Summary: Livedrive, a data storage company, has upset a few hundred of their UK customers after cancelling their service with little explanation.
Livedrive has riled a few hundred of their customers. About 400 of their UK customers, who used Livedrive’s backup service to store such things as family photos were abruptly informed that because of their “excess bandwidth” use, their accounts were to be cut off, without warning, and without further explanation.
Livedrive’s UK chief operating officer, John Eikenberry, minimized the situation, saying that thousands of people sign up for their services daily, and only 400 were affected by this decision.
When asked by the Guardian what “excessive” means in the “excessive bandwidth/storage” claim, he would not specify, claiming, “this is information we would not make public.”
“If they had simply said ‘you’re a big user of our service, here’s a business or high volume package for larger customers,’ we’d have paid up and been happy,” said one customer, Paul Parkinson, who even had his lawyer warn Livedrive not to close the account, and is now debating whether to sue.
Eikenberry admits these complaints aren’t unjustified, saying, “I’m not 100 percent satisfied with how the communication unfolded following the identification of the accounts [that we closed].”
Customers are confused and a little rattled why they are losing services, and sometimes important data, when they signed up for a service that is supposed to be unlimited.
One customer, Duncan McClymont, queried exactly this: “On an unlimited service?” Nor was an explanation forthcoming.
Despite threats of being sued, Eikenberry said “We are satisfied that the actions which we were obligated to take on this instance were carried out in accordance with the terms of our agreement with these customers.”
With parallel complaints pointing out the difficulty of calling in to the company and talking to a human being about the problem, many customers are wondering if Livedrive is a worthwhile company working with at all.