My list of grievances

After using True Image Home 11 for almost a month now, the problems this software (and its developer) have are really beginning to show. Here are the problems I am facing for which there seems to be no resolution:

1. Task Scheduler fails to work properly. It will fire for a few days, and then stop working. That's critical.

2. I found in another thread a "fix" by updating the scheduler to a newer version. That "fix" seems to remedy the problem of it not firing, but the "fix" isn't digitally signed, so Windows prompts the user whether or not it should be run every time the computer boots. In an unattended situation, that's unacceptable. So the "fix" is just being replaced with another problem. No good.
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3. Complete lack of technical support. I have submitted three different tech support requests for these problems... not one single reply other than the automated "we got your request" reply. You could at least send another "we're going to ignore you" automated reply.

4. Assorted really dumb problems. Like the sort order in the Backup Archives screen. What kind of sort is this? This should be ascending... but according to Acronis, April 9th comes after April 13th...
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5. No update since November? That's five months with these problems!! That's pretty bad.

I am approaching the end of my 30 day money-back guarantee period. I am seriously considering giving up and getting my money back... that is if i can actually get a human to respond to me so I *can* get my money back.

 

I have been trying to imagine what happened. Apparently Acronis actually produced a working product at one time. But I speculate that they sold the company to someone with no computer knowledge whatsoever. They keep paying for the advertising websites, and keep the automated "We got your request" server running, and they need to keep making money, so they keep upping the revision number. That is about it.

 

I'll restate the obvious since I've seen examples where the obvious wasn't followed and difficulties/delays followed: Acronis has a clear refund policy and procedure, it's here. As with any instance such as this, retain intermediate documentation of any exchanges.

Blue

 

I will probably go the refund route. What's disturbing is that it is yet another "send your message to customer service" website, which might as well be "send your message to the abyss of no response".

Luckily... it was purchased with a Visa card. I can always do the brute-force refund and dispute the charge based on the problems and lack of response if this gets nowhere.

 

My own experience in this area (regarding an upgrade path issue) is that the formal CS channels work fine.

My own observations are that problems tend to occur when the rhetoric gets overheated, requested documentation is unavailable (as sometimes occurs), clearly stated time limits are ignored, or follow-up communications are filtered by all too aggressive filters at the end-user or ISP level (the latter has happened to me all too frequently) with the expected end-user frustration. While a live voice on the other side can provide comfort, it does not always yield the quickest resolution.

Blue

 

I would agree with you, if it weren't for the fact that three requests to tech support have gone completely unanswered... and that is over the course of three weeks! Surely, they are not that far behind in tech support issues (though with the problems I have encountered, perhaps they are! hmm..)

In any case, another item of grievance to add to the list that I forgot:

6. Scheduled tasks that are set to create a new full backup after 'x' number of incrementals just keep creating incrementals until the disk is full. (That is, if the scheduled task runs at all... see grievance #1).

 

These are known probs with ATI 11. ATI 10 was pretty solid and worked great for most folks.

I don't think the company was sold; I think they just lost the programmer(s). That's the prob when you depend on just one or a few people for success. Lose that one ( or few) and your product goes from something great like ATI 10 to ATI 11. Probalby the reason that Customer Service seems so lacking is that, 5 months wthout a fixed build and they keep selling the broken version, well, you have to expect that customer service and Tech Support is probably overloaded.

 

Hello VoicesInMyHear,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Could you please clarify if you used the scheduler update from this post from please read before you post sticky thread? If yes, could you please clarify, what version of Windows are you using?

Could you please let us know your Acronis request number (e.g. [Acronis #123456]) which was sent to you in autoreply to your letter? We will find out how the investigation of your issue is going. If you have not received an autoreply then please send us a Private Message containing your e-mail address.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Too late. I gave up and got a refund.

Good riddance.