Carbonite.com
Coupons Plus Up to 17.5% Cash Back

I had numerous issues with this service for the last couple of months. First, it simply wasn't backing up. I tried several fixes, uninstalling and re-installing software twice finally seemed to alleviate the issue. Finally when I needed to service, it simply failed. I could not download a file I needed, my computer kept saying that the file was corrupt or incomplete. At the end of it, I called and asked to cancel my service and a refund. Of course, I was three days out of the 60 and they absolutely would not refund my money or pro-rate my subscription. Beware of this company, despite their strong presence on the internet, they act more like a fly by night con service.

I experienced a bug that led to full restore. I was disappointed at the length of time it took for Carbonite to restore my computer. It's not a fast process by any means so you're not up and running without your files and software. Also the bad bug that you may have gotten when you downloaded that file or software is backed up as well. So beware. I decided to purchase a 1T external hard drive for backups instead. Carbonite service was on the automatic billing which I forgot to change. My BAD! When I checked through my email, I didn't even receive a reminder notice that my billing was near. Instead just a thank you when they received the money.

Today I attempted to cancel service. I did so and requested a prorated refund. I was told by the service rep that Carbonite did not provide prorated refund beyond the 60 days when payment was made. I have 8 months prepaid by gosh! I find that absurd and lousy public relations.

I have had all size companies stand by their product and deliver excellent customer service with refunds when requested. I can only ask why not the prorated refund? Who is so arrogant as to keep customer's money when they request a service cancelled? So off course, I am forced to use a product I don't want just because it is Paid For. So buyers be ware - check your account and remove that automatic payment that is on your account because you can't request pro-rated refund for your unused months.

The FW deal for Carbonite rocks -- 17.5%!!! Carbonite itself is pretty good for personal use. Picking files/directories to back up is easy, and initial upload performance is reasonable. However, Carbonite throttles uploads if the backup exceeds 200 GB, and in my experience that throttle seemed to kick in earlier. 200 GB isn't much these days, and I would strongly recommend Carbonite to increase the limit. (Note: There is no limit on how much is backed up, just that after 200 GB, the upload performance will suck. This means that if your backup size exceeds 200 GB, changes will take longer to get backed up, essentially increasing the window of risk.)

Overall, I'm reasonably pleased with the service and will use it till something better comes along. (Another note: I was a Mozy Home user and I'd say I was happier with it, but they changed their pricing model and it is now affordable to only the most basic home user.)

I had used another back up service and found it it difficult to tell when a file was backed up. Had some technical problems as well. Had no challenges with Carbonite and I always know when a file has been backed up because the file is marketed.