January 28. 2009 10:38

Thanks for the heads up, Dave. Have you posted the policy publicly for everyone to see? IBM, Intel, Sun, and others have done so, which supports their commitment to transparency.

Peter Kim

January 28. 2009 15:15

Good to hear that you are getting things straightened up, but your first sentence honestly sounds like a cop-out. Your employees should have known, even before policies were in place, that reviewing their own product without disclosing their affiliation was _evil_. Your admitting that would go a long way toward convincing me that whatever they were then, your company is on the right path now.

That said, let's get down to business. I've often wished I had an online backup solution, but there is one issue that has always kept me from adopting. That is, I don't _know_ that it's going to work until disaster strikes. I wish that I could say that your product gives me some kind of sense of security, but it does not.

You could convince me to buy your product by providing the following:

1. Statistics showing the percentage of restores you have successfully carried out (versus those that have failed) over the last month, year, etc.

2. Your client should periodically attempt to restore a significant percentage of the data I've backed up (say, 1/7th) and report whether the checksums of the backed up versions and restored versions match. I need to have _ongoing assurances_ that restores are working on a weekly or monthly basis, without having to manage it myself. And without doing the restores _to my own computer_, how can I be at all sure they will work when I really need them?

If you add these two items, I will buy your product. (Of course, if the results are positive -- if you only restore 80% of the requested bytes successfully, you can forget about my business.)

James A.

January 29. 2009 09:48

Dave, this kind of thing happens so often that nobody bothers to blog about it - mostly innocent mistakes made by noobs who quickly figure it out and stop it. Every smart company has policies prohibiting this kind of stuff.

Carbonite was singled out by one irritated, yet articulate blogger with WAY too much time on his hands, (and perhaps an ax to grind) whose article was picked up by others and sensationalized overnight. I hope this goes away tomorrow. It's boring.

Rob Cosgrove, CEO Remote Backup Systems

January 29. 2009 11:52

Hi James A.

I know exactly how you feel. I posted a comment to several of Carbonites blogs last night letting everyone know what my recent experience has been. I am going to re-enter the exact comment I posted so you can see that you are not alone. I find it really amazing that a company thinks so little of themselves that they would rather have problems "just go away" than to try to rise above the norm and stand behind their own product. I know in my company, one dissatisfied customer is one too many. Anyway, here is my post to the blogs.

BEWARE OF LOSING FILES! I am speaking from heartbreaking experience. On December 26 2008 my laptop crashed and I lost my hard drive. I was having mixed emotions because one - I had lost my trusted laptop but also I knew I had a backup plan - Carbonite. Well I bought a new lap top and proceeded to recover my files (some 5000+ of them). Everything was going fine or so I thought.

After two days of recovering the Carbonite recovery screen informed me that my recovery was complete (showing all 5000+ files being recovered). I then exited the recovery screen and when to continue on with my life...BUT WAIT...Carbonite now only shows about 2400 files on my system. OH MY GOD...NO!! PLEASE NO! That’s when the race began.

I contacted Carbonite via email and begged for help. I got a response back tell me that sometimes files can be placed under different locations on new systems. So I was on a mission to find my files (all of our business files and letters were missing). After searching till my head was about to explode I sent another email for help to which I received an automated "We'll get back to you". One day, Two days, Three days...I had to call...Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. A week goes by with no contact so I sent another email...but I was caught in a repeat of my week before. Finally on January 27 2009 I speak to someone that tells me that they cannot help me unless I pay to be in their "Priority Service" program. Well I am desperate so I pay only to be told they cannot help me. I beg, now in tears, isn't there someone there that can go back and get my files, the answer was no.

They can look on their system and see where I started my recovery and then they told me they showed a communication error between their system and mine. WHAT!?! So he then proceeded to inform me that when I exited the recovery mode (after it had told me all 5000+ files had bed recovered) and the new computer started the backup process, CARBONITE THEN DELETED ANY FILES THAT THEY HAD PREVIOUSLY STORED FOR ME BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT ON MY NEW SYSTEM.

Again, WHAT!?!

By now my head is spinning, year’s worth of our small business files gone due to a communication error and then being talked to by a Carbonite rep like it was my fault. You cant tell me that in this day and age that my files cannot be retrieved at all. Files can be saved from fire damaged systems, water damaged system but if you trust in what Carbonite tells you to do after completing a recovery process and you have a communication error you are screwed. Royally.

Okay, I have now put trust in a company that gives a false sense of security. I talk to the rep about a refund...HAHA. He informs me that he will send me over the refund policy but not to expect anything. I am paid up for 3 years (not to mention the Priority Service fee).

If there is anyone out there that is wanting to put their entire business, personal or any other type of files in Carbonites hands please think twice or you can do like I will from now on ... buy an external hard drive and back up your own files.

I hope someone as Carbonite will read this and restore my faith by telling me that they do have technicians that are smart enough to get those files back ... but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

If they do I will repost and shout it from the mountain top but for now I will let people know of my horrifying experience.

Debra