Monday, December 17, 2007

75% of users who voted had significant or extreme problems - things are improving!

Things have been going a bit quieter here recently.

The poll on how you found the service in November 2007 received only 48 votes.

The breakdown was:

A: No problems : 5 votes (10.4%)

B: Rare problems : 7 votes (14.6%)
(within tolerable levels)

C: Significant problems : 12 votes (25.0%)
(difficult to tolerate)

D: Extreme problems : 24 votes (50.0%)
(causing severe difficulties)


So how is the service performing in December? Polling is now open and will run for a week into January.

41 comments:

EegahInc said...

I'm having little to no trouble uploading, but a lot (probably over 50%) of my old files are still missing. The last email I received from support flatly stated they have no way of identifying what files are gone. Anybody come up with a good way yet to identify lost files en masse?

Anonymous said...

The only way I can come up with is to try and download every file you have by batch downloading and look in your download manager for the ones that aren't working. Ofcourse this is still a massive chore (depending on how much files you have ... or rather should have) not to mention the fact that you'll lose lots of downloads ... especially if MM subtracts (what I think they do) an entire file from your quotum even if you download only a couple KB of it.

Another way, which would require the help of MM, is that they give you an overview (in plain text or another format) of the files and folder in your V5 account and give you the same overview for the V6 version so you can cross check to see which files didn't make it to V6.

Anonymous said...

you can do it urself with some help of davcin tools.
There are quit some post on this blog from me and Martin Hood about this.
It basically works like that u create a list of urls of ur files and you run those through a tool from link testing.
But
1) be aware testing links means ur download is counted (it did for me)
2) mediamax already stated that only valid files will me migrated to v6 so you might automatically get to the point that you will have remaining valid files

Anonymous said...

Don't know if there are more cases, but one of my companions just got double charged on his monthly account.

In more uplifting news ... I have heard on good authority that V6 beta deadline is january 7th.

Anonymous said...

hey willtriker,

please send me the name of your friend who was double billed and i'll take care of it immediately.

thanks,

-jh

Anonymous said...

hey willtriker,

please send me the name of your friend who was double billed and i'll take care of it immediately.

thanks,

-jh

Anonymous said...

Can't wait for v6 testing to start.
Uploading problems are coming back unfortunately, seems like serious delays regularly and now and then
uploads don't appear at all

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

Hello,

Thanks for writing.We're sorry you've experienced difficulties download this content. We've instituted a recent recovery operation which has recovered the vast majority of files that became missing due to our data center migration in June. Outside of these, I'm afraid it may be better to assume that any remaining content which is not available to you is corrupted and therefore unrecoverable. They may become recoverable at some point, but for now it may be more prudent to assume the data is lost.

In order to restore access to the missing data, please reupload the data or have the original owner of the content upload the data. Re-emailing the same corrupt links will not work. While we recognise that this may be a frustrating situation, please note that the service is provided on an "as-is" basis. With that said, recent improvements and enhancements to our service has made unavailability issues such as these do not recur.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any further queries.

Sincere regards,
Eugene
MediaMax Support
http://www.mediamax.com

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/online-backup-services/

It's important to note that we found complaints about all online backup services, but MediaMax (which offers a complex matrix of free and paid plans) has offended enough users to create a community of enemies. MediaMax acquired Streamload (renaming it MediaMax) and continued to receive some modestly favorable reviews in 2006. According to the roughly 400 users who have signed an online petition, the MediaMax online backup service doesn’t work as advertised. Many of the signers claim the company is engaging in fraud. A forum with about 60 posts at CNet.com tackles the same subject (and we found several similar forums online). The Ripoff Report has a new fraud claim against MediaMax. A blog site devoted to MediaMax conducts a poll to measure satisfaction or dissatisfaction. In the poll, 85 of 121 respondents report extreme problems with the service in October 2007. Only six users encountered no problems. While it's predictable that disgruntled users are more likely to write a review than satisfied customers, the preponderance of negative press for MediaMax's online backup service is impossible to ignore.

Users don’t just complain that MediaMax doesn’t work. Many claim a variety of acts of financial fraud. Editors at TopTenReviews.com rate MediaMax last in their coverage of online backup services, "because of current problems they are having." They go on to state, "We were unable to create a new account and have received reports that many other users are having issues with their accounts." In his review for Tom's Hardware, Sean Kerner adds, "Though MediaMax offered the most for free, the quality of service was unsatisfactory." Given the lack of recent review support and the abundance of angry customers, we have not included MediaMax in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers.

Anonymous said...

