Warning: Irate Customer

Discussion in 'Prevx Releases' started by STV0726, Oct 29, 2013.

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  1. STV0726

    STV0726 Registered Member

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    Not happy! WSA Sync should have been improved from 2013...

    Instead, it caused me to loose at least two (maybe more) important changes to critical documents!

    I made changes to a lesson plan and data recording document that is for an education college course and the changes are all gone on both computers.

    Webroot Sync is not syncing certain documents properly and is reverting old versions of documents on my computers!

    How I am supposed to redo this document when I don't have the data at hand anymore? And what the good is the cloud Sync service if it is going to overwrite my file with old versions?

    This must be solved quickly!


    [edited by OP to reduce rage]
     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2013
  2. STV0726

    STV0726 Registered Member

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    Okay, park yourself. You're off the hook this time in terms of me having a conniption. But, Webroot, you are absolutely not off the hook in terms of this issue needing fixing. See below for details for gosh sakes fix it now before some lawyer loses a court case document and sues your behinds!

    Thanks to the file history, it fortunately, thank god, went back to the day this problem occurred, the 24th. I had made an exact copy of the file because I wanted to use it as a template to make my next lesson plan for the next teaching day. It seems somehow copying the file made Webroot Sync herpderp and revert changes. Your guess is as good as mine.

    I found the copy I made because it got synced to the cloud before I renamed it and made changes to it to become Lesson 2 instead of 1. I am downloading it and saving it now.

    I think at this point I am suspending Webroot Sync and going old school USB flash drive until some word on this issue gets out.

    [edited by OP to reduce rage]
     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2013
  3. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    I had exactly the same problem about 6 months ago, except it was ALL my critical files that were reverted to earlier versions, including all my company invoices. And it happened suddenly and without any warning. Fortunately Webroot Backup & Sync wasn't the only or even the main backup I have, and fortunately I discovered this almost immediately, so I was able to restore current versions of said files (using Crashplan). However, I have learnt from this tale: don't ever, ever trust Webroot Backup & Sync!!!! Frankly, I would no longer touch it with a bargepole. I now use SugarSync and Dropbox which have never given me such problems.

    I had been meaning to open a thread about this incident for some time but thanks STV0726 you've done it for me.

    How it can be that a world-class AV (imho the best) can coexist alongside such a $!*$!* Backup and Sync programme is beyond my feeble mind to comprehend...

    PS. You should also post this on the Webroot Community Forum, STV. It might get a reaction (such as completely rewriting the Backup & Sync coding). And I'll add my voice if you do so.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2013
  4. STV0726

    STV0726 Registered Member

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    Phew. I thank you for that Muddy. Usually the first response to one of these threads is someone defending the product. I expected to see, "Don't blame Webroot for not having a backup of a backup of a backup. That's YOUR fault."

    I hate to be mean, and I have edited my post now that my rage has lifted, but I feel it is important to maintain high expectations. I over-compliment and over-praise when the job is done right, so I hold people and products to high standards. :thumb:

    So I think the take-away for Webroot support from this is it's time to do something about this now. 2014 has not done anything to resolve these issues. It may have increased them.

    [edited by OP to reduce rage]
     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2013
  5. Baldrick

    Baldrick Registered Member

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    Hi STV0726

    Sorry to hear about your problems.

    At the risk of sounding lame have you open a Support Ticket with Webroot and given them all the information you have on this issue?

    Also, in case you have not done so, have you been over to the Webroot Community Forum and started a thread on this issue? There are some very learned people over there (not that the people at Wilders are not learned, too :D ) but I know that the forum is well monitored by Webroot staff and I suspect that they will jump on this very quickly (they usually do).

    Regards


    Baldrick
     
  6. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    How many times have I mentioned that there is a problem with Backup & Sync over there, and still it didn't get resolved! Indeed I was lulled by their reassuring noises into believing that these teething problems had been sorted and so went back to using their programme. What a rude awakening when I discovered all my critical files had reverted to an earlier state (my invoices to 5 months earlier!)! Personally I believe that this problem is so serious that simply opening a support ticket is not enough. They need to rebuild the code from scratch. But it is true that STV needs to duplicate this thread over there because this is really really serious.
     
