Support? What support?
Confusion about support
You are eligible for Standard Support via email and chat within 30 days after the purchase. You are also eligible for restore/recovery issues support regardless of the product version and the purchase date.
One support incident filed in the 30 day period can remain open beyond the 30-day period until it is closed.
Thanks for the reply,
Here's the nitty gritty....
I have only one open support incident with Acronis. I have an email response from Acronis support with the subject line:
[01463252] Live chat: No source partitions shown [ ref:00D3Zcb.5005EaX4O:ref ]
I replied to this email with an "Acronis System Report" as requested on Jan 10 2012 (with the subject line intact). Having heard nothing within a few days I replied on Jan 16th requesting a status report. It's now Jan 21st and I have yet to receive a response.
Here's my conundrum... How do I contact technical support about this issue if they won't reply to my messages for an open support incident while at the same time tell me my "30 day" tech support is ended?
Open a case to get a refund. Whatever your problem is, they're not going to fix it.
Huh?
Please reread my conundrum. How can I open a case if they won't let me open one without going to 'Pay per Incident' and costing more than any refund I might get?
Anybody have a more practical idea?
I had a similar issue with BSOD that could not get resolved and spent hours forcing the system to BSOD to give more
and more information to the point that I gave up and have requested a refund... I just can't spend hours
giving them debug information of all sorts and still not getting to do backups/clones...
So I did go through the instructions to remove all the acronis drivers and editied the registry and
now all my CF cards readers work and USB devices again...
I have used acronis since Windows 200O NT but not anymore.... To bad, cause I really liked i, but took to much time
and not enough confidence....
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
It seems I have the opposite problem where Acronis doesn't want to try anything with me at all.
In my case TI can't read my drives for a partition or drive backup. Funny that it reads the drives fine for a file backup. From what I've read in this forum and other places it's a common problem with no certain solution. What works for one computer won't work for the other.
At any rate...you hit it right on the nail when you say 'not enough confidence'. Their slogan "Computing with Confidence" is laughable.
So lets change direction...my money is gone and Acronis won't support their product. Any suggestions for alternatives to True Image anybody???
Yes, I have gone to paragon and have no issues with any of the system with the cloning process.
I have also verified they were good by simulating a dead disk and forcing a fail over to the
cloned drive. No issues what so ever.. And, my CF cards still work and all the USB drives work..
So my money is probably gone as well. But I am glad I did what I had to do....
I upgraded to TI 2012 early in January 2012 and had problems. I had a chat with support which couldn't be resolved in that session. It's been two weeks and I haven't heard anything.
Now when I log on I am presented with the message that my support for TI expired in January 2012 and that I have no support options except this live community.
What's going on? I paid for this program and expect support. How do I contact tech support if they won't let me?
Sorry to hear about your troubles, Joe, but unfortionately this is what you unwittingly signed up for when you bought 2012.. and there are no signs that it is going to do anything but get worse. There are just too many problems.. and apparently not enough support people. Generally a sign that an IT company is about to lose it.. I've seen it too many times.
In any situation where a company completely stops responding (especially in the middle of a support situation), my first suggestion would always be to file a report with the BBB. If that doesn't work, you're pretty much stuck getting a lawyer. Those are the only ways I know to get a non-responsive company to respond.. the only thing else you can do is throw in the towel (and throw away your money.. and your time). In some cases you can get in touch with someone in upper management to help, but I don't think that would work here.. they MUST know what is going on right now (and having a cow, I would presume).
Acronis use to be SUCH a good company.. it really makes you wonder what happened.
Thanks for the replies everybody...much appreciated.
I've never complained to the BBB before. I'll give Acronis another week or so before I do that.
Hire a lawyer for a $25 upgrade? That wouldn't make sense without a good number of other people with a similar complaint and filing a class action lawsuit. I might get $10 back after all fees and court costs.
It's nice to make a point but is this one worth it?
In the meantime I need software to back up my computers. Thanks for the Paragon suggestion. Easeus Todo looks to be well rated too. It's disappointing to see Acronis in the #1 paid backup software rankings.
If you paid by CC, then dispute the charge and you will get a refund.
I went through the exact same scenario. Repeated requests for info, then silence, then no contact for weeks, then support timed-out, then no contact for weeks. Finally, I contacted by CC provider. Acronis takes a LONG time to grant a refund.
Thanks hhansard!!
Now there's a good idea! $25 isn't a big deal but like everybody else I hate buying stuff only to find out that's it's broken and then they won't take it back.
