Contabo pulled the plug while I'm still paying—what now?

Sir, very sorry to hear this happen to you

I also have small money stuck with Contabo from last Black Friday deal, not big like your 2 years but still hurt for reseller like me

My friend in Surabaya got same email yesterday, he try login to panel already dead. No ticket reply, nothing. Very scary when provider go dark like this

For me I think this is real internal problem, not fake email. Because why scammer tell you to move data? Scammer will ask password or OTP first. This email only say run away fast, that sound like real owner warning customer

About chargeback, I success one time with different provider before. You need show PayPal or bank that service is dead and no refund offered. Screenshot the down website, save the email, make timeline. For 2 years prepaid I think you have strong case

My advice: backup everything NOW if any access left, open dispute with payment fast, and move to new place before January. Don't wait for miracle

Hetzner problem is between them, we small customer cannot do anything. Just protect yourself

If you need cheap Asia option, I move my project to Vultr already. Network okay to Singapore, price decent. Not same as Contabo but alive at least

Good luck 🙏

Dispute with your card issuer, not their dead inbox. Chargeback window is your only real leverage now.

For the future: anycast over two providers. One goes dark, traffic shifts. Costs more than a single cheap box but you stay reachable.

Yikes dude that email is wild... richard sold to a scammer and dipped? Gg no re...

The part that gets me is he closed his Hetzner account BEFORE the dispute finished... thats like deleting your paypal while a claim is open... big brain moves right there... yikes

Tbh this whole "transfer by jan 1st" thing is sus too... he dont own the domain, dont control the infra, but wants you to trust he wont pull plugs early? After he already sold to a rando? Nah fam

For real tho anyone else reading this: if your "buyer" ghosts after getting the domain and never touches passwords... thats not a sale thats a heist setup... richard walked into the most obvious trap and now everyones paying for it

My game boxes would be toast if my host pulled this... I dont even run backups half the time cuz im a noob... this is why I stay on monthly even when yearly saves coins... seen too many hosts do the dinosaur

Hope you get your chargeback through bro... Contabo is dead and richard aint coming back with a miracle

So you handed over the keys to a random Flippa bidder, documented the handoff in *Word*, and now you're shocked the "new owner" ghosted after grabbing the domain? That's not a sale, that's a credential dump with extra steps.

The Hetzner angle is what stings here. You kill your merchant accounts while a dispute is LIVE, then cry helpless when they freeze you out? That's not getting "screwed by a buyer" — that's walking into traffic and blaming the car. Of course they're sending you to collections. You made yourself unreachable on purpose.

Logging back in to warn customers was actually decent, I'll give you that. Most sellers in this circus would have let the data rot. But "I thought it was best" only works if your access wasn't itself a liability — what if the "new owner" *had* changed passwords and your old creds were a breach waiting to happen? You're lucky they were lazy.

Here's what doesn't scan: you call Hetzner on Christmas Eve expecting holiday miracle service, but you won't touch the dispute portal because "I started shutting down." Pick one. Either you're the victim of a sophisticated UK scammer, or you're a guy who botched an exit and wants sympathy for the mess.

For anyone still glued to this: the refund offer is nice theater, but chase your chargeback anyway. Personal promises don't survive the next "I can't respond because..."

And olespete's rule #1 — never prepay two years to a shop whose succession plan is a .docx file.

Contabo going dark while the meter's still running? Seen this movie before, different host, same ending. Richard bouncing before the dispute closed is the real tell—knew the ship was sinking, grabbed the life raft.

Your anycast setup sounds nice on paper, but most of us aren't running CDNs off two providers. We're running a single $2 box and hoping cron keeps it breathing. Paid through January and can't even get a ticket answered? That's not a host, that's a slot machine with worse odds.

At least back in the CS days your clan server went down because some kid DDoS'd you, not because the owner cashed out on Flippa and vanished.

Ah sir, the email is gone now? I already read it before delete, very bad situation

Richard run away before PayPal finish, same like my country people do when business collapse

Hope you can get money back sir 🙏

Anycast wouldn't have saved you here—this is a billing corpse, not a routing failure. Richard's "make it right" line lands flat when the money already left your pocket.

Two providers, separate billing cycles, never let one hold both your DNS and your wallet.

Bruh I feel this in my soul... prepaid 2 years and the lights go out with zero warning? Thats the exact nightmare that keeps me on monthlies now

The whole "buyer was a scammer" angle is sus af ngl... like richard just happened to sell to the one dude who runs a Hetzner grift? Convenient story when everyones wallets are out

Ive seen this dance with gamehosts before... "oh noes unforeseen circumstances heres 48hrs to pack your stuff kthxbye"... always the same playbook, always the customers holding the bag

For real tho chargeback that junk yesterday... paypal has limits but 2 years prepaid aint pocket change... document every screenshot while you still got em, the email headers especially

Migration wise idk your stack but if youre scraping by with rsync rn dont sleep on it... when these clowns flip the switch they dont send a second memo

And lol at "make it right"... bro dipped before the dispute even cleared, he knew exactly what temperature the water was

Backup your boxes kids... or in this case backup someone elses boxes before they ghost

Yikes

Richard's "make it right" promise is worthless when the infrastructure's already dark and the domain's parked. You prepaid through 2027? That's hostage money now.

Contabo's handoff story doesn't hold water either—Flippa bidder ghosts, Word doc "documentation," and suddenly Hetzner looks like a vault. I've watched this exact collapse twice. The ones who get out clean are the monthlies who smelled smoke early.

Your PayPal window's your only real leverage. Chargeback clock's ticking.

Monthlies who smelled smoke early is right. I was on a quarterly with Contabo for a small TS3 server, let it lapse in November because the panel got flaky. Luckiest non-renewal of my life.