On Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:40:34 +0000 vwatson@dancendrumarts.com wrote:
Don't stand for this, Mate! Contact an attourney straightaway.
What Vinnie says. Don't fall for it. It's unusual, unethical and likely illegal too. If you have proof of ownership for the hardware, try to get it out without overpaying. Paying for somebody to come to the colo to assist you getting your stuff out... ok. but 4kCHF is at least ten times more than reasonable. -> Get proper legal help.
Back then when AS42366 tried to extort money out of A250, I fell for it as I needed to get the servers out ASAP (unencrypted backup volumes which they threatened to sell off on ebay if I didn't pay what they demanded) and I'm still paying off today. (we fought in court and lost, bottom line: "you signed that, you didn't have to. no proof you were forced/threatened", bad lawyer plus tech illiterate judge...). Don't repeat my mistake! :-)
cheers, Michael