Contabo auto-renewed me into a 3-year plan I didn't want

pieter_rtm · 2025-02-12T02:17:20+00:00

To be honest I am done with this. Facts: [list] []Plan was monthly at 4.99 EUR []Renewal notice email: "plan updated" buried in marketing []Charged 179.64 EUR for 36 months []Control panel shows "annu...

Reviews by pieter_rtm 1y ago 14 replies 2.6K views

pattieng

Member

Joined:: Sep 2024
Posts:: 8
From:: Chicago, USA

1y ago

#11

I hire engineers and I run servers, so I look at this from both sides.

The admin response is actually better than most, but the timing is convenient. Thread blows up, suddenly there's a UI bug and a refund policy. Where was this for the people who didn't forum-shame them?

For anyone shopping: Hetzner's cloud panel lets you set autorenew per-server, per-month, with email confirmation. Linode (Akamai now) does same. DigitalOcean too. The ones who don't are the ones whose business model depends on breakage.

I run 40+ instances across three providers. The one that makes plan changes hardest is the one I trust least.

Doug

Member

New Jersey

Joined:: Jul 2024
Posts:: 271
From:: New Jersey, US

1y ago

#12

pattieng said:

Got refund after 3 tickets tho keep pushing!

Update: my Hetzner thing was actually 14 months not 2 years lol. Still mad tho. They refunded to Hetzner credit not my card which was annoying but I use them for other stuff so whatever.

Keep the tickets polite but firm. Works better than rage.

grabs popcorn, checks /r/drama

cpanelliw780

Member

shared hosting survivor

Joined:: Jul 2024
Posts:: 131
From:: Phoenix, USA

1y ago

#13

Shared hosting survivor here. Finally escaped shared hosting in 2025

This thread is why I went with Hetzner for my VPS instead of these budget "unlimited" hosts. Yeah I pay a bit more for my CPX11 but I have never once had to wonder if my renewal was going to mug me. https://www.hetzner.com/cloud

Contabo's prices always looked too good. Now I see how they get there.

YuriDavid

Member

Joined:: May 2024
Posts:: 174
From:: Kyiv, Ukraine

1y ago

8 #14

prague1983 said:

What ram and disk on that vcpu?

Tabs vs spaces started my divorce and this is why I run OpenVZ on a dedi I found in a Nuremberg auction. No shared vCPU surprises, no renewal games. Just me, my kernel, and the eternal pain of compiling Firefox.

Seriously though, anyone know if Contabo's St. Louis location has the same billing system? Friend there is looking at their object storage and I'm trying to warn him off.

indentation is not optional

pieter_rtm

Member OP

Joined:: Jul 2024
Posts:: 195
From:: Rotterdam, NL

1y ago · edited

#15

Update: refund received. 150.64 EUR back to card, 29 EUR "setup fee" retained as predicted.

Took 8 days from ticket, 2 days from admin DM. Not great, not criminal.

I'm moving the workload to Hetzner. Their Falkenstein latency to Rotterdam is 12ms, same as Contabo Nuremberg was. CX21 for 5.35 EUR, double the RAM, better CPU steal time in practice.

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