I trusted a radio show computer talk show host on KFI 640AM radio and purchased 3 years worth of Carbonite backup service. The discount I got doesn't even come close to paying for the hours and hours of aggravation I've experienced.

I've spent the last 8 months sending emails trying to find out why Carbonite isn't backing up my data. I get an array of advice emails, some incredibly stupid, but none of them have been successful by any means. Here are my favorites: 2 separate emails came on the same day. One said, "we don't understand your problem, we checked your account and our records show that your backups up to date". The other one said, "Warning! Your files have not been backed up for 1 week". The amusing thing is that both were incorrect - my files havent' successfully completed a backup for 8 months!

I also enjoyed the email that had me perform 150 laborious steps in order to create a zip file containing certain registry files and a hijack report. I argued via email that I needed help figuring out their instructions, but to no avail. They wanted that zip file. So I finally assembled what they wanted, sent it, and got a reply stating they couldn't understand what I sent them, and urging me to call tech support. Subsequently I spent my menopausal years trying to locate the phone number they secretly provide on their site.

A week ago I spent two precious hours allowing their support tech remote control of my computer. He managed to fix the problem, but the magic lasted only a week. To be fair, I should mention he granted me 6 more months of this worthless service.

And then there's today's adventure. I actually located their online "live" chat, which disconnects itself automatically the moment it connects. Twenty times. Honestly.

The service sends me follow up satisfaction surveys every time I make a support connection. The problem is I have no evidence that they're reading my responses.

This old lady's a disabled senior who wished she'd used that money to invest in a good mobile hard drive. Be warned.