A $25 credit on my credit card will be a nice little surprise a year or two from now :)
So two positive actions to take:
Complain to the BBB
Dispute the credit card charge
Thanks hhansard!!
Now there's a good idea! $25 isn't a big deal but like everybody else I hate buying stuff only to find out that's it's broken and then they won't take it back.
A $25 credit on my credit card will be a nice little surprise a year or two from now :)
So two positive actions to take:
Complain to the BBB
Dispute the credit card charge
I don't think the CC company will do anything about this.. they can be a real bear about disputes, especially when you did actually receive something in return. I guess anything is worth trying, though!
Joe,
You could contact a moderator here and see if they can find out where your case has got to in the system.
You should have received an email with the case number, replying to that will allow you to keep contacting support.
Do I have a case number? This is the subject line for replies about my case:
[01463252] Live chat: No source partitions shown [ ref:00D3Zcb.5005EaX4O:ref ]
I assume 01463252 is my case number. Otherwise the support person didn't give me a case number.
And how do I contact a moderator here?
Hello!! Moderator!!
Bah! What can a moderator do? I have no confidence never mind trust in Acronis.
I officially declare this thread dead. Please...no more responses.
Well, I had already referred your problem to a moderator.
Yes that is your case number, so replying to that email means you don't need to go via the support page as far as this problem is concerned.
As most of the moderators are in Russia, they won't see this post for a few more hours.
I wish to concur with people on this thread - "support" has become non existent.
My computer won't shut down on occasions since installing. I've submitted a support ticket, all I got in response was a request to fill out a customer service questionnaire!
Backup was never supposed to be this hard.
No support at all, I have problems with the 2012 version and send twice an email to support no reaction. advise don't buy this product any more and look for an other product like Paragon
2012 is just flat out bad!!!! I am having to reformate both my laptop & desktop because they never installed correctly & can't repair either. Even the clean up tool failed. The Sync program should be able to turn off immediately after installation. It ruined my desktop. I wasted $50 bucks plus a $10 support call for nothing!
Do not upgrade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pat
As most of the moderators are in Russia, they won't see this post for a few more hours.
Sounds like the moderators are in the wrong time zone and/or never heard of rotating shifts. Since this IS one of the only way to get any real type of help on the product, it seems like Acronis would adjust their time to their market.. like the rest of the freaking world!
Hello everyone,
I would like to thank everybody for their feedback and help.
Joe, we are really sorry for the delay. I am not sure at the moment what caused it, please rest assured that our Management team is aware of the situation and we will address the issue right away.
Roger, if I am correct, this case was closed prematurely: 01287077. The reason it was closed automatically is because our support system did not get any replies from you for several weeks after which the case was automatically closed.
Acronis Customer, your case is currently with our Expert team, we are working on resolving this issue.
Glen, I found your case and our Support representative reached out to you. Please let me know if you need additional help with it.
Reiger, I did not find any cases in our system. Please let me know if you went through our support wizard from your Acronis web-account when submitting your request.
Patrick, we are working on this problem and if it turns out to be a known issue we will refund your PPI fee.
If you need additional help with your cases feel free to contact me directly.
Thank you.
[quote=Anton
Roger, if I am correct, this case was closed prematurely: 01287077. The reason it was closed automatically is because our support system did not get any replies from you for several weeks after which the case was automatically closed.
[/quote]
Anton,
The reason you quit getting replies from me is because I was getting the same "can we close your ticket?" email from support every single week. My answer was always "did you fix the issue?".. only to be quickly followed by another "can we close your ticket?" from you. This went on for WEEKS! The techs should have known if the issue was fixed or not (I've done enough free testing for you.. my going rate is $90/hr), so why were they asking me if they had fixed it? Better yet, why weren't they ANSWERING me when I asked if the problem had been fixed? Oh, and there was that annoyingly continous supply of survey emails I was getting from Acronis the whole time.. so of course I gave up on replying. My replies weren't doing ANYTHING!
The biggest problem is that there have been SO many other problems crop up since then.. I just can't report them because my "support period has ended". Half the functions in the program seem to have a problem and there is no way to report them.
So I came here.. and am about to pass the official support thread for the most active thread with the simplest of statements: "ATIH 2012 doesn't work". That HAS to say something about your product and [cough] support.
I really have been a strong supporter of Acronis for years (my last version was v10.0) and I was very much looking forward to the upgrade, but the response to the my other thread should show you that you are fighting a losing battle by just trying to deal with customers in the forums on a part-time basis.
