Online Backup Followup: Carbonite
So, in followup to the previous post I wanted to let you know I finally settled on Carbonite for my online backup needs. Their software is pretty stable and flexible on the Mac, allowing hassle-free backups with little to no intervention on my side. (I wish it was Growl-enabled, but other than it’s fine). I told it to monitor my photos, documents, and MP3’s and it just automatically sees new files and backs them up.. It’s simple, effective, and at a reasonable cost ($50/year).
Unfortunately, the Remote Access feature they boast (Web-enabled access to your backups) just doesn’t work. I’ve sent in multiple emails that haven’t resolved the issue. Their Live Chat, while very usable and friendly, haven’t offered anything either.. Check out this transcript from a recent chat:
| Time | Details |
|---|---|
| 05/04/2009 11:12:21AM | Session Started with Agent (Daphne) |
| 05/04/2009 11:12:25AM | System: “Hello and thank you for using Customer Support Live Chat! How may I assist you today?” |
| 05/04/2009 11:12:37AM | Randall: “Hi Daphne.” |
| 05/04/2009 11:12:50AM | Randall: “I’m trying to use the REmote Access website for my Carbonite BAckup..” |
| 05/04/2009 11:12:52AM | Agent (Daphne): “Hello Randall.” |
| 05/04/2009 11:13:04AM | Randall: “But I don’t see anything there except for “Macintosh HD”.. no folders, no files.” |
| 05/04/2009 11:14:04AM | Randall: “My mac says it’s successfully backed up 40G of data, took a few weeks.. But I’m unable to get the Remote Access to work.” |
| 05/04/2009 11:14:23AM | Randall: “I’ve already sent in an email from the Mac with the logs, sometime last week.. no reponse.” |
| 05/04/2009 11:16:07AM | Agent (Daphne): “Randall, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused, however, there are some technical issues running with our Remote Access feature.” |
| 05/04/2009 11:16:44AM | Randall: “Well, I don’t see anything on the website about it.. Any ETA or information on what’s wrong? Workarounds?” |
| 05/04/2009 11:17:59AM | Agent (Daphne): “Randall, I apologize for the inconvenience, our engineering team is working hard to fix the issue. It will be fixed soon.” |
| 05/04/2009 11:18:35AM | Randall: “Is that all?” |
| 05/04/2009 11:20:23AM | Agent (Daphne): “Is there anything else I may assist you with?” |
| 05/04/2009 11:21:27AM | Randall: “No.. It’s just been 2 weeks and I still haven’t gotten your Remote Access feature to work…” |
| 05/04/2009 11:23:01AM | Agent (Daphne): “I sincerely apologize for this, Randall, our engineering team is working hard to fix it, it will be up soon.” |
| 05/04/2009 11:23:18AM | Session Ended |
Not exactly helpful. I haven’t seen Carbonite officially acknowledge the problem via their website, blog, Twitter account, or anything else. I guess they’re trying to keep it all hush-hush like their recent Lawsuit against Promise which they kept quiet for a year (Their official response). Hopefully they’ll get this fixed soon. I’m not the only one waiting.
