Thumbnail of user timf16

Tim F.

Contributor Level

Total Points
271

About Me

CEO for a consulting company using virtual teams for client projects.

How I Can Help

Reviewed Dropbox for Business.

Interests

Classical Music, Traveling, MOOCs

2 Reviews by Tim

  • Micromat Inc

2/21/19

What a rip off-Charged for two upgrades in 3 months. A quick search will show they have done this to customers at least since 2012. What gives?
In anticipation of Mohave OS Nov 2018 I upgraded my product to avoid potential problems. When they FINALLY made their product work with Mohave Feb 2019, they acted as if they did not get pre-releases of the OS from Apple to make their product compatible and it is all Apple's fault, and that I should not have upgraded to Mohave until their update was available. How crazy can these people be? Appears they are under-funded and under-staffed.
When they FINALLY released an upgraded version to be Mohave compatible, they charged me again for the new upgrade, as I had done my previous upgrade a couple weeks too early. Thus two upgrade charges in 3 months.
I will say this: their software works. It identified a SMART error on my fusion drive many months before it failed (first error in April when the drive blew up finally in Dec). A call to support reaffirmed that if the error occurred I should be concerned. The engineer ended up being right.
After rebuilding the drive in Dec, more random errors. Apple could not diagnose the error over the phone. I reloaded the non-Mohave compatible TechTool version on the reformatted drive. TechTool showed the solid state portion of my fusion drive had a SMART error. When I showed the Apple Sr. Adv. The TechTool result identifying the SMART error on solid state portion, the first adviser did the 'Apple knows everything' so I was wrong thing. Luckily the second Sr. Adviser explored further. TechTool turned out to be right both in the initial SMART error diagnosis months in advance, and in catching the drive error a second time when I ran the tests after having to rebuild the drive. Taking the computer into the store, more in-depth tests finally confirm the solid state part of the fusion drive was bad per Apple's test as well. Was this software worth $50 for upgrades beyond the initial purchase price? In this case, yes.
There is a competing software product that I haven't tested, but it might be worth trying.
Another plus, as much as I'm upset with their upgrade pricing policy, is the phone support is competent, fast and good. Two phone calls were answered quickly and competently answered. Oh, after much complaining, they gave me a $3 coupon on this last upgrade.
Recommendation: unless you really need a product like this, save your money. If things get weird on your computer, it might be worth a try, but it is probably far easier to just lug your computer into an Apple Store Genius Bar and let them run their tests for free.
Luckily my single license works on my desktop and portable machines so save your money on buying two licenses, at least, if you decide to go ahead. My sense is they are good people but desperate for funds, but who knows. Their upgrade pricing is not ethical.

  • Dropbox

8/9/14

FYI: Your data is not safe in Dropbox Business, especially if you use Selective Sync when not all files can be stored on your computer's disk due to insufficient space.
Opening a file on my portable, that I could not find in the cloud or on other devices, so I could move it manually. But when I closed it, it disappears from the disk on the portable. Fortunately, the file now appeared in the cloud. It was not a recent file (over a year old). Of the hundreds of thousands of files I have, I have no idea how many other files are like this between the users on account.
In general, files on my portable were randomly not syncing to the cloud or my other computer, with no indication of the failure to sync.
A manual work around, if you figure out a folder is not syncing accidentally, as I did, is to re-check the sync and see if it reloads. This folder had over 500 gigs of data in it in Dropbox, which i did not want to load to my portable computer's hard drive (not enough extra room). The Dropbox support person was not savvy enough to realize I could synch the main folder and unselect many of the subfolders to create a new sync. This resulted in two folders with one of the marked "Selective Sync Conflict." Apparently the support rep couldn't figure out how to handle that, as the folder should have had a mark/flag to indicate a problem, although this did not appear on my portable. (A solution is to merge the one folder with the other on a computer, but that requires having them both syncing to a computer.)
The Dropbox technical support person was inept. He had to consult with his "colleagues" after each step. Than he would not escalate the call, but said he needed screenshots (of what I am not sure... my whole file system?) to progress and ended the call. The email that he refused to send while I was on the phone, claiming they can't send emails while on the phone, never showed up. Not sure how to continue resolving this major issue: my sense is Dropbox support is not only incompetent, they do not care if you loose important files. Certainly they do not want to respond in any speedy fashion, if they want to respond at all ( which given the sassy help person, does not seem likely). Dropbox Business is such a good idea: I just wish it worked consistently and could be trusted: it can't unfortunately, consistent with my previous review in August 2014.

Tim Has Earned 11 Votes

Tim F.'s review of Dropbox earned 9 Very Helpful votes

Tim F.'s review of Micromat Inc earned 2 Very Helpful votes

Tim hasn’t received any thanks yous.

Tim doesn’t have any fans yet.

Tim isn’t following anybody yet.

Empty.

Similar Reviewers on Sitejabber

Thumbnail of user avar119
Ava R. reviewed Dropbox
2/17/24

If I could leave zero stars, I would. I am an artist and kept my original work in a Dropbox...

Thumbnail of user kyles1480
Kyle S. reviewed Dropbox
2/7/24

I've had a Dropbox account for many years with zero problems. Then on 01/30/24 I get a...