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Wey you think everyone has 200 euro for server? Some of us have family to feed jajaja
But yes I learn my lesson, now I use two Contabo and split traffic with round-robin DNS. Not perfect but 800mbit total for 78 euro still better than one "real" provider. They don't catch the DNS trick yet.
Then you have Evidence for Chargeback or Small claims. In Germany we have Verbraucherzentrale for this. But you are in Chicago, so different jurisdiction. Did you pay with Credit card? Dispute with Issuer, they hate this kind of merchant.
But honestly: you will spend more Time on this than the Server costs. This is the Business model.
UK perspective: I've had decent luck with Kimsufi for actual unmetered at the low end. It's OVH's budget arm but the 500mbit is real 500mbit, no shaping games. Downside is the stock situation, you refresh for weeks.
Contabo I tried once, saw the same pattern, cancelled within 14 days for full refund. EU consumer rights, use them.
This is why I stopped caring about bandwidth and started caring about latency. I'm in Auckland, everything transits Sydney or LA anyway. 400mbit vs 1Gbps makes no difference when you're 180ms from anywhere that matters.
My Contabo box in Sydney does the same 400mbit cap. I just schedule my heavy pulls for the first week of the cycle like a weirdo.
Member
This is interesting actually. I have Vultr and they mention fair use in terms. But if Contabo does not mention, maybe you have case? I am not lawyer but in EU this matters maybe.
Still I think you will not win. Provider has more lawyers than you.
Following this thread closely. Was about to pull trigger on Contabo for a seedbox. Guess I'll look at Kimsufi or just pay for Hetzner metered. At least with metered you know what you get.
Member
I buy used enterprise NICs and build my own. No, seriously. Dell Broadcom 10Gbit cards from eBay, 15 euro, pair them with any cheap server. Riga has good fibre prices now. For bandwidth you control, colo is cheaper than these games if you actually push data.
But for one box in Chicago? Not practical. Just accept the cap or move on.
Paid with debit. Lesson learned there too.
Hetzner doesn't do unmetered 1Gbps dedi at all, their metered pricing is 1 EUR/TB and the 1Gbps is guaranteed. Actually honest about it. If I knew Contabo was 400mbit effective I'd have done the math: at my usage pattern Hetzner metered is cheaper anyway.
Current plan: let this cycle run out, migrate to Hetzner EX42 or similar — https://www.hetzner.com. Real 1Gbps, pay for what I use.
Same 400mbit cap at Contabo, I just graph it now
Update: cancelled, moved to Hetzner. First bill: 34 euro for server + 12 euro for 12TB. Still less than Contabo "unmetered" and I actually get the speed.
Can someone explain why HostHatch was recommended? They don't even sell dedicated servers, only VPS. Storage VPS at that. Not comparable to a dedi with 64GB RAM.
If you need the RAM, your options are basically pay more or accept the cap. VPS won't help.
