Author Topic: JustCloud.com: It's All Lies (Read 24982 times)

KynloStephen66515 · « **on:** March 28, 2012, 06:01 AM »

When you see the following when looking for an online storage solution for your PC backups, you would have no other option to take it at its word.

JustCloud.com: It's All Lies

Well...Thats exactly what I did. I registered, downloaded the app it forces to use, and found out I only had 15MB of space on a "Trial" account. 'OK' I thought, 'I must have to complete some steps to fully activate my account'...

I wasnt wrong, as after I uploaded my first set of files, and was prompted to "back them up" - I was taken to the following screen...

JustCloud.com: It's All Lies

So...Simply put...They are lying assholes...and I would suggest avoiding like the plague.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 28, 2012, 06:04 AM »

After posting this, I went in to their help center...

More proof that they are not very forthcoming when it comes to the truth, emerged...

When you need THIS, in your FAQ, most companies would stop and think what they are doing wrong...these just post a simple reply and make it look like the users fault.

I thought I paid 4.95, why have you charged me 118.80

From time to time we hear this enquiry from our customers. The order form displays the equivilant monthly price then immediately displays the term it is paid over next to it. in the case of 4.95 the term of 2 years upfront is immediately next to it, thus making it 118.80.

We try to make this as clear as possible and are trying to help our customers by offering a cheaper price for a longer commitment. We also understand that some customers are confused by this, we are of course happy to refund any users who feel they have been overcharged and will happily downgrade the account to monthly billing.

Thats in a small list of their official "Most Asked Questions" - One of only...15 or so listed...so its pretty high on the list.

eleman · « **Reply #2 on:** March 28, 2012, 06:07 AM »

Oh, how I yearn for the day people will finally get bored of cloud solutions.

Yeah, I know, mine is a useless comment

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 28, 2012, 06:10 AM »

Oh, and the icing on the cake...

The free account seems to only last 13 days...AND they make you e-mail them just to cancel your account.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 28, 2012, 06:12 AM »

Oh, how I yearn for the day people will finally get bored of cloud solutions.

Yeah, I know, mine is a useless comment
-eleman (March 28, 2012, 06:07 AM)

I didn't specifically look for cloud based services, they just seemed to offer unlimited storage for free, so where obviously the top of the list. Thats until I ran across so many lies.

4wd · « **Reply #5 on:** March 28, 2012, 06:41 AM »

...they just seemed to offer unlimited storage for free,
-Stephen66515 (March 28, 2012, 06:12 AM)

TBH, they don't say you get Free Unlimited Storage. They say you get Free Storage and there's also Unlimited Storage, (for a price).

It's just the typical marketing doublespeak that's common these days.

bob99 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2012, 06:53 AM »

Thanks for the heads up and taking the time to check this out and post about it. I am trying to stay away from keeping it "in the cloud" as much as I can anyway. Still good information to have available.

40hz · « **Reply #7 on:** March 28, 2012, 07:02 AM »

...they just seemed to offer unlimited storage for free,
-Stephen66515 (March 28, 2012, 06:12 AM)

TBH, they don't say you get Free Unlimited Storage. They say you get Free Storage and there's also Unlimited Storage, (for a price).

It's just the typical marketing doublespeak that's common these days.
-4wd (March 28, 2012, 06:41 AM)

Which sadly gets added to all those wonderful "consumer info" sites that supposedly rate and review various offerings. I think there's something like six or seven sites exclusively dedicated to reviewing free online backup services right now. And they all seem to like everything they look at.

Wow! Just think...people selflessly dedicated to checking out all the online backup services and reporting their findings back to you. And even more impressive, they're apparently doing it "for the good of all mankind" - and at their own expense.

Pretty amazing huh?

$:-\$

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 28, 2012, 07:03 AM »

...they just seemed to offer unlimited storage for free,
-Stephen66515 (March 28, 2012, 06:12 AM)

TBH, they don't say you get Free Unlimited Storage. They say you get Free Storage and there's also Unlimited Storage, (for a price).

It's just the typical marketing doublespeak that's common these days.
-4wd (March 28, 2012, 06:41 AM)

Any logical company would have put Unlimited Storage* with the Astrix leading to a possible (very well hidden) section of the terms and agreement which states payment must be made. This doesn't mention premium accounts, it just says Free, Unlimited etc...VERY bad tactic.

