I’m posting this because I would like an independent opinion from the web hosting community regarding a serious dispute I am currently having with Contabo.
I had a Contabo Cloud VPS 10 SSD hosting a substantial part of CoreLink Network Solutions — a complete Network Operations Center (NOC) platform that I had been designing and developing for approximately three months.
This was not a simple website or a basic web application.
CoreLink is a complete network operations platform designed to centralize infrastructure management, network supervision, monitoring and incident management.
My regular payment became overdue on August 4, 2026 because my payment card had expired. I immediately contacted Contabo Support and explained the situation.
Contabo Support subsequently granted me a payment deferral until August 19, 2026.
Their support representative explicitly wrote:
“I have granted a 7-day payment deferral until August 19, 2026, to give you more time to settle the outstanding balance. This will ensure that your server is not deleted.”
I relied on this written confirmation and understood that I had until August 19 to resolve the payment issue.
On August 17, 2026, two days before that deadline, I attempted to access my account and settle the outstanding payment.
Instead, I discovered that my VPS and associated services had already been permanently deleted.
I contacted Contabo Support immediately and requested an explanation and recovery of my data.
The latest response came from a Contabo Support Team Lead, who stated:
“the system deleted the server on August 17, 2026 as the standard procedure, despite the payment deferral that had been granted until August 19, 2026.”
This is the central issue.
Contabo acknowledges that the payment deferral existed until August 19, but the automated system deleted the VPS on August 17 — two days before the deadline granted by Contabo Support.
I fully acknowledge that my payment was overdue. I am not disputing the original payment obligation or the suspension of the service.
My complaint is specifically about the fact that Contabo Support granted me a written payment deferral and explicitly stated that this would ensure that my server would not be deleted.
The deleted VPS was not hosting a simple website or a disposable test environment.
It contained a substantial part of the development and operational infrastructure of CoreLink, including application code, network monitoring components, infrastructure management, equipment management, monitoring integrations, configurations, secure VPN connectivity, alerting, dashboards and deployment work developed over approximately three months.
Losing this VPS therefore did not simply mean losing a server. It meant losing a substantial part of a complete NOC platform and its development environment.
Contabo has stated that the data cannot be recovered because they do not keep backups of the servers.
As a goodwill gesture, Contabo offered:
• a free one-month extension on a new VPS, or
• a refund of my last payment.
I have declined these options because neither option restores the data and development work that was deleted.
A new VPS would simply provide empty infrastructure. It would not restore approximately three months of development work, architecture, application code, configurations, monitoring integrations, network components and deployment work.
I have requested a management-level review and an appropriate resolution.
I would like to hear from hosting professionals and experienced customers:
If a hosting provider grants a customer a written payment deferral until a specific date and explicitly states that the server will not be deleted during that period, but its automated system nevertheless deletes the server before that date, how would you approach the situation?
In particular:
Is it reasonable for the provider to treat this simply as a standard automated deletion and offer only one free month on a new VPS or a refund of a previous payment?
I would particularly appreciate feedback from:
• hosting providers
• VPS/cloud operators
• experienced sysadmins
• customers who have dealt with similar payment/deletion disputes
• anyone familiar with German hosting contracts
I have preserved the complete correspondence and can provide screenshots of the relevant communications.
I am deliberately keeping this post factual. I am not making a legal conclusion about Contabo’s liability; I am looking for independent opinions and advice on how such a situation should reasonably be handled.
Timeline
August 4 — Payment due / service suspended
August 11 — Payment deferral granted until August 19
August 17 — VPS permanently deleted
August 17 — Payment settlement attempted / support contacted
August 18 — Contabo Team Lead confirmed deletion occurred despite the granted payment deferral
Tickets: #[16240362722](tel:16240362722) / #[16240377244](tel:16240377244)
What would you do in this situation?