One Response to “Carbonite agrees- online backup services are good for the environment”

1. Ron Eberhart Says:
   November 12th, 2009 at 8:03 am

   Here is what I sent Carbonite two weeks ago, and what I received back form them. I have not heard anything from them since even after I contacted the President himself. In my opinion the customer support here is non-existent and I don’t think David (CEO) gives a shit!!! I know I will be moving on and WILL NOT RECOMMEND this service to anyone.

   David,
   I have been reluctant to contact you because I know you are a busy man and I wanted to try to get help thru your normal channels before escalating this to you. I have tried and tried now to get things resolved, but I have just been amazed that no one will seem to address these issues with me. I will give you the case number (############) so you can pull your tickets there to see the history, but then give you my questions so it may be more clear.

   1. Slow backup – I have been a customer for nearly 2 years now and at one point I had all my files backed up. I then upgraded to a new 1TB disk and in the process of this upgrade Carbonite thought I had a new system or something and started ALL over again backing up my files. So I figured maybe I did something wrong and would just live with it as it was making good time backing up the files. But then it hit a wall and was only backing up 1-2gig a WEEK and that was unacceptable.

   2. Can’t contact – So with the slow issue I tried to file a ticket using the tool and I waited for a week after hearing nothing and tried again. At that point it told me the last message had not been sent and to try again which I did, and another week or maybe month went by before I tried again. Well I figured it was not going to send it so I went to the web and contacted someone. They looked and said that everything was fine and nothing could be done to speed things up. But nothing was done to correct anything!! No fix to the issue of contact. Well fine I went on my way, but it was still crawling so I contacted again and someone did something because it went sailing along for a couple of weeks till it again died in the water. I again contacted the web interface and was told that all is normal it was just over 200 GB so it would be slow now. GREAT!! Do you know how long it will take to backup a 1TB disk at 2 GB a WEEK? I did get a response from Maxwell however and I was very please that he at least explained the details of your policy to make things slow. Mind you I at one time had this all backed up, but now I am only about 490 GB backed up. Please remember that number of 490 GB for a minute. Also remember that I only use my system about 2-3 hours max a day the rest of the time 24×7 it is on and I have an excellent cable connection with very good bandwidth.

   3. Lost data – So now it is the end of September and it has been many months since this all started. I went on vacation with that 490 GB of data safely tucked away on your servers, and low and behold when I came back from vacation I had a whopping 170 GB of files. I did nothing to the system since I was not here, but where did they go? Following up on the ticket once again I asked where my files went? They told me to send the log files so I tried the tool and told them I did not think it would work. It did not after I tried 2-3 time to send them that way. I contacted them again to say I was not able to send them that way and if they would tell me where they were I would just attach them to an email and send so they sent me instructions on how to do that. After a couple of tries I finally got them sent but heard nothing for several days. So I again sent a message to ask if they had received them and had a chance to examine them to answer my questions. The response I received today was unbelievable!! Nothing is wrong!! Everything is fine!! And did not address a single issue.

   So as you can see no one has addressed my questions much for more than to say, all is well and things are just slow. Can you answer my questions?
   Where are my files? Will it always be this slow? If so then I surely will need to find another backup service since it will be impossible for you to keep up. My biggest question though is, how do you expect customers to react to customer service like this? I am at the end of my rope. I like your software, and system idea, but it needs to work!! And when it does not, then I need support and not just glossed over. I have sent several customers your way, but I am reluctant to send any more since I do not recommend poor products. That reflects badly not only on you guys, but ME in particular. Kim Komando swears by you guys, but I am sure thinking about taking my story to her too for her opinion. Can you tell I am pissed?

   As I say, all I really want is to be helped. I hope that you will take this seriously and get me that help. Let me know what you need from me.

   Thanks,
   Ron

   Hello Ron and thank you for your e-mail.

   David Friend, our CEO, has asked me to assist you.

   Thank you for your note and for explaining your situation. I see that your account is listed under xxxxx I will have one of our Senior Support technicians contact you to determine why the files are no longer in your backup.

   Sincerely,
   Rosanne

   Carbonite Customer Support
   http://www.carbonite.com

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