Our colo just jacked power 40% with 2 weeks notice

---
- context:
- colo: RackNerd
- location: "unspecified midwest"
- contract: 12 month, "all-in" pricing
- notice given: 14 days
- increase: 40%
- reason cited: "NERC pricing pass-through"
- my situation:
- 8 racks, 15kW each
- was: $x/kW/month
- now: $x*1.4/kW/month
- annual impact: significant
- what I tried:
- 1. Call account manager
- result: "market conditions"
- 2. Ask for longer lock
- result: "new rates only"
- 3. Check contract for exit clause
- NOTE: 90 days notice required
- WARNING: early exit = 6 months penalty
- community ask:
- who else seeing this?
- any success negotiating?
- alternative colo with actual fixed pricing?
---

This feels like a "gotcha" contract. The "all-in" had fine print about "utility adjustments" with no cap. Learned my lesson. But 2 weeks to absorb 40%? Brutal.

This is why we need transparency in infrastructure pricing. At my last job we had a similar hike from Leaseweb, but they gave 60 days and offered a 12-month lock at +15% instead of +40%.

Did you test your restore? Not relevant here, but always relevant.

For real though: have you done a blameless postmortem on your contract review process? Error budgets apply to vendor selection too. We blew our "surprise cost" error budget in Q1 and now have mandatory legal review for any utility adjustment clauses.

Worth asking RackNerd if they'll offer a lower increase for longer commit. Transparency from your side might help.

Xixixi I am very sorry for you, YuriDavid

I am buy yesterday a server from Time4VPS and they jacked power 25% with 1 month notice. I am not happy lah. But 40% with 2 weeks? Worse

No past experience with RackNerd. Very bad contract you have xixixi

Bro this is why I never trust "all-in" wey

Same thing happen to me with Vultr last year. They say "energy market adjustment" and bam 35% more. My contract it say they can do this, I not read the small letters bro.

Now I am in CloudCone with fixed for 24 months. Wey, read everything!

@YuriDavid did you try escalate to someone more high? Sometimes the first person no have power to negotiate

Per my earlier posts above in other threads (see my detailed guide on colo contract negotiation from March 2026, and also my comparison of 14 providers including RackNerd, and also my spreadsheet of historical pricing adjustments), the key issue here is that NERC pricing pass-throughs have become increasingly common since early 2025, and what we're seeing is a structural shift in how colocation providers manage their energy risk, and as I mentioned above, the 2-week notice is actually within standard terms for many contracts that include "utility adjustment" clauses, though as I mentioned above, 40% is on the high end of what I've observed in my tracking of 23 different facilities across North America, Europe, and APAC regions, and as I mentioned above, the real problem is that these clauses often lack caps or lookback periods, and as I mentioned above, I maintain a table of contents for all my posts which includes:

1. Historical pricing analysis
2. Contract clause taxonomy
3. Provider reliability metrics
4. Negotiation scripts

As I mentioned above, your best bet is likely to either negotiate a blended rate with a cap, or exit to a provider with actual fixed pricing, though as I mentioned above, the 90-day notice with 6-month penalty makes this expensive, and as I mentioned above, you should calculate the break-even on paying the penalty versus absorbing the increase, and as I mentioned above, I have a spreadsheet for this.

Lol

Nice contract

Wow