Comments on: Remote file backup services: Carbonite review

By: Ron Eberhart

Ron Eberhart — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:34:03 +0000

Here is what I sent Carbonite two weeks ago, and what I recieved back form them. I ahve not heard anything from them since even after I contacted the Presedent himself. In my opinion the customer support here is non-existant and I dont thik 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 (#523400-1304635#) 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 200gb so it would be slow now. GREAT!! Do you know how long it will take to backup a 1TB disk at 2gb 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 490gb backed up. Please remember that number of 490gb for a minute. Also remember that I only use my system about 2-3 hours max a day the 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 490gb of data safely tucked away on your servers, and low and behold when I came back from vacation I had a whopping 170gb 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 ron@roneberhart.com. 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

Backup. Simple.

By: Mark Underwood

Mark Underwood — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:05:51 +0000

See my blog post on Carbonite’s customer service at plzhold.com: http://bit.ly/UgzOA

I think they’re a work in progress, but you decide.

By: James Boatwright

James Boatwright — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:35:11 +0000

Is Carbonite a product of Sun Systems, et al etc.?
If that is the same Sun systems, et al, etc., that produced the anti-virus system that ruined my WIN98SE, I don’t want anything to do with Carbonite or anything that. this Sun outfit produces.
JHBoatwright@bellsouth.net
I would appreciate replies on this subject.

By: John Martin

John Martin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:37:45 +0000

This is just my $0.02 – I have been a Carbonite customer for two years and am reasonably pleased with their service. I have had to do a complete download three times so far, and no data was lost. One must understand that this is not on-line instant file retrieval system, an that a restore can take considerable time. The initial upload time depends primarily upon the upload speed of the internet connection; my DSL upload rate is terrible. The file restore is partly a function of the link download speed, but most likely the speed of the Carbonite servers. I currently have about 81,000 files spread over 110 GB at Carbonite. The download to my new computer took three days; however, I had selected some critical files to move first and they were restored within minutes. The last upload from my new computer took nearly a month to complete. I am running Vista 64 bit. I also experienced the “lack of activity” problem mentioned so often mentioned. This problem for me lasted for over a week, and was caused by an automatic restart of the computer after a Vista OS update. And like others have mentioned, emails to Carbonite were of little help. What fixed the problem was to install every Microsoft update applicable to my system. After installing one of the optional updates, Carbonite started working correctly. Carbonite does not seem to handle power failures or OS reboots very well. What I do now is to use local storage to make an automatic mirror image of my system; it is fast in both directions. This covers my day to day backup needs, and is likely all that I will ever need. For the true emergencies, i.e., theft, fire, flood, etc., I still use Carbonite. I know that my data is safe there, and that I can get it when needed. I have not personally tried Mozy, but the negative comments I see on the internet about Mozy look very similar to the Carbonite negative comments.

By: Al Adams

Al Adams — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:31:43 +0000

I had a Free One Year Trial Offer to Carbonite, Yes it worked on a Vista PC.

I am so glad I never Bought and Paid for the Carbonite service, I didn’t like how my service Just stopped working… one day, after less than four weeks of use. I now know that trial accounts are treated differently than full service accounts, even through I was suppose to have One Whole Year, under the agreement I understood. I am letting everyone I know of my Dissatisfaction with Carbonite backup service. I will be using another backup Arrangement from now on, doubtful I will ever use Carbonite ever again, Again I will be telling my experiences with The Carbonite backup service, to anyone and everyone. Now I am having trouble removing the Carbonite from the PC in question, If I have to do a Full re-install of My Operating System, and programs, That will be also included, as part of my “sad tale”, I will be talking about this, at our Computer Club meeting in about Three weeks. Just to let you know “Not A Happy Customer” Al

By: John Lauchert

John Lauchert — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:15:41 +0000

My only customer service experience with Carbonite took place recently after I had purchased a new computer that came with a different software backup service already installed. After receiving the computer, I contacted Carbonite to see if they would either 1) refund the last two (2) months on my previous subscription or 2) apply the unused subscription period to the end of a future purchase (which I would be making after the trial on my new computer expired). Carbonite’s response-1) NO, 2) NO. Their refund policy is archaic in today’s fast-moving, transparent world. I would have thought they would have welcomed applying the unused subscription to the end of a new order for their product but I was wrong…amazingly! Like a few others who have commented on various aspects of a backup service, I too would favor one with a business model that is capable of allowing the provider to offer good service and make money (in lieu of going with a “free” service or one where the business model was sketchy). Unfortunately, the customer service which I received in this matter will preclude my being able to do business with Carbonite in the future. Thankfully, the market is full of options! Based on some of the other horror stories I am reading, my decision to go elsewhere seems to have many other good reasons.

By: Andrew Hargreave

Andrew Hargreave — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:32:13 +0000

You might want to check out http://www.sugarsync.com which offers both offline backup as well as keeping multiple computers sync’d up. Pricing is very reasonable as well.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:35:41 +0000

Suddenly this awful program appeared on my computer called Carbonite. Don’t know what it is or why I would want it and don’t care. Just want it gone.

Now I see it came from Sun Micro with a Java update.
No more Java updates for me.

Now why didn’t my anti virus program catch this thing, Trend Micro anti virus must suck!

By: Amadjuster

Amadjuster — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:02:55 +0000

I installed Carbonite yesterday morning and I started getting the BSOD last night around 9PM. I continued getting these and actually thought Satan had reinstalled Windows 98 ME because I haven’t seen that many Blue Screens since then. I ran MemTest and everything was fine, so I finally got it to boot up long enough to go in and uninstall Carbonite, and I have not had a BSOD since. I am running XP Pro with SP3, an Intel Q9300 CPU, and 3 GB of memory. No problems until I installed Carbonite. I will stick with Acronis TI 11.

By: Erik

Erik — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:14:27 +0000

Despite the occasional good review Carbonite still hasn’t improved their service. You think their service is great at first and then the start to limit you. Their support is just insane as well. I wrote up the story of my bizarre but true experience with them. I was thinking of Mozy but some folks have commented on my blog that they aren’t any better. You can read about what I went through with Carbonite here http://silvexis.com/blog/2009/06/18/carbonite-not-ready-for-the-real-world/ but if you are past that point, read my next post on how to get a refund http://silvexis.com/blog/2009/06/25/closure-on-carbonite/