Eugene. Stop using bullshit terminology.

"In order to restore access to the missing data, please reupload the data or have the original owner of the content upload the data."

You lost the files. Access cannot be 'restored'.

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

I do not understand.....They supposed to have a mirror server or servers with old data, is not easy to restore the old streamload site with the lost info?

If not, the do not redudant backup system, so the new file will be lost at the first problem appear.

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

I´m moving to www.mediafire.com, it´s free.

I will go back to mediamax, when they recover my lost files, and give me a few months free due to the terrible problems they cause to me.

Anonymous said...

No beta test as of yet (am expecting it any moment though), but I do get nothing but general errors trying to do stuff in my account ... except this "The query processor could not start the necessary thread resources for parallel query execution." is an error I get trying to send something from my account.

Anonymous said...

tactica- I'd be happy to credit you a few months free. Just let me know what your username is. The file recovery process has been completed. All files that could be restored have been.

willtriker- We corrected that error yesterday. Please write to me directly if you're still having issues.
v6 alpha testing should be starting in the next several days. I'll be sending out an email to those who volunteered to test once I get a firm date but we're on course to have it done somewhere between the 18th and the end of the month.

Anonymous said...

Bah! I got 3 months credit in november. It worked ok in december, and I had 19$ left of credit. Now in january you have triple billed me yet again!!! There wasn't enough credit to cover it of course, so now my account is disabled.

Im sick of being overbilled, this has happened to me at least 3 times! That is why you don't have access to my credit card any longer.

Credit is no good when you sap it all at once with overbilling!

Anonymous said...

I've had my fill of MediaMax. I was with them when they were previously known as Streamload. Since the change over I've had nothing but problems and when over 50gigs of data became unaccessible, I called it a day. I don't want credits, I want my old data back. But since that can't happen and I refuse to spend hours reuploading data, I got what I could from my account and moved on. I'm testing out Elephant Drive and two other services. I'd advise others to do the same.

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

Jhon Hood,

My username is hseivane

The problema with files is that i do not have backup of them.

There are a lot of pictures of my litlle kid.

I´d really appreciate if you can do something with it.

Thanks.

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

Waiting for my free access to try to measure the damage generated.

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

Finally, I could recover 2 files of 10.000, any idea of how to measure the lost?

Still waiting for my free access, sorry, better said, the access i could not use because they lost my files.

I will continue posting in any blog that talks about mediamax.

Anonymous said...

There is a way to measure
the files lost, see all posts on this blog about availibility
It as stated already a couple of times that files lost will not and cannot be recovered anymore. The migration to v6 will only migrate real, live links.

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

Finally I could make a big download, not because mediamax give me the chance to download the info (I´m still waiting for my free suscription), it was possible because I imagine they have a security bug with MediaMax Xl.
This is the result:
47% 1,8Gb of 3.7GB

It´s fare away of the 64% that mediamax said that was recovered.

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

Where is John Hood?

Anonymous said...

You can try John@mediamax.com, I'm not sure that it's valid, but it's worth a try. I have emailed billing twice with absolutely no response. So I tried that address, but have had no word back as of yet.

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

John Hood, where are you going a little of respect for the mediamax user?
I was paying for a secure backup that lost 53% of my data at least.
You promised me a free account and nothing has happened.

Read this again "It's important to note that we found complaints about all online backup services, but MediaMax (which offers a complex matrix of free and paid plans) has offended enough users to create a community of enemies"

Anonymous said...

John,

If you happen to drop by please give an update about v6 plans, start testing etc..

You can email John directly (johnh at mediax dot com )

Anonymous said...

MM is totally screwed tonight,
dl not working, sending mails is not working
Influence by stock markets?

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

Missing in Action (2006)
----------

Overview
Director:Mediamax Staff
Writers:Jhon Hood (characters)
more
Release Date:Never, you never will get you files back.
Genre:Drama / Lost Data
Tagline:A company offered secure store and lost users data.
Plot Synopsis:This plot synopsis is empty. Add a synopsis
Plot Keywords:Colonel / Vietnam / Flashback Sequence / Helicopter / Cult Favorite more

Anonymous said...