At no point between signing up and downloading the software did I have any knowledge of this actually not being 100% free like it seemed...which meant I downloaded the sync software (Which by the way, harasses you with popups) without knowing there was no point.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 28, 2012, 07:08 AM »

...they just seemed to offer unlimited storage for free,
-Stephen66515 (March 28, 2012, 06:12 AM)

TBH, they don't say you get Free Unlimited Storage. They say you get Free Storage and there's also Unlimited Storage, (for a price).

It's just the typical marketing doublespeak that's common these days.
-4wd (March 28, 2012, 06:41 AM)

Which sadly gets added to all those wonderful "consumer info" sites that supposedly rate and review various offerings. I think there's something like six or seven sites exclusively dedicated to reviewing free online backup services right now. And they all seem to like everything they look at.

Wow! Just think...people selflessly dedicated to checking out all the online backup services and reporting their findings back to you. And even more impressive, they're apparently doing it "for the good of all mankind" - and at their own expense.

Pretty amazing huh?
$:-\$
-40hz (March 28, 2012, 07:02 AM)

I have no trust for "Consumer Review Websites" that have no ratings by actual users...for this exact reason...I generally do a quick search here on DoCo and if nothing shows, I go give it a try for myself.

Hopefully, Google will pickup on this thread and anybody looking for information on this company will get directed here and can see exactly what to expect.

I have no idea if their service is any good when you do pay for it, and will not comment on that part of things (They may be top of their class...who knows) - But pretending to be 100% free for unlimited storage, waiting till a user has downloaded stuff and uploaded iles before telling them, HEY, you have to pay to get more than 15MB of space (Wtf can you upload thats less than 15mb?)...OH, and even if you DO find a use for this 15Mb of free space...we are going to remove that in 2 weeks if you don't fork over the money!

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2012, 07:52 AM »

Here is exactly how a normal user would see this website...

(Video <No Audio>): http://lbpcs.com/video/JustCloud/

A Note to anybody using these tactics...

You WILL be reviewed eventually, and people WILL know that you are not worth the time it takes to click your Google Ad...

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2012, 09:48 AM »

99.9% sure that this is also the reason that I now have a virus on my system...(Its the only thing thats been installed recently)

Stay away from this website at ALL costs.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #12 on:** March 28, 2012, 11:59 AM »

"Clouds come in various sizes - ask any legit weatherman".
It's okay to store your stuff on remote servers so that you can access it later. That's called file hosting.

So instead of "in the cloud" just go look for quality hosts.

How much data do you need to store? If you're talking about backing up your entire machine, sure, it's going to cost money. But if you just want this month's important stuff, you can get at least a Gig free in a lot of places. But yeah, their first screen is sneaky.

40hz · « **Reply #13 on:** March 28, 2012, 12:39 PM »

Well...as Joni Mitchell so aptly said:

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

And truth is, until we've lived with them a bit longer... neither do we.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #14 on:** March 28, 2012, 12:49 PM »

Anyone looking for classical webhosting under a Gig, fire me a note. I ran a study of free webhosts and came out with some recommendations.

Deozaan · « **Reply #15 on:** March 28, 2012, 02:50 PM »

You might have better luck with bitcasa.

Tej · « **Reply #16 on:** October 23, 2012, 07:32 AM »

Hi, I never used Justcloud so cannot evaluate them. Just recently I got refered by a friend to ftprecovery.com. So far so good. Customer support is prompt and nice too.

Unlike others, they offer access via ftp from multiple devices and unlimited file sizes. Further, they are also the cheapest out there... This was the most important for me.

If you don't have large files to back-up online (and many of them), I recommend you go with google's (up to 5GB) or hotmail's (up to 20 GB) free storages, rather than some smaller corporate ones as they will always look for profit.

SeraphimLabs · « **Reply #17 on:** October 23, 2012, 04:06 PM »

I love how this thread actually managed to lure in an advertising bot from a competing service.

Really though, free space-only is not sustainable. It still costs the provider a given amount of money each month to maintain servers housing the drives with your stuff on it. Somewhere along the line there has to be a moneymaking gimmic for it to properly support itself.