It is sad, but it is easier to state what actually works than everything that is broken with ATIH 2012!
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate these occasional visits you make to the forums to try to help.. but with Acronis cutting off support, how can you possibly expect to get this product fixed? I'm certainly not going to take the chance that a tech is going to call an Acronis problem my fault and charge me for support.. and I believe I speak for MANY with that statement.
Open back up support.. before it's too late! At least email bug reporting (no charge/24 hour response/tickets not closed until the tech certifies themselves that the problem is fixed). This shouldn't be hard considering that most of the bugs reported here are repeatable.
Good to see some response from support, looks like these guys are doing what they can to help us out.
Anton,
Thanks for the reply and the status report for all who aired their complaints and have legitimate outstanding support issues. I've never known a moderator of a forum and step up to bat and take on a role for technical support.
But why did it have to come to this? More importantly, what is everybody to do about backing up their computers in the meantime? I'm always updating and upgrading my software and I don't dare install a program without a verified image backup. I can't wait another week or two for Acronis to try and solve my particular issue.
To all those looking for an immediate replacement to Acronis TI, there appears to be an adequate selection of free alternatives with comparable basic features as Acronis True Image. The highest rated free (for personal use) disk imaging software appears to be Paragon Backup & Recovery and Easeus Todo Backup.
I'm expecting a lot from your reply Anton. If I don't hear from support in a timely fashion (within 5 business days; yes I'll be generous and give the week) at my email address of record I will abandon Acronis True Image. In addition, I will start a thread in this forum encouraging those with support issues to not waste their time and abandon Acronis TI promptly. If that new thread appears it will refer to this thread which will be a testament to Acronis support and the ineffectiveness of the moderators of this forum.
Thanks everybody for your submissions. It seems we hit a nerve. To Roger, Acronis Customer, Glen, Reiger and Patrick; I hope that Anton's promises aren't empty.
Joe
Your optimism is refreshing, Joe, but I already started a thread similar to the one you're talking about (thread 27184: ATIH 2012 is not working product. Do NOT buy it. If you have bought it, return it.).. which has gone "viral", by this site's standards.
I would give up and walk away but I need a working uninstaller.. I have YEARS of codecs and video software loaded on this computer and I really don't want to kill it trying to remove this stupid software (nor to I want to take the dozens of hours to do it on my own.. these people have stolen too much of my time).
Hi Roger,
My thread will be distinctly different. Your thread title implies a nonworking product. My thread will imply a dysfunctional support system.
If Acronis doesn't provide me 'customer Satisfaction', either a solution to my support issue or a refund, this will become a two front war on a substandard product that provides anemic support.
This thread has all the makings of going 'viral'. I might not need to start the other threatened thread. But when a thread gets too long many people skim over all the posts and don't really read them. Sometimes a thread needs refreshing; a reincarnation if you will.
But before I go to war I would like to see if Anton's peace offerings yield results. I'd like to ask Acronis Customer, Glen, Reiger and Patrick to post their progress with their support issues. New support issues are welcome too. Let's see if this thread has achieved real results or if Anton's actions are just a 'knee jerk' reaction to a (forum) pressure point.
I think this thread has become partially successful if only to get the moderator to act on our behalf. For that I give Acronis some credit; not much...but some. Let's see what happens next.
An update;
I received an email from Acronis support. It came as no surprise that they had a Snapi driver update for me to install. I uninstalled the old driver with success but met failure with installing the new driver. No surprise really.
I've made it clear that they have until January 31, 2012 to come up with a solution or provide a refund (see my last post). Come February 1st they will either have a happy or disgruntled customer.
Any bets on what it is? :)
To the moderator...that's a figure of speech and not an invitation to gambling.
Hello Joe,
You make many good and valid points. The problem is that there are just too many problems.. and taking the refund is a problem because of all the horror stories about removing the product.
With no direct way for customers to report bugs (without the fear of being charged), Acronis is going to have one big headache trying to get all these problems ironed out.. and it's not going to happen in the forums, that's for sure (no tracable support IDs).
The public (or at least the forum) has spoken rather loudly about their discourse with Acronis and nothing seems to have changed.. I hold out hope but I don't think it will come quickly. Hopefully it will come before it's too late for Acronis to recover from the bad press it's getting.. even the Amazon reviewers (yes, I'm one of them) are taking swings at ATIH 2012 for being.. well, for being what it is.. and the scale is tipping the wrong way very quickly.
