Carbonite

Carbonite lost a file folder that was critical to me. The 'service' was terrible. After complaining via multiple emails, they offered a refund of my purchase price. Although this would not compensate the loss of the files, it would be some compensation, so I accepted it. Then they cancelled my entire account! So here's Carbonite: 1) incompetent at backing up and 2) dishonest! I have since switched to Livedrive - so far so good.

My laptop died and needed to port my subscription over to the new one. Very confused how that's done.
However, an employee named Kevin helped me remotely and did it all perfectly. Very helpful, friendly and took care of everything.
I'm a very, very happy camper with Carbonite and their tremendous customer service!

Jim Matthews, CPA
Dallas, TX

On June 24,2021, Carbonite data backup failed without indicating on the desktop app that backup of data had terminated. Three service calls with remote work by Carbonite tech support did not resolve the problem. My account also shows that I have been charged twice for two different levels of services on the same date, one service is for $164.00 for 2 years of Carbonite Safe Prime, and the other was for Carbonite Safe Plus for 1 year for $119.99, both processed on 05/25/2021 with the same card number. This is obviously a mistake, as I am on automatic renewal. I ask for a refund and was refused. My initial subscription was processed on 05/21/2020 for 1 year. Therefore, I only had one month of working service in 2021. It is now August. Tech support advised me to not escalate to tier 2 because they could lose their job. This is concerning.

I learned late in the computing game that backing-up files is an absolute must. Anyone who has lost an extensive iTunes library can appreciate the necessity of online backup. I admit that Carbonite is the first back up site that I have used but I speak highly of my experience. I was able to back-up several GB's worth of files from a work computer before returning it to my place of employment.

I was attracted to Carbonite for its economical price ($59 for one year) as well as anytime, anywhere access. So far, so good.

Disclaimer: I am not a tech geek, so this review may lack nerd credibility.

They bought Mozy, a reputable cloud backup service, then trashed the service; but charged more. It slows the computer drastically, on programs that have nothing to do with backing up. Try to cancel? Good Luck. There is no way to directly email or call them. No matter where you search on their "service" links, it a circular in responsive system. Then try to get a refund. I suggest filling a complaint with the BBB, and your States Attorney General.

After the trail not work the way the trial did. Support team just wanted me to delete the software and reload another copy. It never worked again and I was told my 30 days was over so I could not get a refund. You must need the hundred $ more then I do. I will make sure as many people as I cab reach will be safe the problem of doing business a their rate company.

I have 2 Mac's in the house. It took 3 months but I finally resolved the backup problem with one of them. Now the other one refuses to back up. I've gone thru their directions, and it backed up on time in a month. They want to have a remote session where they will take control of my computer--I don't think so. Requested a partial refund, got an emphatic no, we don't do that. Unfortunately I'm just going to have to bit the bullet and totally get rid of this so called back up. It just doesn't like and IOS operating system. Just get an external drive and use Time Machine, it does the same thing. And if you want a cloud based back up, use ICloud--you know that will work with a MAC.

After 5 years of paying Carbonite dues, I finally needed to access the files due to a computer failure. I was asked to do a password reset and subsequently asked security questions to which the service refused my answers. I called on tech support to help but it was like talking to a wall. I have since paid for someone to pull my files off the hard drive and I can now keep them on flash drive or google drive where they are always available to me. What this means is I have been paying for nothing for the past five years. To date, Carbonite still has not given me access to my own files.

I am extremely satisfied with Carbonite. I worked with a tech support guy named Mike. He helped us locate precious files (pictures) that were in a separate drive. He took the extra time and asked the right questions to help me find these files. He then went above and beyond to help me delete duplicates and straighten out my filing system. I like that Carbonite is clear in warning you that they will only keep files you have deleted 30 days. Their customer assistance is the best I have experienced. They are clear and helpful!

Do Not use this service. There customer support is terrible. Their product does not restore correctly. It was double downloading all my files. It is very slow although they would have you believe it is your band with. They create additional data use age when none is required once a drive is restored because there system doesn't recognize the new drive even though it is named the same. Find another service.

It was OK for a while but when I needed them, I found out they discontinued their "Mirror image" backup option I was paying extra for. They kept charging me the extra fee but never told me that service was no longer there. I also found out they lost a lot of my files and my basic backups had stopped. I still have 10 months left on my subscription and they tell me they can't do anything for me and won't refund if I cancel.

Would not recommend. The list of downloaded pages is very difficult to navigate. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason in how the files are listed. If you know the name of the file you are OK, because you can do a search. It may have downloaded all the necessary files. It is hard to tell. The worse is when I did not renew, I am being harassed to renew. A flashing notice comes up and can't be deleted because it does not stand still long enough. It has been several days and I am still getting the very annoying and intrusive notices. For this reason alone I would not get Carbonite back-up again.