I just had an unusual mediamax experience. I logged on to my account, checked out what files had arrived in my mail box, forwarded several different lots to a friend, used my back arrow in IE and it took me back to Mail and not to the File Manager. I lined up a few different downloads again returning several times to Mail using my back arrow, which hadn't worked since mediamax played with the scripts shortly after the Streamload migration, everything worked!! I couldn't believe it. This was about the first trouble free use of my account since the migration. Sure I did get a couple of Oops messages, I wasn't sure if that was oops we got something right, or Oops we got something wrong, I have never had anything go right before so it was hard to tell. But credit where credit is due, nobody pinch me, I want to see this happen again, thanks Mediamax. Never thought I would ever say that.

spook1958

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I do not agree. Since 6 months I am trying to download my three (!)(I have not more) files (each with approx. 60 KB!), and get only OOPs, and nobody can explain to me, why. Are they blocked? Is that the way to force someone to pay for something what is advertised for free? Karl

Anonymous said...

Sorry, tactica. Your account has been ugraded back to Standard and I've given you house credit for the next few months.

Anonymous said...

ff8raider-

Can I get your username please? Once I get that I can look into the situation and respond.

Thanks,

-jh

Anonymous said...

jd-

We're still shooting for late january. We're just need to finish the UI. Everything else (web services, web app) is done.

I'll let everyone know the minute it's ready.

Thanks,

-jh

Anonymous said...

My user name is petalouda.

Billing finally got back with me after 3 weeks, and credited my account 2 months. I have just been having way too many problems with the billing system, it's like it's got a mind of it's own.

Anonymous said...

My account is KarlV100, I have there only three files, each <100 KB (!). Since 6 months I am trying to download them. Every time I tried appears an Ouch-Information. You are advertising, that it is free, as I can see, it is not, and I think you are trying to force users to pay for something, which is not correct. Karl

Hernán Emilio Seivane said...

John Hood said...
Sorry, tactica. Your account has been ugraded back to Standard and I've given you house credit for the next few months.

Today I check it out, and i´ve found:

You are out of downloads. hseivane:

Tryng to download something, it gives the following error (I tried with IE7 and Opera):
Page Not Found

Oops! Something went wrong... Please refresh your browser window.

If the problem continues to persist, please contact support@mediamax.com.

Checking my account info:
Username: hseivane
User since: 09/30/2004
Password: **********
Email:
Email format: HTML (pictures)

Subscription: Standard - $9.95/month
Payment method: Visa **** ****
Balance: $29.85
Current amount due: $9.95 on 02/24/2008

Download Information
Total available: 0B
Used: 0B
Remaining: 0B

What does it mean TOTAL AVAILABLE 0?

Anonymous said...

I finally gave up.Mediamax is dead.Only a fool would trust these clowns with their files.Not me ...ever again

Anonymous said...

petalouda- I agree and we're remedying the situation by switching to another billing vendor.
tactica- I made an adjustment to your account. You're back to your normal 25GB of DL's per month.
Karl- You're getting the ouch error because your files were part of the group that was unrecoverable.

Anonymous said...

Just to make a post to show I'm still monitoring this.

Last 2 weeks have been pretty dreadfull on the uploading department with ups and downs and while yesterday things were reasonably back to normal today is another black day with the uploads getting stalled / crashed and getting horredous speeds. Any reason for this sudden spell of severely degraded performance John (forgot to ask in our email)?

Also no V6 beta as of yet. Looks like another postponement to me ... again -_-

Can't believe that I actually am paying a fee greater then my MM bill for another service just to be able to get at least some uploading to MM done.

Anonymous said...

We've had a huge uptick in uploading recently which has taxed our resources. This situation will be alleviated with v6.
beta testing has been delayed until the UI is finished. we want to create a quality product and think that's more important than rushing something out which is what happened with v5. I think we can all agree that was an unfortunate decision as we've said before. Having said that, we should be releasing the api shortly.

Thanks for your patience.

-jh

Anonymous said...

I'm also monitoring this blog (disappointed with the lack of updates), and also having lots of problems uploading.

Mediamax XL plods along seemingly reliably enough (albeit slowly), whilst FTP uploading mostly doesn't work. Either the FTP Gateway programme "terminates unexpectedly" or the CuteFTP connection times out. When it does work it clocks at about 31kbs (I'm sure in the old days it was 10 times quicker) which is just about bearable.

When I contacted MM support last week or the week before, to find out if the upload speeds would improve with MM6, they replied "I cannot guarantee an improvement with upload speeds. We can only hope for an improvement with upload speeds."

Which sounds a bit ominous.....

Anonymous said...

Yeah, ftp has some serious problems, I get about 1.5kB/s on ftp while I get 44kB/s on the web interface.

I've never gotten Mediamax XL to work correctly, my uploads just sit on processing for hours. The web upload usually refuses to go past 150mb before locking up and saying File: Null, Progress: Null