I still say the best thing Acronis could do to save face (and possibly their company), is to open support back up.. at least until they can replace the people in charge of testing and start releasing SOLID products again. THEN maybe they can think about charging for support.. although I wouldn't recommend it. After all, they're the ones that decided to mess with low level Windows drivers. You simply can't do that without offering good support.. especially when your programmers are making so many mistakes. One would think that would be common sense.. at least it was everywhere I worked. Heads would roll over a debacle like this.
On thing I do agree with you on, I think it's sink or swim time for Acronis. I hope they choose to swim.
Hi Again Roger,
When I bought/upgraded True Image I didn't check to see what kind of support my money bought. I had no idea the support period was so short. 30 days is ridiculous especially for a 'mission critical' application such as True Image.
I can see this scenario happening over and over....What happens if you backup for 6 months and then use recover for the first time only to find everything that could go wrong did go wrong? It's the first time you use 'Recovery' only to find out that the recovery disk can't read the image files. You look for help and then find out you had support for just 30 days. Why should you have to pay (PPI) for something you didn't do wrong except suffer a PC meltdown?
As I mentioned earlier I believe the Acronis support model is revenue driven for their bottom line and not in the interest of Acronis's customers. Given the problems with TI 2012 I can only surmise that Acronis cares more for lining their pockets than their customers. I agree that they should change their support model (not necessarily 'open it up') to something more reasonable such as free 60 day telephone support, one year free chat and unlimited email. Put limits on each support type such as 2 or 3 incidents per cycle for phone & chat and per year for email before a PPI charge applies. The limits are necessary to make customers think twice about the severity of their problem and not waste the time of the support team.
It's not right for Acronis to abandon their customers after just 30 days not to mention that it's a disastrous 'customer loyalty' model. There's no way they'll hang on to customers without support. Are you listening Acronis? Do you want to keep customers upgrading? Then you better offer support and not 'hang them out to dry'. I hope the idiom is not lost on you.
Can anybody tell me if there is volunteer/invitation Acronis alpha/beta testing program? I've never heard of one (although that doesn't mean there isn't one). If there isn't, internal testing is simply foolish. How can you possibly simulate so many computers and personal configurations in a lab environment?
And now a quick update on my support issue:
I had a telephone call with support and a 'webex' session. My 'known issue' could not be resolved using 'known' remedies (what does that tell you about quality control?). Tech support wants to use an Acronis 'cleanup' utility to uninstall TI 2012. They suggested, and I would have insisted, on a full backup. I did a full backup using a TI 2012 recovery boot disk. Funny how the boot disk works fine but not the Win7 program eh? I have another phone call scheduled for tomorrow evening for the 'clean uninstall' and re-installation.
I'm perplexed as to why a normal uninstall doesn't do the same thing as a 'clean' uninstall. And listen to this...the support guy even admitted that my installation problem might be because of what TI 2011 left behind! Talk about a classic case of shooting yourself in the foot. But in all fairness to Acronis they aren't the only ones guilty this. I'm just sick and tired of seeing it.
If I 'go dark' for a couple of days you'll know why. 'Computing with Confidence' with Acronis is a contradiction and not a reassurance.
Acronis Customer, Glen, Reiger and Patrick...Any progress with your support issues?
Joe,
SUPPOSEDLY, Acronis will help with backups and restores even after the 30 day period without cost. Unfortionately, it is up to the tech to decide if it was your problem or theirs.. and you can bet what they are going to TRY to pick.
I couldn't agree more about extending support indefinately (or at least until EOL), but with software this important (it IS a mission critical application) and it has so many bugs that limiting the number of incidents to 2 or 3 a year would still not work. If they simply started releasing software as stable as the pre-2010 versions, support wouldn't be needed as much. But it seems (from reading the forums) that ver 2010 was the start of a free-fall of disasters, so support is more important now than ever.
And the webex thing.. that freaking drives me crazy. Here they are complaining about how much support costs and yet they have their techs spending all this time logging on to our computers and taking 30-40 minutes to perform a task that we could do in 10! Whose crazy idea was that? I'll tell you what, they wouldn't be working for me anymore!
As far as the success with the rescue disc, that one is easy. It runs Linux. There is also the fact that there are no applications running on the system to interfere with the backup but then again, it is impossible to guarentee a backup of a system that is running. If it "snapshots" a file that is currently being written to, that file will be corrupt on the backup. Funny thing.. they kinda leave that part out, but that's why they want you to use the RD. It just works better because Linux is many times more stable than Windows and is MUCH easier to program in (most programs this size are written in C.. and so is Linux, so C is natural to Linux.. as it is to UNIX).
