what we call a 'protected' class (i.e., over 50, black, female) then it's all perfectly legal.

As to the forum, unless it is expressly stipulated in your contract that the forum is a part of the service you are paying for then they have no contractural obligation to allow you access. This seems to me more a service and not a requirement of the contract so their banning whomever they wish is not illegal.

Now, as to your posting on internet forums.

Your biggest obstacle will be the fact that the moment they hear about it, they'll shut down the thread. So, regardless of whether or not you do post, copy the thread and save it.

Now, whether or not you SHOULD post, that's entirely up to you. If you choose to do so however, make sure that you give ONLY facts and opinion.

Here is an example that would be o.k.

"I contracted with XZY Company in someplace, Missouri, U.S.A. to host a game server for my close friends. Upon visiting their support forum for help with an issue I noticed that they had banned someone for asking a simple question. When I asked them about why they would ban this person I too was banned.

I think operating a business in this fashion is deplorable and just wanted you to know that should you be searching for a gaming server host and ask for my recommendation, I could never recommend such a company with this practice."

And no, most U.S. companies do not do business this way. In fact, I just got offline with Fujitsu U.S. with a tech support chat about a server problem I'm having and for two hours they walked me through re-configuring my router.

good luck and keep us posted.