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Contabo's 24-hour flash sale still going after 6 weeks

Deals & Offers by prague1983 27 replies 1.7K views
prague1983

Member OP

btw I use Arch

9 #1

So Contabo ran a «flash sale» back in July. 24 hours only, they said. I grabbed a €2 VPS to test their network, figured I'd migrate my side project before the price exploded.

That was 42 days ago

The banner still says «24 HOUR FLASH SALE — ENDS SOON» in blinking GIF glory. I started logging it. Day 3, Day 7, Day 14, Day 23. Took screenshots. Emailed support for the lulz — «our marketing team is looking into this»

Checked again this morning. Still live. Still flashing. The sale has outlived two of my Docker containers.

Anyone else tracking this Or do I just have too much time on my hands

oops: 0000 [#1] SMP
WH

Member

4 #2

I started a spreadsheet DAY 45 now and the price never changed Contabo support told me «we extended due to POPULAR DEMAND» which is CORPORATE for «nobody bought it»

My favorite part is the countdown timer that resets to 23:59:59 every time you refresh CLASSIC

pieter_rtm

Member

#3

- Contabo: advertised 24h, elapsed 1008h+ (42 days)
- OVHcloud July sale: 48h, actual 47h 12min
- RackNerd «weekend» sale: 72h, actual 68h

As said, the deviation is 4100%. I find this statistically interesting.

Containers before it was cool
web10

Member

off-grid admin

4 #4
pieter_rtm said:
- Contabo: advertised 24h, elapsed 1008h+ (42 days) - OVHcloud July sale: 48h, actual 47h 12min - RackNerd «weekend» sale: 72h, actual 68h...

Ah, the bloody eternal countdown. I've seen this with Vultr too — 23.11.2024 they ran a «12 hour» deal that persisted until 05.01.2025. Forty-four days, 3.8 million seconds, all purportedly remaining.

The technical explanation is trivial: client-side JavaScript with no server validation, Date() object set to now+24h on pageload. Costs nothing to maintain. Conversion rate actually *improves* with time as the «urgency» becomes background noise users ignore, then accidentally click.

Contabo's infrastructure is in Nuremberg per traceroute. 14 ms from my flat. Bloody shame about the ethics.

Fritz48

Member

Datenschutz First

#5

As far as I know, this practice may violate the German UWG (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb) regarding misleading time-limited offers. Section 5 UWG prohibits deceptive commercial practices, and an eternally resetting countdown could qualify. I contacted Contabo on 15.11.2025 requesting clarification of the actual end date. They have not responded. As I do not reside in Germany, my recourse is limited, but I have documented this for the Verbraucherzentrale should anyone wish to pursue it. The GDPR angle is weaker — they do not require account creation to view the sale — but their cookie banner is, to be precise, non-compliant with the requirement for granular consent.

Neuland. Aber schnell.
lookuppierre

Member

#6

How to say... the «24 hours» it is not for the sale, no

I talked to the Contabo guy at a meetup in the Düsseldorf. He explain me: the 24 hours it was for how long the original developer say it take to build the site the sale page, it is still running because nobody fix it

Oui, really. The developer estimate 24h. It took six weeks. The sale outlived the developer himself — he quit, no

«24 hour flash sale» = «24 hour site build» how to say, beautiful

prix fixe infrastructure: €5/mo
pauloserver

Member

#7

I had the same timer reset thing on another host once

chill infrastructure for chill people 🦫
SE

Member

#8

The developer quit and nobody else can edit a banner? Really?

lookuppierre

Member

6 #9
Server33 said:
The developer quit and nobody else can edit a banner? Really?

How to say, you do not know the German corporate, no

The developer he was maybe external, the contract finish, the password in his email, the email it is @developer-firma.de, the firma it close in 2022. Now the banner it is in the CMS nobody have the license to edit. I see this three times, my association we had the same with Joomla one time.

Contabo they have 200 employees, maybe two for the web, both busy with the new checkout that break last month. The banner is not priority.

prix fixe infrastructure: €5/mo
prague1983

Member OP

btw I use Arch

9 #10
lookuppierre said:
The new checkout that break last month

Wait, their checkout broke? I was going to migrate my side project off the €2 VPS before they notice the price should've expired. Now I'm afraid to touch anything in case I can't renew.

Arch users fear no man but broken checkout pages.

Also: 47 days now. The sale has outlived my interest in the side project itself.

oops: 0000 [#1] SMP

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