As far as beta testing, disaster recovery is not condusive to it. Too much time and too much at stake. That doesn't mean that it can't or shouldn't be done.. there will be some volunteers. It can be done internally, just not if the company has torn down their QA department (as many IT companies have done lately). That has killed a number of companies lately. One of the problems is that many IT companies let the "bean counters" run the show to try to save money and end up with someone that has no idea what they are doing in charge. I have seen that in way too many companies (those are the ones that I quickly move on from.. life is too short to work for a sinking company when they won't even listen to reason).
As always, good luck!
Rog
Hi again Roger,
Your comments are, to say the least, interesting. I found TI 2011 to be fairly stable. But then again I use it primarily for making images of my system drive (C:). I use a separate partition for data which I back up daily with different software using a file for file copy so my data is accessible in any disaster that would need little more than a boot disk of any OS. I also do a daily file for file copy of 'Application Data' on drive C: I use Acronis only so that I can restore the OS and programs.
I did have one issue with TI 2011. The boot disk didn't always work. It would boot the computer but TI didn't run. All I got was a blank screen. So Linux didn't work so well in that instance. And I've worked with Linux, Mandrake and Red Hat. Drivers and software were lacking. Linux talking with Windows 'n Apple devices (phones, PDA's and the like) was problematic to say the least. Windows and Apple didn't play nice with Linux.
Your opinion of 'Webex' amuses me. At work we have a flaky (cheap) facilities management program. My first webex experience was with them. I was more than happy to let them 'have at' my work computer. I found it to be a 'watch 'n learn' experience. Yes they could have given me instructions to do all that but it would have taken much longer. I beg to differ with your opinion that: "they have their techs spending all this time logging on to our computers and taking 30-40 minutes to perform a task that we could do in 10!" unless your support person was a complete idiot. My webex experience both at work and with TI was more positive than negative. In my case tech support actually had a clue about what they were doing.
My support issue has been resolved to my satisfaction...for now. My 'support ticket' is still open. I have more 'tests' to perform before I sign off and close this incident.
But resolving my issue doesn't excuse the "Welcome to My Nightmare" upgrade to TI 2012. There is lots broken at Acronis, both with software and its support mechanism. When 2013 comes around I doubt that I'll be an Acronis customer.
Everytime I get one of those Acronis "upgrade deal!" emails, I come to these forums to see if the consensus regarding 2012 has changed. Sadly, it never does. It's unfortunate, and the lack of support quite the mis-step on Acronis's part.
They have many longtime and loyal customers. I myself have been a registered Acronis user since 2004. I'm also one of those who, upon upgrading, immediately disable all the 'fluff'...the non-stop, etc. I simply want a reliable backup solution. With the exeception of a few years (versions), Acronis has provided this. And, when those 'weak' versions appeared, I knew I could wait until the next year for a more stable, usable version.
What's different now is that Acronis has seemed to drop the ball in customer relations and support. Not that it was ever perfect, mind you, but some of the accounts I'm reading portray a company in real trouble.
Installation issues have frequently been a problem, but nothing that couldn't be resolved by remembering a few important steps when upgrading:
1) ALWAYS create an image with the working install before "upgrading", so that if things go south, you can merely restore the backup and be back to your working version of Acronis
2) Where ATI is concerned, 'upgrade' is merely a figure of speech that means using a new version. With ATI, one should NEVER upgrade over an old version, but rather do a complete uninstall of the previous version (after step 1, of course). You should be able to find an uninstall procedure for that year in the knowledge base. I've generally just used Revo uninstaller to do the job.
3) ALWAYS install the new version of ATIH (following steps 1 & 2 first, of course) immediately so that, in the increasingly likely event that it hoses your system and refuses to be "set right", you cna request your refund in a timely manner.
4) ALWAYS keep a running record of emails, etc. for any suuport or refund requests so that when Acronis drags their feet, you have legal documentation of the process.
I am using version 2011 at the moment, and it is and has been working quite well (of course, after installing, I immediately disable non-stop, etc.). And, given the general consensus regarding 2012, I find it unlikely that I'll upgrade. I'll give it another year and see how things go.
I will say that Acronis quality and support have been at an all-time low in recent years. I genuinely hope that this changes. I want to stay with Acronis, but the truth is, given that my needs require only basic backup function, I'm a prime candidate for and could easily switch to Paragon or free Macrium Reflect without disrupting my backup process in the least.
This, however, is something I'd rather not do. I guess that's up to Acronis. An opportunity to turn things around and retain their customer base. That's how Acronis should look at things.
