Pinchpenny Webhosting.

This late into it there is no way to get your money back w/o seeking a lawyer. The time and effort do that would probably be not worth it.

It is a horrible situation however looking on the good side at least they informed you as opposed to not informing you at all.

Yeah, you guys are right. Its just sad that I worked terribly hard on that website and now its gone. And I had it untill May actucally. Probably my fault for not checking into it as much as I should have.

No no no, the customer is always right! Never say it's your fault It's their fault for closing (well... it's your responsibility to backup files...)

I don't get it, can't you just write e-mail to them asking for the leftovers of your money? Isn't that why the sales e-mail is there?

If you paid for services (via a 1-year contract) that were not rendered, you have every right to a refund, and should demand that they offer a prorated refund for the X months of service that they didn't provide.

If you contact them, and they do not respond or refuse to provide a refund, I would highly recommend contacting the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. If enough people are affected, the AG may investigate the company and/or individuals, and you may be able to recover your money.
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/

EDIT: If you paid by credit card, ask your bank about a chargeback. Even though the window has passed, it's possible that they make exceptions for special circumstances. It never hurts to ask.

EDIT2: Are you listed as the admin contact on the domain name? If so, it would be easy for you to transfer it to a new registrar. If you are not, you may be able to contact the registrar and explain that you paid for the registration of the domain, and they may be able to help you rescue the domain name.

Pinchpenny is WRONG! Not you! They should have told you BEFORE that they were going to close, not once they closed! So you could save all your data! You shouldn't let them get away with this! You paid them money for a service, they didn't return you the service, and they MUST return you the money!
If you take a bus to go somewhere, and at half the distance you paid for the bus driver stops and says 'until here only' you want a refund, don't you?
Don't let them get away with this. It sends exactly the wrong signal to other hosting companies. Le'ts all write to Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/
These people (Dominick first of all) are criminals! They should go to PRISON!

This happens on a daily basis.... I highly doubt the attorney general will even look into it as this happens so frequently with different hosts. This is why it is important to look for numerous things in a web host

Examples:
http://forums.devshed.com/t215059/s.html
http://forums.devshed.com/t207482/s.html

Not only are you unlikely to get your money back, but if you'd looked into the matter any further than a knee-jerk "they're criminals! omg!" reaction you'd have learned that Pinchpenny itself had nothing to do with the server shutdown or data loss. The owner of the datacenter hosting the Pinchpenny server shut down the server without warning or explanation two days before a planned merger with Netrillium.

That and comparing someone shutting down a web hosting server with an actual prison-worthy crime is a little ridiculous.

Regardless of what sort of service they received from their suppliers, the situation is still one in which they didn't fulfill their obligation to the customer, yet kept the pre-payments. That sounds fraudulent to me. It's their responsibility to find a reliable provider, and in the case of a catastrophe, it's their responsibility to find an alternative way to fulfill their obligation to the customer.

Very true but this is what the hosting industry has been like when customers don't pick reliable hosts. And seeing how no one is about to sue any of these overnight companies it'll always be this way.

Hello,
I, Actually hold a different stance on this. The business was wrong to have done that, but the client should have looked into another host which held a better reputation, longer lasting, and/or more support options even if the pricing would be much higher.

Goodluck finding a new host though....

Yep, an unfortunate consequence of the anonymity afforded by the web. It's sad to see users continue to flock to companies with absolutely no accountability just to save a few bucks. Those who experience situations like this one are quick to learn that, in the long run, this can be an expensive mistake.

Who's to blame: the idiot who leaves the front door unlocked before going on vacation, or the criminal who steals the wife's jewelry?

Even though the situation might have been prevented by a better educated consumer, the company still perpetrated the irresponsible (and possibly criminal) activity.

How much money was lost?