I signed up with Carbonite for home use for the mirror image backup. Now they're discontinuing it and asking me to spend $500+ for a 'business' subscription to keep the image backup facility.

This is outrageous. I'm requesting a refund of the remaining pre-paid year's subscription. We'll see what happens...

John F.

I used Carbonite to back up appraisal files. Last month they decided, without contacting me, that a different computer should be backed up rather than the one I contracted for. Poof! All my files were purged. They were probably 6-7 years of files that were lost. I am growling silently because of this f--- up!

I was with Mozy, what a rubbish product Carbonite Safe is in terms of a replacement. I tried to cancel, but it is impossible to stop these guys taking your money as support just sends template emails. I have had to report Carbonite to my bank to prevent further unauthorised use of my card.

A number of years ago, near 10, when I first bought Carbonite, it was a great service. It saved me twice. It is now redundant and useless. I still have it and when I needed it to recover what I couldn't from iCloud they had deleted it. I will not renew my subscription and, I suspect, they will not last long without some major changes in their operation.

Carbonite recently lost 950,000 files (yep almost a terabyte). I caught it in time, but after 7 months of back and forth about where the files where, they finally admitted they deleted per their 30 day policy - this was after being assured by two techs that my files would be put back into the proper folders. I lost 15 years of work, and about 2 days arguing with the company. This is after spending roughy $1,000 for backups. At the end I asked that they ship me a disk copy of my remaining files, for which the charged me $280 dollars. Talk about insult to injury. In addition to all this there system is clunky, slow and is almost impossible to get your information from - it is pretty much a repository and even that doesn't work sometimes. Stay away from them, there are faster, cheaper, more flexible options out there that don't just delete 950,000 files.

Years subscribed to Carbonite and the very first time I needed was useless. I need to order a hard drive containing my files to be delivered but no one told me that I needed to return before a deadline or be charged $147. Carbonite assures that they sent a email warning me about this but I never got that email. They never warned me on the phone either. The only warning was in the box containing the hard drive that I opened when back in town a month after the deadline passes. I called and they say they will never return the charge. Useless.

It's December 2, and Carbonite still uses Covid as an excuse for absolutely TERRIBLE customer service. Yesterday, the wait time was 55 minutes, left a call-back #, no one ever called back. I have a priority case because my entire back-up was erased from the Carbonite system. I pre-paid a full year, so it's not for a lack of $$. I'm now on hold a second day. Was transferred over to as a priority. Been on hold now for42 minutes. I'm cancelling. This company is the WORST!

Backup is simple and automatic. Want to restore? Good Luck! You can only restore 10G at a time and at a very slow rate. Need to restore the whole backup? Depending on the amount of data, as much as a month when your computer is unavailable to use. Support is horrible. They interrupt and don't listen. I had to repeat my email address 9 times because of that. You can expedite the restore with a hideously expensive service where they send you a disc. Wait time is high. I used the call back and they called but did not connect so I had to call back and wait. And further, if you do restore? You can't choose the date of the backup to restore. If you just select folders it can take as much as a year to get what you need because of the 10G backup limitation. USELESS Service that creates more problems than it solves.

Carbonite technical support agents are extremely limited in their technical support knowledge. They are only trained on carbonite's proprietary software. From personal experience, don't expect any assistance with regard to importing from any restored files they put back on your computer. THEY DON'T! THEY CAN'T! THEY WON'T PERIOD! Responses for requests for technical support is mostly 'boiler plate' jabber and nothing more. When an technical support agent can't help, they pass you off to another agent who mirrors what the prior agent says. Getting to a supervisor is near impossible. They don't respond to my inquiries. This is only one reason that cabonite gets less than 3 STARS in most online reviews.

I have been a Carbonite customer for 7 years. Every year my bill got automatically deducted from a credit card I had on file with them. During my last billing cycle they claim to have notified me that my credit card had expired, and as a result permanently terminated my account with my 33,000 files! I couldn't believe it when they told me this. When I asked them if they could resend their warning emails so I could see them with my own eyes, they said I'd have to take it up legally with their marketing department. I have never been so disappointed and dissatisfied as a customer in my entire life. The entire reason this business exists is to help people feel safe and secure about their information. They were completely resigned to the fact that there was nothing they could do to help me recover my files. They took my money for 7 years and I lost all my files. This should never happen to anyone. I'm in shock that they were so unhelpful!

Checked a week ago to see the status of my Carbonite backup and discovered that my files have not been backed up for over a year. My subscrition ends Jan 2024. Contacted the suppor vie email as this is the only way. They responed with a case number and a message that they will look into the problem within 1 business day. It's been a week. Files are still not being backed up. I re-installed the Carbonite software and for the past two days am getting a status "Backup in Progress" but nothing is being backed up. No way to contact anyone at Carbonite. Terrible service. Used to be very good when I signed up 10 years ago. Have to find another backup service.