Advertising company sues FPT

A Ho Chi Minh City-based advertising firm has sued its internet service provider, FPT Telecom, for a malfunction that caused the loss of hundreds of emails. The plaintiff is demanding US$1 mln in compensation.

The Viet My Advertising Company said it filed the case against FPT Telecom at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court.

Viet My said it had contracted FPT Telecom, a subsidiary of the blue-chip FPT group, to host its web site and emails since 2005.

The email service broke down on February 6 this year and when it worked again the next day, all information and data of the emails from the company’s 10 accounts were lost, according to Viet My.

Viet My Director Phan Quy Nga said the lost emails caused great financial losses to his company.

Nga said the contract had stated that FPT Telecom was responsible for the system’s security and the safety of data.

He said Viet My had contacted FPT Telecom many times to solve the problem but the service provider seemed to “lack good will.”

But FPT said the problem was caused by technical hardware problem beyond its responsibility.

Mai Xuan Khoi, an FPT Telecom senior official, said Viet My’s demands were “unreasonable.”

He said service providers only made sure the emails arrived in the users’ mailboxes, and it was the users’ responsibility to keep their emails.

FPT Telecom has offered several favorable service packages for Viet My in compensation for the incident, which were all turned down, Khoi said.

Khoi said the email hosting system breakdown on February 6 was caused by physical errors in the mail server’s hard drive, which affected over 100 other companies.

“This is a rare, unexpected and unwanted problem,” he said.

However, the Thuong Mai (Trade) newspaper quoted Khoi as saying that the hard drive had been used for over a year while it had been technically advised for use for less than 6 months.

Khoi also said FPT Telecom was trying to recover the loss date, but the chance was minor.

Source: Thanh Nien