Len Pallazola's dashboard

Erik, you could word it that way I suppose, but I'd be more likely to word it that at any time we might get customer feedback identifying a file that we're not currently backing up that we should, and update the software accordingly. As for "constantly", I wouldn't go that far. But you proved my point by linking a two-year-old version of the exclusions list (Submitted by Tom on Wed, 08/22/2007).

I don't have the current list in front of me, but the list you linked was generated more than a year before we had a Mac version so I'm pretty confident that our Mac users are backing up their Keynote presentations just fine.

Hi Erik,

That list changes fairly regularly as we learn of new document types that should be backed up, and new system file types that should not. Since we don't have the ability to update posts here once they've been made, we would have no ability to keep the document up to date once posting it here. As I've stated before, we'll happily provide the most current version of the document to anyone requesting it at any time. A site like this is not the place for that level of detailed technical support, however.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.
www.carbonite.com

HI Dan,

We'll be happy to send you a list of excluded files at any time. Just write to customersupport @ Carbonite.com and request the list of excluded file types, and we'll send it right out to you.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.
www.carbonite.com

Hi Greg,

I'm sorry to hear about your problem. I went to look up your account and see that we have two folks with your same name in our system in different areas, but based on the autorenewal history I'm pretty sure I'm looking at the right one. It looks like you have two active subscriptions for the same computer. (ie. at one point you reinstalled but started a new subscription instead of reinstalling the existing one).

We can certainly credit you back the extra charge and help you get the right subscription reinstalled. Send me a note at Len.Pal @ carbonite.com and I'll have someone get in touch with you to resolve the issue.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.
www.carbonite.com

No problem at all. And Pedro, right now there really isn't a workaround for the shell integration issues. If you need to restore something, you could use the remote file access system at www.carbonite.com/remote (which should work in just about any operating system).

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.
www.carbonite.com

Hi Matthew and Pedro,

We will release a Win7-compatible version when Windows 7 is out of beta and becomes a "production" release. It is under development now but we really need to wait until the Windows 7 code base stabilizes before we can release it to our customers.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.
www.carbonite.com

Kip, when you say "it will not allow me to copy the complete file", do you mean that when you try to copy a file, you get an error message? For that matter, when you say "file", do you mean "folder"?

I'd be happy to have someone reach out to help you resolve this issue. Send me a note at Len.Pal @ carbonite.com with contact info and a good time to get in touch and I'll have someone work with you.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.
www.carbonite.com

Hi Mark,

I received your e-mail. Thank you for sending it - blogs like this don't show your e-mail address and so I am unable to look you up without it (not that I'd recommend posting your e-mail address on a blog). You've probably received my reply by now; your password problem is resolved.

Regarding the automated reply you've received, that was a note to let you know we've received your message and will be responding to it in the order in which it was received - pretty standard for e-mail customer service (so that you know we got your message). I'm sorry if this confused you.

I understand your comment about my response to AJ - I know it must seem odd that in my role I don't know the details of AJ's issue and whether he had received his response. Unfortunately, without AJ's e-mail address I had no way to look up the issue, and since we reply to over 10,000 e-mails per week browsing through the recent e-mails wasn't really an option. However, there are a few possibilities any time someone hasn't received a message yet: #1, it could have been sent to an address other than customersupport @ carbonite.com (unlikely but possible), #2, the response could have been misidentified as spam by an e-mail program and dumped in the "junk mail" folder, or #3, a reply wasn't sent yet. (We answer every e-mail we receive at customersupport @ carbonite.com.) So what I was asking wasn't "Did we respond to your e-mail?" so much as "Did you receive your response yet?" I never received a reply from AJ after my post here, so I'm thinking the issue was resolved by the time of my post.

Interestingly, I've heard of HP's Upline in passing, but have never heard of SOS Online Backup at all.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.

DP, in an upcoming version you'll be able to override Carbonite's selections about which files to skip. If you explicitly select a folder for backup, everything in that folder and it's subfolders will be backed up - videos, .exe files, etc. I don't have a release date yet, but it's coming soon.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc

AJ, have you received a response yet? If not, please send me a note at customersupport@carbonite.com (Attn: Len) and I'll make sure you get an answer.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.
www.carbonite.com

Hi Nick,

I'll certainly share your comments with our design team. Whether we implement it exactly as you described or in some other way, hopefully we'll improve the way we communicate to Carbonite users just what is and isn't backed up.

Thank you for taking the time to talk about this with me.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc

Hi Nick,

Our basic promise is still Unlimited Backups. It's good to know you purchased last year, so I have a better idea of how the information you're talking about was presented to you. Back then, it was in a large window entitled "Important Information You Must Read About Your First Backup". The title was in big, bold, red letters. (We changed to a different style of windows in the installer over the last six months or so. The same information is presented, but in a series of smaller windows that hopefully folks are less likely to ignore.) And yes, we also include this information a few clicks into our searchabe FAQ section.

In that window, we went into a lot of detail about what is and what is not backed up, including mentioning .exe files and system files. At that time, you're right - video files were included by default in folders that were already selected for backup, and so that information wasn't presented to you.

That change was made by customer request, by the way. A lot of folks found that their backup was being bloated by a lot of large (easily replacable) video files, and requested that we change the default so that only the folders containing video explicitly selected are included. That way, the irreplacable video files (baby's first steps, etc.) can be included and the DVD rips, podcasts, etc. can be skipped. I'm sorry we didn't get the word out about that change as well as we should have.

The current version of Carbonite indicates that folders contain items that aren't selected for backup by showing a green dot with a hole in the center (a green donut) so that at a glance, you can see that a folder includes items that aren't being backed up.

An upcoming version will also include the option to override the exceptions list for any type of file. For example, you could right-click an .exe file and select to back up files of that type in folders selected for backup. Less labor-intensive than now, but without changing the default settings, which are preferable to the majority of our users.

Regarding your last point, the only real policy change was the change to how video files are handled. The other file types have been excluded by default since the beginning. I'm sorry that you feel we've changed too much to continue to meet your needs.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc

Hi Nick,

I understand your concerns about the files that are excluded from Carbonite backups by default. I'm really sorry that you were not aware of this, though. We do our best to get the information out to customers, both in the messages displayed when you first install and in our FAQ's on our website.

There is more detail about exactly what is backed up at http://www.carbonite.com/CustomerSupp... If you have additional questions about what is and isn't backed up by default, please write to customersupport@carbonite.com with "ATTN: Len" in the subject line, and I'll be happy to provide as much detail as you need.

Please let me know if we can assist you.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola
Manager, Customer Service Systems
Carbonite, Inc.