@MH
You forgot an important one:
5) NEVER install ATIH 2012 since it will mess with Windows system drivers and cannot be undone without risky changes (in the exact correct order) to the system's registry. Instead only use the boot media. To create the WinPE media the only correct sequence is: full-backup (with verify), install ATIH2012, install Plus, install Windows AIK, create media, full-restore.
NEVER install ATIH 2012 since it will mess with Windows system drivers and cannot be undone without risky changes (in the exact correct order) to the system's registry. Instead only use the boot media.
That is likely overstating it. It's likely that thousands of customers use ATIH 2012 regularly, blissfully unaware that a certain percentage of users encounter such problems.
@tuttle
Okay, you asked for it. Go read the messages on this board.
The biggest problem is the Acronis driver bypassing the Windows OS Hardware Abstraction Layer and replacing it with an inferior substitute. Those thousands of Customers that use ATHI2012 and are "blissfully" unaware that their OS has been compromised and the product appears to work.
However if in a few months these "blissfully" unaware customers add an SSD, USB or cardreader device which is not covered by the poor substitute then they will notice it will not work. And in a few months they will never be able to trace it back to the poor HAL software hack they installed with Acronis a few months back. And even if they did an uninstall to exclude this factor it will not help because this poor substitute is never removed, not even by the Acronis cleanup program. Acronis will only help for a fee at that time and as you can also read on this forum "help" also includes ruining your system, not replying at all, continuously requesting log data until you give up or assigning a call centre employee form India or Russia with minimal knowledge of the the English language fed by pre-cooked scripts but without any real knowledge about the product.
Acronis made a fatal mistake replacing a vital Windows OS component with their own. A quick look on this forum shows how bad this mistake was and I would not be surprised if ATIH 2012 would be the last version ever, killing the company. At least I'm not going to buy Acronis products any more and reading the forum I'm not alone.
ATIH2012 is only suitable as bootable backup solution, the windows part is broken en even breaks your OS with no going back (not even after a trial version)
If you want to know more, go read the forum. It is full of it and it doesn't help one bit to resolve the problems with this product, this message included so I'm not going to waste my time any longer.
Yep, I'm aware that there are many issues with 2012. Having used ATIH since version 8, I recall seeing plenty of complaints about each new release. I'm sure not claiming that there aren't problems with 2012, as there surely are. But, people with issues are always over-represented in user forums, as that's why most of them come here. The huge number of user who don't encounter issues don't bother to post here.
@tuttle
Okay, you asked for it. Go read the messages on this board.
The biggest problem is the Acronis driver bypassing the Windows OS Hardware Abstraction Layer and replacing it with an inferior substitute. Those thousands of Customers that use ATHI2012 and are "blissfully" unaware that their OS has been compromised and the product appears to work.
However if in a few months these "blissfully" unaware customers add an SSD, USB or cardreader device which is not covered by the poor substitute then they will notice it will not work. And in a few months they will never be able to trace it back to the poor HAL software hack they installed with Acronis a few months back. And even if they did an uninstall to exclude this factor it will not help because this poor substitute is never removed, not even by the Acronis cleanup program. Acronis will only help for a fee at that time and as you can also read on this forum "help" also includes ruining your system, not replying at all, continuously requesting log data until you give up or assigning a call centre employee form India or Russia with minimal knowledge of the the English language fed by pre-cooked scripts but without any real knowledge about the product.
Acronis made a fatal mistake replacing a vital Windows OS component with their own. A quick look on this forum shows how bad this mistake was and I would not be surprised if ATIH 2012 would be the last version ever, killing the company. At least I'm not going to buy Acronis products any more and reading the forum I'm not alone.
ATIH2012 is only suitable as bootable backup solution, the windows part is broken en even breaks your OS with no going back (not even after a trial version)
If you want to know more, go read the forum. It is full of it and it doesn't help one bit to resolve the problems with this product, this message included so I'm not going to waste my time any longer.
Bingo. I've visited a lot of software (and hardware) forums over the years and there is always a percentage of people with issues. A good percentage of those though, result in their issues being rectified. Just because user so-and-so isn't here and is theoretically using the product "without issue", doesn't mean some wicked mean problem may not appear some day. Scary.
@tuttle
I know of the problems with earlier versions. But the severity of the problem with ATIH2012 is in a totally different league compared to all the previous versions. The installation of all the previous versions could be reversed to undo any ill effects. Also the problems where at a much higher level at GUI or program control level, not deep down in driver code used in the very core of the Windows system. This makes the problems with ATIH2012 completely different and unless the next fix includes going back to the way it was before 2012 without bypassing the HAL I think it cannot be fixed.