  7. szaki2

    szaki2 Registered Member

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    Maybe i wrong but webroot use lastpass for password management and sugarsync to sync and backup. If sugarsync fix this bug they can get new version from sugarsync if not...
    But password management not better i lost all my sites and passwords once when something changed in backend.
     
  8. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    Webroot changed in 2012 from SugarSync hosted backup engine to their own in-house version. That's when the problems started: whilst the GUI became more stable and more attractive, the backup and sync engine behind that GUI was sadly a completely different story (as you can see from posts above) :(

    Interesting also to hear about your problems with Lastpass. So my gut feeling, that when it comes to renewal time I should size down to WSA basic AV version and avoid all those fancier versions with their dubious whistles and stops, is perhaps confirmed??
     
  9. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Oh they've left sugarsync? I didn't know that.:eek: Why would they do that? I hope Joe and the team can fix the bugs. The in house engine is gathering bad reputation. People are facing serious problems I can see. I remember when I my cloud app didn't sync. Was frustrated. Not important files though. I can only imagine the importance to Muddy and STV. I use AV, LastPass and a cloud service. Best of all worlds.:)
     
  10. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    Not syncing across devices is one thing. Having your documents and databases go to a version between one and five months earlier is quite another. Important data completely lost unless you can claw it back through another separate (and reliable) backup service as I was able to. Though finding out which files had been corrupted and then going back to the good version of each was a real hassle :mad:

    Frankly I'm not sure how much Joe and "the team" can help. Unless I'm mistaken I believe that these fancy whistles and stops are managed by separate teams and Joe and his team concentrate on what is really important: the AV product ... Prevx4, now Prevx5, in effect.
     
  11. PrevxHelp

    PrevxHelp Former Prevx Moderator

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    I manage the team that develops the Backup & Sync solution. STV - can you send me your license key and email address via PM so that I can investigate immediately? Muddy3, if you're still seeing data loss, please let me know also. This is the first I've heard of it but we're on the case.

    Also, Sync stores previous versions of the file within the cloud - can you see if you can copy back over one of the previous copies?
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2013
  12. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    Sorry, there I go jumping to false conclusions :(.

    Knowing now that it’s you Joe who is in charge, I’ll be genuinely interested if a proper solution can be found to this as I sadly experienced nothing but problems after the upgrade to the in-house Backup & Sync version. It really was a major problem for me and I didn’t want to go through the hassle of long and tortuous investigations of the problem through Webroot Support. I just wanted an immediate, effective and hassle-free solution for syncing (and not destroying) my data: which I have at the moment, free, through Dropbox and SugarSync. I had already been bitten at least twice by my false confidence in Webroot Backup & Sync, so it was like being thrice shy.

    Sorry again if I overshot the mark…

    I've replied to your PM on this (thank you). Bear in mind also that I decided to stop using Webroot Backup & Sync because of multiple problems over a period of time. However if you could really resolve the problem properly, I would reconsider.
     
  13. PrevxHelp

    PrevxHelp Former Prevx Moderator

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    I completely agree with the "once bitten, twice shy" concept here and we have some work to do to win back user faith and confidence. We're still investigating it (awaiting STV0726's reply to emails/PMs) and I'll only claim success once we've actually found the underlying issue here and reverted it.

    We do store the previous versions of files even when overwritten so if reverted, you should be able to get back to the older copy, but obviously, we shouldn't be making it this difficult for you and should just work properly!
     
  14. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    @PrevxHelp
    Sounds good to me :)
     
  15. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Oh I understand now.:)
     
  16. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Go team Joe.:D:thumb::thumb:
     
  17. pcdoctor36

    pcdoctor36 Registered Member

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    I hate to say it, but with all the problems I have had with vendors over the years when vendor software or cloud service screws up to this extent customers need to vote with their wallets and go elsewhere. Market trends will force more responsible vendor behavior.

