Polar Backup Reneging on Lifetime backup deals

[doobydoooby]

Hi, anyone else affected by Polar Backup effectively cancelling its lifetime deals? Apparently, a lifetime is only 3 years these days. Thank God I'm still around. I'm still trying to get my head around how a firm can sell a lifetime offer and then only three years later demand a new monthly payment against the threat of complete cancellation of what's gone before. It seems like the worst kind of breach of trust, if not breach of contract.

Unbelievably, you only have 14 days from their announcement (13 now) before everything on their server is deleted, which seems scandalous for a backup service.

Anyway, just a warning to anyone: a backup company can change their mind, walk away and you are **** out of luck.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Honestly haven’t heard of polar backup until now

Old company?

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Wow, that's pretty bad. A bunch of people on Trustpilot are making the same complaint. It sounds really scammy.

If you don't need cloud backup, this may be a good time to buy an HD/SSD solution and just backup locally. If you do go with a cloud-based system there's of course iCloud, Backblaze, Arq, iDrive and others. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[christianha1111]

Same here. I haven’t seen the Trust Pilot comments yet. I’m planning to object to the notifications asking for the legal grounds to cancel a lifetime subscription.

I doubt that a) storage cost on AWS got more expensive, b) that if it did that is provides sufficient grounds and c) that it’s possible to simply cancel a lifetime agreement by one party without refunding the initial price.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Welcome to modern marketing: Lifetime*, Unlimited*, Magical*, Free*, Funnner*, Family-Size*, Super-Size*, Jumbo*, 2X Faster*, 3X Faster*, 4X Faster*, X nanometers*, Faster than 3090*, Faster than 40XX*, Up to*, Starting at*, Easy Payments*, etc.

Caveat Emptor!

 

[Fishrrman]

This is why I would never trust "the cloud" for anything.

If you want reliable backup, create it yourself on REAL media that YOU control here "on earth"...

 

[MacGizmo]

There's no "red flag" like a "lifetime" offer... for any product or service. Companies who offer lifetime services are more often than not trying to load-up on users and then sell to a larger company – they don't care what that company does after the sale. There's simply no sustainability in offering free products or services, and there's no sustainability in offering something for a lifetime.

 

[doobydoooby]

I totally agree with everything above! Clearly, anyone offering a lifetime deal is ignorant or careless, but the offer was against AWS frozen storage, which is their least-cost basis, as Christianha states above. For me the biggest red flag is that a backup company who you rely on in your hour of need is reneging. If it were a used car salesman then perhaps, but this is a company selling safety and peace of mind. Presumably it will utterly kill their reputation. Hey Ho....

 

[doobydoooby]

Honestly haven’t heard of polar backup until now

Old company?

Well, theyve been around for at least the last 5 or 6 years....

 

[doobydoooby]

This is why I would never trust "the cloud" for anything.

If you want reliable backup, create it yourself on REAL media that YOU control here "on earth"...

I do that as well. But on the basis that theft occurs, fire flood etc. occurs, i work on the principal its nice to have an offsite backup as well just to reduce that. So for me this was a third layer protection scheme.

 

[doobydoooby]

Same here. I haven’t seen the Trust Pilot comments yet. I’m planning to object to the notifications asking for the legal grounds to cancel a lifetime subscription.

I doubt that a) storage cost on AWS got more expensive, b) that if it did that is provides sufficient grounds and c) that it’s possible to simply cancel a lifetime agreement by one party without refunding the initial price.

Their legal grounds are absolutely hilarious. The T&Cs they refer you to, whilst telling you if you don't subscribe within 14 days then they'll cut you off, actually state that a) they have the right to increase prices but that it wont affect people who bought before; and b) they have the right to cancel lifetime deals when the product is no longer valid, but in the only difference between the no-longer-valid lifetime deal and the 'new' subscription deal is that the lifetime deal was 5TB and the 'new' subscription is 6TB. Hogwash if that makes for an obsolete product. Utterly shameless.