It is a major design goof to mess with the Windows core components without having a design staff with equal experience and vendor backing as the Microsoft programmers who build the I/O subsystems. That's why you should use the HAL, not bypass it thinking you can do better, you can't afford it unless you are Microsoft, Google, part of the Linux community or another major player. As it shown here it will just hit you in the face. No way Acronis can test all the different components and combinations out there. Unexpected things happen like the not working Try and Decide on SSD's because the SSD's starts trimming data which Acronis thinks is locked by a snapshot. And there is nothing you can do to fix except yield and go back using the HAL like before.
Must read: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/26638 This topic says it all.
Yep, I'm aware that there are many issues with 2012. Having used ATIH since version 8, I recall seeing plenty of complaints about each new release. I'm sure not claiming that there aren't problems with 2012, as there surely are. But, people with issues are always over-represented in user forums, as that's why most of them come here. The huge number of user who don't encounter issues don't bother to post here.
I have used 8, 9 and 10.. all without problems. I'm not saying that they didn't have problems, but they were nothing like this.
It has already been stated by Acronis in these forums that 85% of the customers are not having problems with 2012. The only way they would be able to tell that is if a full 15% of the customers ARE having problem (plus there will be ones that don't report the problems because they just don't like dealing with any support). 15% is a HUGE number when you are talking about the number of people having problems with a disaster recovery software!
It has already been stated by Acronis in these forums that 85% of the customers are not having problems with 2012.
I think Acronis will count me as somebody who does not have a problem. ATIH2012 works on my PC however with its internal working bypassing vital Windows drivers I do not trust the product any more and reversed the installation by going back to a backup I make before installing 2012. I also hate the activation policy.
How on earth could I open a support call for that? Log a call saying "I don't trust the product anymore"? I could open a support call for a refund, but I want to keep the bootable media since it covers hardware better than 2010, my previous version which had problems some PC hardware. I could log a call saying I want this stupid activation removed, but that seems rather pointless too.
So I count as satisfied customer while I am not. So even the 85% is too high, it doesn't count the many customers like me.
Yep, I'm aware that there are many issues with 2012. Having used ATIH since version 8, I recall seeing plenty of complaints about each new release. I'm sure not claiming that there aren't problems with 2012, as there surely are. But, people with issues are always over-represented in user forums, as that's why most of them come here. The huge number of user who don't encounter issues don't bother to post here.
I have used 8, 9 and 10.. all without problems. I'm not saying that they didn't have problems, but they were nothing like this.
It has already been stated by Acronis in these forums that 85% of the customers are not having problems with 2012. The only way they would be able to tell that is if a full 15% of the customers ARE having problem (plus there will be ones that don't report the problems because they just don't like dealing with any support). 15% is a HUGE number when you are talking about the number of people having problems with a disaster recovery software!
Indeed, when you're selling who knows how many hundreds of thousands of copies of the program, 15% (by admission) is a lot of customers. And yes, many won't report issues as they may range from (the user's perception to be) minor to undetected.
It has already been stated by Acronis in these forums that 85% of the customers are not having problems with 2012.I think Acronis will count me as somebody who does not have a problem. ATIH2012 works on my PC however with its internal working bypassing vital Windows drivers I do not trust the product any more and reversed the installation by going back to a backup I make before installing 2012. I also hate the activation policy.
How on earth could I open a support call for that? Log a call saying "I don't trust the product anymore"? I could open a support call for a refund, but I want to keep the bootable media since it covers hardware better than 2010, my previous version which had problems some PC hardware. I could log a call saying I want this stupid activation removed, but that seems rather pointless too.
So I count as satisfied customer while I am not. So even the 85% is too high, it doesn't count the many customers like me.
85% is nowhere realistic though it may be possible that's the number of people they aren't hearing from. Just because you don't hear from customers, that doesn't mean you don't have any with a problem. The worst issue is that people have a problem or at least a potential problem and don't even know about it. If you hadn't visited this forum and discovered how Acronis has mucked up the drivers and bypassed the HAL, would you have uninstalled? Probably not and so wouldn't heaven knows how many other users out there who are blissfully unaware of what might come back to bite them in the butts some day. And like you, can they open a support ticket months later when/if they discover it's atih at fault when they start to have an issue? Not unless they have money. Sad.
