The host had backups. They wanted $1,900 to give them back

The host had backups. They wanted $1,900 to give them back

E-commerce store, hacked, database trashed. Owner relaxed — the host advertised "daily backups included." Turns out "included" meant stored. Restoring was a paid support ticket: $1,900 and a 72-hour SLA while the store bled $400/day in lost sales.

Final bill: $1,900 + ~$1,200 downtime = $3,100. A second machine running nightly borg would have cost $5/month.

Host backups aren't your backups. They're the host's leverage. Fight me in the comments.