JDIBackup.com Data cloud service conglomerate comprised of a number of smaller, more specialized cloud data storage services such as: JustCloud.com, MyPCBackup.com, Zip Cloud, Cloud Genie, and Study Backup. I await the class action lawsuit that comes their way; keywords: fraud, manipulation of the public, price gouging, criminal negligence Whiteley, United Kingdom Other

A few years back I went through the unfortunate experience of having my external hard drive, my main data storage backup device, fail. The result was that a lot of important financial and personal data was all of a sudden gone. I was able to salvage some by having the hard drive "operated on" by an extremely expensive data recovery service which, in retrospect, was not even close to worth it.

Recently however, I've become aware of what seems like a booming industry of cloud backup services that store, backup, and/or synchronize personal data online, off-site rather than in a physical drive. I did some research and for some reason I still don't understand, I made the decision to backup my data with "JustCloud.com", a subsidiary of JDIBackup.com whose other companies, also offering cloud data storage, include "MyPCBackup.com", "Zip Cloud", "Study Backup", and "Backup Genie". The following are direct quotes ripped from these companies’ websites:

"IT'S SIMPLE, SAFE, AND SECURE All of our brands allow users to protect their files, music, photos and more..."

"OUR MISSION: Here at JDI Backup, our team works around the clock with one specific goal in sight: to provide the world's best online backup services to all users' needs whether personal or business oriented. We believe the key to success is simple: take a sophisticated service, re-think and develop it, and finally provide a product that is professional, clean, uncomplicated, user-friendly, and most of all, effective."

"HONORING OUR WORD: Whether it's a commitment to an employee, customer, or partner we will deliver, no matter how long it takes."

"Willingness to Listen: Every member of our team has ideas, including our customers. Some ideas are bad. Some are good. But all are worth listening to." (let’s ignore the grammatical errors going on in that last piece of BS for now).

I apologize for taking so much time and space regurgitating the blatant lies this business conglomerate plasters on their websites, but I felt it necessary when the truth of what these businesses are about and how they practice said business is explained. 

First, through their advertising campaign, one would be led to believe that their most important data was well protected through modern data encryption technology. What they fail to mention is that hundreds of thousands of GBs of sensitive data their company purports to keep safe and secure are actually not encrypted AT ALL. The data they handle IS encrypted during the transfer phase, but while all these GBs are being stored, there is no encryption whatsoever protecting this information from whoever has the know-how to open a computer file. The level of protection this data is under is on par with the encryption Google Drive uses to code the data it stores (Google Drive does not code the data it stores at all). I wonder how many people handing over their money and sensitive docs figured that was the kind of safety, security, and protection they would be assured by JustCloud.com. These people are criminals in every way -- deceiving unsuspecting customers into turning over their most sensitive and personal data to those with virtually no intention of protecting it, and profiting from such business practices at that. They would do just as well handing off this data to any group of 3-piece suit-wearing, smooth talking bank-loan slaves with a hard drive and license to practice whatever it is they convince people they do.

Now that the most infuriating aspect of this companies business and advertising practices has been addressed, I'd like to note that, for all their rhetoric about providing excellent customer service and valuing every customer and their needs, this conglomerate does not even have a customer service phone line. What I had to do was call billing (the only number where calling would result in actually speaking with a human) and then attempt to solve my issue that was primarily regarding a refund after being manipulated by criminal business practices. On a side not, I was double charged in the months of July and August also, so there were billing issues to discuss as well. 

Now I don't mean to be cruel to working people doing what they have to for a company whose policies they had absolutely no part in developing. I worked at a call center through a temp agency right when the economy all but collapsed in 2008-2009 and it really can be soul crushing work, but I'll just say that their perceived desire to understand my issue and their attempts to resolve the problems I presented left much to be desired. Apparently, escalating any issue within this organization simply doesn't happen because I spent a solid hour trying to speak with someone "in charge". "Every member has ideas, including our customers. Some are good. Some are bad. But all are worth listening to."....guess not. 

It took 3 phone calls to finally get my money back, which required a more firm attitude than I would have liked to have maintained. We'll see in 7-10 days whether they even honor their word and do in fact refund the money I paid them to keep my data backup dangerously unsafe. In addition, the approximately 200 GB of backed up data they I had (somehow) accumulated, or rather, they had accumulated, I don't even have access to anymore since they closed my account after specifically requesting time to have that data moved to a different data storage/backup service, so that battle is still going on. 

Some minor issues I feel should be brought to light as well. EVERYBODY who does business with these companies despises them. For proof of this, do a web search of JDIBackup.com or JustCloud.com reviews. You'll be overwhelmed by the negative feedback. Here are just a few of the reputable sites and reviewers who recommend just about any online data storage but one that falls under the JDI umbrella – the first link is a JustCloud.com review published on backupreview.com on June 21^st of this year and does a great job encompassing all that is wrong and despicable about JustCloud in particular:

http://www.backupreview.com/justcloud/

BackupReview.com

ShouldIRemoveIt.com

OnlineBackupDeals.com

Reviewopedia.com

BackupReview.info (from 2010 claiming online chat support which most certainly does not exist anymore)

CloudBackupSource.com

www.bit-tech.net