zoolz, run by retards, pt, I don't know... 634?

[pfarber]

So I cancelled my annual zoolz subscription of 250Gb online backup service. I had no real issues with the service except that renewing (aka giving them my money) had turned into a process of phone calls, emails, support chats, and just utter bullshit. I can still remember the 'support' person saying "Its REALLY easy" then rattling of 4-6 steps of emails and web sites I had to visit. Now this may be an omen that the company is in trouble, or just that the weekend support staff can't do their job.

So on Slashdot they have a /. Gear section and the sells HEAVILY DISCOUNTED software, gadgets and services. Like a software learning package or bootcamp 'worth' $2000 for $5 (ain't no web class worth $2,000). So I see that there are no less then THREE online backup services, two were 'lifetime' and on was zoolz 500Gb storage for 4 years. Since 'lifetime' means THEIR lifetime, not yours, I never seriously considered those offers. But zoolz was a service I knew and liked. And the offer was 'pay what you want'. At the time I signed up the average was $10. A $10 fee for 4 years of 250Gb 'cold' storage (aka it takes about an hour for your backup request to be serviced and ready to download) and 250Gb Dropbox like web storage. The cold storage used the same software I used previously, and the web storage uses a web page like Google Drive. So I pay the $10 (and this time it really only took 2 clicks) and got the promo code. I uninstalled my old zoolz software, installed a fresh copy and logged in with my new username and password. 3 days later 120Gb of the same files I was paying $55/yr to store are now being stored for $2.50 a year.

Now is this a play to get subs to sell the service? Probably as the zoolz software is used on at least 2 other backup services... so my guess is that zoolz is just a branded Amazon E3 service. But at $2.50 a YEAR I'll take that chance. I don't use the zoolz web storage as its not a backup service, but a file transfer service, and web based. Google drive is much easier and I use it A LOT to transfer images and music off my phone, and to copy large files to my VPS server and laptop.