Protect Your Money!

Online Backup Refund Policies Compared

Protect Your Money!
You finally made the jump to using an online backup service in addition to your local backup solution (you do have a local backup as well right!) but things are not going as well as you hoped. The upload might be terribly slow, or you might have discovered after you paid for the service that it can’t backup your external hard drive or perhaps you just want to move to a different service for some other reason. Backing up to the cloud has lots of benefits but there are occasions when you need to switch services. If you are needing to switch for one reason or another here is a comparison of the refund policies for many of the most popular services that are listed here on OnlineBackupDeals.com.

If you are not sure about online backup even after using the trial or their free service the following companies have a decent refund policy. For a full refund you would need to cancel your service within a short period of time. It varies depending on the service so check with your service

 
CompanyRefund PolicyDescriptionMore Info
CrashPlanYesOur No Strings cancellation policy automatically credits you for the remaining unused months on any plan.More Info
BackblazeYesThe free trial is designed to let you experience the service. However, if you sign up for a 1-year or 2-year plan and decide to cancel, you can request a refund up to 30 days after subscribing to the service. Refunds will be prorated in full month increments as if you had originally signed up for a monthly plan.More Info
MozyYesRefunds on multi-period plans (i.e. annual and biennial plans) may be granted on a prorated basis for the unused portion of the period purchased, in whole month increments, and not including the current month.More Info
IDriveYesRefunds for monthly and yearly subscriptions are issued only if the account is canceled within 15 days of its creation date.More Info
AltDriveYesHowever, if you sign up for a 1-year plan and decide to cancel, you can request a refund up to 30 days after subscribing to the service. Refunds will be prorated in full month increments as if you had originally signed up for a monthly plan.More Info

The following companies refund policy is clear, no refunds. If you sign up for these services you will not be able to get a refund if you decide it is not the right one for you.

CompanyRefund PolicyDescriptionMore Info
CarboniteNoIf you cancel your subscription, Carbonite is not obligated to refund subscription charges already paid and cancellation will take effect at the end of the current Subscription Period unless a sooner date is requested.More Info
SpiderOakNoAs is stated in our Services Agreement (https://spideroak.com/services_agreement), SpiderOak is under no obligation to provide refunds of any kind on service. However, we do believe in standing behind our product and will evaluate specific requests on a case-by-case basis.More Info
SOS Online BackupNoYou may cancel your subscription at any time however, fees for SOS products are non-refundable.More Info

You would expect that companies refund policy would be simple either yes they give you a refund or no they do not. There is always one company that stands out. In this case it is one company with four brands. The JDI Backup companies of MyPCBackup, Just Cloud, Zip Cloud and Backup Genie all share the same terms of service and refund policies with the name of the company changed accordingly. This one for example comes from the Just Cloud website:

Refunds.
By purchasing a license, you acknowledge that you are aware of the opportunity to “try before you buy” by using a free or evaluation JustCloud Product or Service. JustCloud offers a pro-rated anytime money back guarantee for JustCloud Products or Services.

Found in the Just Cloud Billing Terms.

Reading that you might believe that if you cancel your Just Cloud service you would get all of your money back except for the months that you used, similar to what Backblaze and CrashPlan offer above. Unfortunately that is not the entire story. If you look at the Terms of Service for Just Cloud or the other JDI Backup companies you will find this interesting tidbit.

(e) Early Termination Fee
We will apply a termination charge if you stop your service when still within your contract term. When you sign up for a minimum term service, the costs of that service are spread across the term period, for example over 6 months, 1 or 2 years. Discounts and any fees are also included in the agreed service costs. Early Termination charges are applied to recover the costs of the service provided to you over the minimum contract period.

Our Prices:
Your Early Termination Fee will be 14.95 for failure to complete your contract term.

Found in the Just Cloud Terms of Service.

If you do cancel your service with Just Cloud or the other JDI Backup companies you might eventually get some of your money back, but like so many up sells by these brands they even up sell you when you cancel.

If you are not sure of a companies refund policy it is always a good idea to get in touch with them and ask before you purchase. If you have a Twitter account many companies are on Twitter and will reply to questions. It can be a great way to get more information about the company.

Do you have an experience of cancelling and trying to get a refund from an online backup service? Did I miss your favorite service? Let me know in the comments and I will try and add them.


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