Carbonite, maybe not so much

I had an external hard drive from Maxtor that I was using to back up my PC. Not the safest -- a fire or tornado or whatever would destroy my PC, and the drive that sat right next to it. But some measure of safety.

The drive, as this model from Maxtor is known to do, started dying. I got a promo offer from Carbonite to subscribe, and get a free year subscription for another computer or a friend. Figured I would do the trial, and give the freebie to my wife, Jen.

All went well -- until I tried to pay for my subscription today. The website was hanging, I could not get to a confirmation page that I was paid and covered. Got on the phone -- I was 8th in line, and waited, working, my speakerphone on, for way too long. Tried online chat -- I was 15th in the queue. I emailed them -- and still have not heard anything back.

Then, an email came saying I was signed up, with info on the free offer. All is well again, for now -- but if I ever have trouble, I'm concerned about what will happen. It seems like their web chat agents and their phone agents need some additional help to get to customers in a more timely manner.

Update: I was impressed that Carbonite sought out and commented on my blog to apologize and explain. The service is really pretty simple -- set it and forget it. But then I got a double charge on my credit card because of their system glitch. They've promised me a refund of the extra charge in 3-5 days.