I have to say that I agree with what people are saying, if your data is worth so much then a cheap account with a hosting company that appears to have a reputation (I don't know the company, only going by what's been posted on this thread) then I have little sympathy too. However, I do think the point of what the host did has been somewhat overlooked due to the obvious blunder that sitemanagement made by not keeping better control over his data.

Remember, this all started with the guy wanting to renew his account but wanting a backup first. If I'm honest, if this was my client, I'd be thinking he was leaving to go elsewhere, but I'd still support his request promptly and deliver the backups same day (where possible) or at latest 48 hours of ticket being opened. The host didn't respond, so although sitemanagement hasn't been all that clever with his data, that's still not a reason to excuse what his host did (not that anyone is saying it's sitemanagement's own fault the host acted like he did).

Isn't there a BBB office you can call or something? In the UK, we can contact Trading Standards if a service is 'unprofessional' and have them take a case on for you.