Carbonite Scammers charged my CC to Renew 2 days BEFORE Date stated in software. Then they refused to refund my money. I had to call my Bank to get a CHARGEBACK against Carbonite! Internet

I want everybody to know about Carbonite and their ILLEGAL billing practices. I will add my voice to the other people who complain about Carbonite's bhogus/slimey "auto-renewal" practice. Carbonite is a data-backup company. When you install their software on your PC, a little icon appears in the task tray, Clicking on that icon then displays a control panel. There, it tells you how many days left before an "auto renewal" will occur.  It gives the DATE on which (so says the software), your credit card would theoretically be charged for another year's service.  

In my case, it indicateda specific date as the renewal date.  I had been dissatisfied with Carbonite's crappy backup service throughout the last year, and had made a tickler to contact Carbonite on the BEFORE that renewal date to cancel the d**n thing. I knew I wanted to change to a BETTER offsite backup company than Carbonite. 

However, Carbonite actually charged my CC 1 day BEFORE the software had promised!

I figured this was some kind of innocent computer error, so I just called up their customer-NON-support # on the same day, and talked to a lady with an "attitude" who said the following: (a) "I don't see any charge to your credit card in our system. Are you sure? It isn't scheduled until tomorrow!" (b) I refered to my online banking information, showing the charge was indeed 1 day before promised.  (c) I told her that I did not want another year of crappy "Carbonite" service (the program is buggy, does not allow you to change 'frequency' of backup--it's either "automatic frequency" which you can not configure at all, or "1 day".  That is a joke--many OTHER off-site backup services, such as CRASHPLAN allow you to conifugre backups down to "every 15 minutes".  

(ANOTHER NOTE TO THE READER:  I suggest you DUMP "Carbonite", and switch to CRASHPLAN -- which gets  HIGHER REVIEWS by PC Magazine, and works much better than Carbonite. CRASHPLAN also has MUCH MORE FRIENDLY CUSTOMER SERVICE, and they will not to to SCAM you like Carbonite does)

NEXT: I sent a formal complaint to Carbonite support via contact form, asking "Why the heck did you charge my card 1 day BEFORE your software said you would?  Even your own customer service person on the phone said that should not have happened?"  I told them "If you don't refund my money, and cancel the service NOW, I'm going to contact my bank and get a chargeback against your flaky company."

So, I gave them this 2nd chance to refund my money.  I figured the guy would just apologize and make the refund/cancellaton.

BUT GUESS WHAT? They sent an arrogant "canned" response . . . "According to our terms and services" .  (i.e. "Go to hell answer")

WHAT I DID NEXT:  I called my bank and told them what happened.  They were AMAZED!  The bank dispute department  lady said, "Oh, we hear bout this kind of thing by flaky Internet companies all the time. It's a shame some business are run that way. But no problem -- we will file the paperwork and get your money back from Carbonite."

CONCLUSION:  My bank DID file a chargeback against CARBONITE-SCAM, and that's how I got my money back (from Visa by FORCE . . . not from Carbonite-creeps).

SUMMARY: My experience with Carbonite is they are out to SCREW the customer ANY WAY POSSIBLE.  Their customer service is "superficial" and they couldn't care less if you are treated fairly.  Incredible!  So I suggest you do NOT have ANYTHING TO DO with "Carbonite" backup.  Use a more reputable service like CRASHPLAN, or SOS, or others that are more honest.  

I hope this Ripoffreport review helps others AVOID dealwith teh Carbonite and all the suffering that goes with choosnig Carbonite offsite backup.