Free hosting only works because the host can convert the site's traffic into a revenue source by putting advertising on. That isn't applicable to people who use free hosting just to store files, and many hosts actively prohibit such behavior for that reason.

But I don't see why a paid host would object to being used in that manner, since they would still be earning back what it costs them to provide you with that space.

40hz · « **Reply #18 on:** October 23, 2012, 05:51 PM »

Really though, free space-only is not sustainable. It still costs the provider a given amount of money each month to maintain servers housing the drives with your stuff on it.
-SeraphimLabs (October 23, 2012, 04:06 PM)

Exactly right!

That's why I thought Backblaze's online backup service made so much sense. They combined unlimited storage with a unique hardware design (i.e Backblaze Storage Pod) that gave them a workable price/profit point. Plus they kept it simple by selling a "backup only" service without any of the file sharing and other "features" many of their competitors are also offering. They're one of the few backup storage providers out there that ever presented a realistic and sustainable (to me at least) business plan.

One of the reasons I like them so much is that they have a "pure play" business model that makes financial and technical sense. That's more than can be said for half the"cloud solutions" out there...

SeraphimLabs · « **Reply #19 on:** October 24, 2012, 04:25 PM »

Really though, free space-only is not sustainable. It still costs the provider a given amount of money each month to maintain servers housing the drives with your stuff on it.
-SeraphimLabs (October 23, 2012, 04:06 PM)

Exactly right!

That's why I thought Backblaze's online backup service made so much sense. They combined unlimited storage with a unique hardware design (i.e Backblaze Storage Pod) that gave them a workable price/profit point. Plus they kept it simple by selling a "backup only" service without any of the file sharing and other "features" many of their competitors are also offering. They're one of the few backup storage providers out there that ever presented a realistic and sustainable (to me at least) business plan.

One of the reasons I like them so much is that they have a "pure play" business model that makes financial and technical sense. That's more than can be said for half the"cloud solutions" out there...

-40hz (October 23, 2012, 05:51 PM)

How long do the devices last?

I'd still be watchful, because if the device doesn't have to be replaced at regular intervals, it is still very likely that after so many months or years of operation they will still come up short financially- even after the profits from selling the device are used up, if the device is still usable it will continue consuming space.

40hz · « **Reply #20 on:** October 24, 2012, 05:41 PM »

How long do the devices last?

-SeraphimLabs (October 24, 2012, 04:25 PM)

Um...these devices (called "storage pods") are 135TB bespoke storage servers. They use RAID-6 with their own proprietary software running on top of a Tomcat/Apache stack. They last as long as they last? RAID allows them to swap out failed drives without data loss. And their software handles redundancy and management functions in their data center.

The pod specs and the BOM have been published by Backblaze. It uses off-the-shelf-parts. You can build your own for about $7500 fully loaded if you want, although you're on you own for software. They don't sell their server solution or hardware. They're strictly an online backup service. If you want your own storage pod you'll have to build it yourself.

Multiple pods make up the Backblaze Data Center

JustCloud.com: It's All Lies

SeraphimLabs · « **Reply #21 on:** October 24, 2012, 08:37 PM »

Okay that makes more sense.

I was imagining some type of set top box that acted as an encryption gateway and SAN device, which relayed everything up to their datacenter for the actual storage.

The line of thought then followed that you bought the gateway device to get access to "unlimited" space for free, which meant that unless the devices had a set expiration date or were prone to failure they would eventually accumulate more customer data than they could afford to keep.

Though it certainly gave me an idea for a rather innovative approach to offsite backup.

Giampy · « **Reply #22 on:** October 25, 2012, 11:42 AM »

Box.com offers 25 GB for free: https://www.box.com/...gnup/o/slideshark_25
Do you know it? Can you advise it or advise against it?

wraith808 · « **Reply #23 on:** October 25, 2012, 01:53 PM »

Box.com offers 25 GB for free: https://www.box.com/signup/
Do you know it? Can you advise it or advise against it?
-Giampy (October 25, 2012, 11:42 AM)

Is that a referrrer link on the end? It's good to let people know that...

40hz · « **Reply #24 on:** October 25, 2012, 05:30 PM »

^That said, I have a Box account (along with accounts on several of its competitors) and I've been very happy with it. But what can I say? It is what it is. And it works.