Comments on: Carbonite: When unlimited is limited

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:56:55 +0000

One phrase sums up caarbonite’s service, taken directly from their response to my frustrations:
2. Initial backups can take a few days. Normal upload speeds average between 2 and 3 GB per day.
Fine, I guess if my hard drive doesn’t fail in the next 200 days while it is SLOOOOOLWY backing up my 1 TB of data, then it would be worth it.
Please.
For the $90 I just spent on a 2 year subscription to their service, I could get a decent external and just back up in 1 hour.

By: Bill Neill

Bill Neill — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:12:26 +0000

I’ve been restoring a backup onto a new computer and it has been over three days and only 30% done. I sent email to customer support 2 days ago and no reply. When I tried again, it said my message was pending and a new message would prevent it from being sent. What Jerko**s! They don’t even let you transmit your request for support until they are ready. They suck and when backup is completed (if ever) i will dump their sorry butts as fast as I can!

By: jnh

jnh — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:42:07 +0000

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Your taxes pay to have the FTC to protect you from SLIME like this. Here’s the link: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:54:50 +0000

I have been using carbonite for over a month now. I have almost 250GB and it completes 10-12 gigs a night if i create that much and sits and waits for my next batch of files.

Yes 250GB and not even an email saying i am pushing it. Also it is on Server 2008 and when my backup starts my internet is maxed out on the upload so it is using the full bandwidth and not being limited.

Now i did hear that they have made a lot of changes from 2006-2008.

I honestly cant complain about this service and the price is great.

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:03:17 +0000

Wow, how many years since this article was written and the bad experiences with Carbonite still continue? You can read about my experience here http://silvexis.com/blog/2009/06/18/carbonite-not-ready-for-the-real-world/

I was given the run around by their support for weeks before I finally just gave up and got my refund thanks to the BBB

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:42:49 +0000

I can confirm that Carbonite has a policy of limiting your bandwidth for uploads to its online backup service – once you exceed certain limitations.

Carbonite does not list these limitations. Instead, it continues to advertise that it is unlimited, when it well knows that its upload limitations make the service far from unlimited.

Asking Carbonite customer service results in conflicting responses. Buyer beware!

By: Michael R

Michael R — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:32:11 +0000

http://www.systembackup.com linkage not working

By: Michael R

Michael R — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:30:42 +0000

Try a real online backup service, not a money-grubbing venture capital disappear in a year service like carbo

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:56:57 +0000

@ kevin,

hey i have a hard drive but they fail. it is a good way of backing up your files but not 100% secure and with me editing on my computer with 20gb files at a time i have to get a hard drive with a fan which ups the chances of failure. Im not saying Carbonite rocks, but online backups are good for different circumstances.

Just showing you a different perspective.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:02:11 +0000

Yep I’m one of the latest to THINK that Carbonite was worth the money. Like any backup, it’s useless unless you verify. Now that I’m desperately trying to restore my laptop after a hard drive crash, I’ve realized what a huge steaming pile of CRAP Carbonite really is but no one knows. Yet anyway.

It is now going to be my life’s mission to make sure everyone knows they are a fraudulent company. I’ve been trying to restore my laptop for 3 WEEKS now. Not 3 hours, 3 days, 3 freakin’ weeks! And like everyone else I was absolutely amazed they have the balls to keep people on hold for more than 3 hours straight. F-ing unbelievable.

DON’T use Carbonite. Use an external hard drive that won’t ignore your repeated e-mail requests for help only to respond 1 1/2 weeks later saying I should try to click on the Carbonite icon at the bottom of my screen. HELLO! I HAVE no laptop going since my freakin’ hard drive crashed so I CAN’T give you my serial number to get the backup going.

Once I got THAT problem solved it’s now been 3 weeks of every night starting the restore, it goes 1%, hangs, I have to reboot computer, restore another 1% etc. But it never goes beyond 16%.

Carbonite SUCKS! Tell everyone. Stay away at all costs! An external hard drive costs, what, $120 for 500GB? And Carbonite will rip you off for $79 a year and NOT work?

YOU do the math. Don’t get Carbonite!

By: Richard Greenwood

Richard Greenwood — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:42:55 +0000

Help me here. If I’m understanding correctly, what Carbonite comes down on is users who exceed the average during the trial period. In their documentation, they use the phrasing “paid Carbonite” client. What I want to know is how do they handle their “paid” customers. I can see where they might boot an unpaid (trial) client; it’s how they handle their paying clients that interests me.
Also, am I reading right that they don’t back up external drives? If that’s the case, I’m outta here…

By: - Rick ;^)

- Rick ;^) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:45:33 +0000

The advertising is… innocent and yes probably false advertising. But the guy is not a business man, he is an engineer and father. Yes they should change their advertising and policies…

I wrote to them a while ago about joining and pointed out that my data set is abnormally large, 30 years of saving bits adds up, and likely to get a lot larger. I asked about what they technically offer and options to get a bigger slice. They only said, the have only one plan.

Given the cost of storage and hosting, $50/yr should get maybe upwards of 10 GByte of storage hosted for a year. That should be plenty for the data on a laptop (like what a college student, his intended customers, would have).

It would be nice to have an outline of what they consider reasonable. I get that they don’t want to limit, but need to be open about the realities.

A complete restore through a tiny straw 200Kb/s is unreasonable for a large data set. To have an option to pay for DVDs overnighted in the mail would probably be a big win for everyone. Heck, getting the DVDs as archival backups might be promoted as the norm and not the exception.

– Rick “Food for thought” ;^)

By: bob novak

bob novak — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:52:33 +0000

So if i am reading this right… and i’m no math wiz… but if you exceed the average, you’ll get booted… it takes highs and lows to make up an average.. if you keep kicking off those that exceed the average, you’ll lose a good share of your customers and your average will continue to drop, with less high useage customers.. so eventually you’ll have fired the entire majority of your customer base…? i hope it seems a bit logical to more than just me…

By: Carbonite Backup Service - Unlimited ? | Computer Tips and Tricks

Carbonite Backup Service - Unlimited ? | Computer Tips and Tricks — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:34:02 +0000

[...] glad I didnÃ¢ï¿½ï¿½t make it past the free 2 weeks. They canceled my account. Here is the email they sent me: Dear Carbonite [...]

By: Carbonite Backup Service - Unlimited ? ~ The Blade ~ Ron Schenone

Carbonite Backup Service - Unlimited ? ~ The Blade ~ Ron Schenone — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:55:11 +0000

[...] Well Iâ€™m glad I didnâ€™t make it past the free 2 weeks. They canceled my account. Here is the email they sent me: Dear Carbonite [...]