     
  18. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    That's blindingly obvious. So what's your point?
     
  19. Techfox1976

    Techfox1976 Registered Member

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    Not going to defend it here. :) If the Sync is really the cause of the issue, then that needs to be fixed. I've never experienced an issue on my side, so I couldn't say. But I do know that Webroot's VP of Development reads this and takes direct action based on it, so if it's reproducible, it can be fixed.
     
  20. PrevxHelp

    PrevxHelp Former Prevx Moderator

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    Indeed. I don't know how other vendors respond in cases like this but I'm not one to sweep something under the rug. Whenever we have an issue, we own up to it, fix it, and prevent it from happening in the future.

    Also, to the original post, we still haven't heard back but we're trying everything we can think of to reproduce it, so far without success. We'll know more if we can get additional information to debug further. In the meantime, we're looking through backend logs and debug information to narrow it down.
     
  21. Baldrick

    Baldrick Registered Member

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    Hi Joe

    I do know...and all I will say is that the Webroot approach, as typified by this case, is refreshing and to be very much admired. If only everyone handled customer issues in the same way.

    Regards, and respect



    Baldrick
     
  22. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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    i have not seen this issue myself but i have had some minor issues here and there overall though it seems to work *most* of the time. i no longer use any cloud backup for anything important. i set up my desktop either at the office or at home so i can simply access it from anywhere and have the files at my disposal as well as have both my main systems making backup images to a external drive over the network as well as a off site drive for either location just in case. i have yet to find a cloud backup / sync program i can put full trust in and i think i pretty much have tried them all now. usb drives are great but can easily fail also. same goes for my main usb drive i carry a 64gb drive daily for client work mostly and i have that usb drive backed up to 2 additional exact model drives every evening. i have a multi usb port set up at home and the 2 backups are always plugged in here and i simply plug my daily one in each night and it gets copied over to the others this may shorten the life overall but i dont care i want to make sure things are kept safe.
     
  23. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    I was hoping to draw out this "PCDoctor" guy but my tactic doesn't seem to have worked. He sees fit to barge into a conversation completely out of the blue and act as jury and judge without any consideration of context.

    Both STV (I believe) and I are people who have a deep respect for the talents of Joe who has been in no small way reponsible for the amazing architecture of Prevx->WSA, also for his almost unlimited patience in spending far too much time helping people over here.

    Many of us over here have experienced changing from major AV brands that frankly didn't properly protect against malware to a product that seems virtually bomb-proof in comparison. Not a few of us over here have built up that perception from the experience of many years (7 years of Prevx->WSA in my case).

    This chap barges in without taking the trouble to get to acquaint himself with the Wilders Prevx threads and so to understand the larger picture. While his comment is obviously generally true, it is entirely inappropriate in this situation. A bank of goodwill has been merited by the sheer quality of Prevx now become WSA, and also the gracefulness and generosity of Joe its architect.

    Yes, something has seriously screwed up. Stuff happens. I have certainly not been one to mince my words. And with reason, I believe. Especially as the main product is so seriously good. But when Joe says he intends to fix the problem, I for one believe he means what he says.

    What is more, what "PCDoctor" is recommending is precisely what both STV and I have already done for the time being lol. So what exactly is he trying to say?? We have stopped using Webroot Backup & Sync and have moved to other solutions. But also left the door slightly ajar, given our overwhelmingly positive experience of the main product, ie. the AV. It would be churlish and ungraceful to do otherwise.
     
  24. pcdoctor36

    pcdoctor36 Registered Member

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    Didn't respond for the simple reason that I have no patience for vendor situations that cause data loss. I have fired tech's for it. Why should a vendor be any different? There are situations you can work with and situations you cannot. My personal view. I have monitored Prevx help for years and agree with you that the architecture is of Prevx is excellent. Data loss makes me burst a vein.
     
  25. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    @pcdoctor36: OK. Point taken.
     
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