And the webex thing.. that freaking drives me crazy. Here they are complaining about how much support costs and yet they have their techs spending all this time logging on to our computers and taking 30-40 minutes to perform a task that we could do in 10! Whose crazy idea was that? I'll tell you what, they wouldn't be working for me anymore!
I know what you mean. I contacted "Acronis Support Professional" first time in my life with ATI 2012, and that "Acronis Support Professional" was like my grandmother first time with computer. He/She tried to install ATI 2012 over and over again, mixed up my Windows settings. I just watched and thought what the hell he/she doing. Maybe he/she next play some Minesweeper. You might guess that problem did not fixed at all, my system was even worse after "Acronis Support Professional".
If fingers are all thumbs then maybe this "Acronis Support Professional" is better than some random guy on a street but you are probably are more experienced that them.
I know of the problems with earlier versions. But the severity of the problem with ATIH2012 is in a totally different league compared to all the previous versions. The installation of all the previous versions could be reversed to undo any ill effects. Also the problems where at a much higher level at GUI or program control level, not deep down in driver code used in the very core of the Windows system. This makes the problems with ATIH2012 completely different and unless the next fix includes going back to the way it was before 2012 without bypassing the HAL I think it cannot be fixed.
This is so true. I have used ATI since v6/7 and 2012 is definitely worst version. I think it is worst software that I have ever tested. I even cannot install 2012 to my desktop, and it screwed up my laptop to BSOD. Acronis should definitely leave system drivers untouched.
==> But, people with issues are always over-represented in user forums, as that's why most of them come here. The huge number of user who don't encounter issues don't bother to post here.
Basically true, but there is a BUT. With 2012, there are really three states: it works; it fails noticeably; it fails -- but you don't notice it until too late. For most, 2012 is probably working OK. For those that it is not working and they notice it right away -- some of these folks post here. However, there are many with issues that won't manifest themselves until a catastrophic failure.
Just take a look at some of the bugs: wrong date on backups, deletion of a backup chain removes the wrong files and corrupts the backup sequence, insertion of full backups in a incremental chain, etc. These are course-level bugs and universal to 2012 -- yet only a handful of folks reported them. Thousands of folks have these issues, but did not notice, do not care or don't bother to post.
The assertion that forms are for complainers, so complaints can be discounted is false. The pharmaceutical industry (where serious event reporting is mandatory under law) is recognized as having the highest complaint reporting standard. However, the industry accepted norm is that only about 5 percent of serious issues get reported. So if a company gets 5 reports of a serious event (like death), then there are another 95 unreported...
With Acronis, the truth will come when they solicit for 2013 upgrade fees... How many will upgrade? How many sill stick with 2011? How many here plan to upgrade? Anyone?
To answer hhansard:
I should read license agreements before agreeing to install a program. With most programs you're allowed to install the program on a desktop and a laptop. I was able to do this with Acronis 11 and MS Office just to name a couple. This isn't possible with Acronis TI 2012. That fact aside I'm now faced with the daunting task of removing TI 2012 from my desktop. I doubt that Acronis tech support will help me with that. If anybody has links to instructions or programs to do this it would be very much appreciated.
But getting to the upgrade question presented by hhanssard; Will I upgrade? The answer is a resounding "No!". I might have 'teetered on the fence' for a while if I had been able to install TI 2012 on my desktop. Given the problems with installing on my laptop I will not pay again for a shoddy product with extremely short and substandard support.
I need to backup my desktop. Since Acronis won't allow 2 activations per person I have little choice but to use another product on my desktop. So this is what will happen:
1. I will find a way to remove Acronis TI 2012 from my desktop computer
2. I will find a replacement imaging software
3. I will install it on the desktop
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed
5. When I find a replacement that works repeat step 1 on the laptop computer
6. Then repeat step 3 on the laptop with the successful imaging software.
Is that a lot of work? Probably. But so is any kind of divorce. Thank god this one only cost me $25.
It has already been stated by Acronis in these forums that 85% of the customers are not having problems with 2012.I think Acronis will count me as somebody who does not have a problem. ATIH2012 works on my PC however with its internal working bypassing vital Windows drivers I do not trust the product any more and reversed the installation by going back to a backup I make before installing 2012. I also hate the activation policy.
How on earth could I open a support call for that? Log a call saying "I don't trust the product anymore"? I could open a support call for a refund, but I want to keep the bootable media since it covers hardware better than 2010, my previous version which had problems some PC hardware. I could log a call saying I want this stupid activation removed, but that seems rather pointless too.
So I count as satisfied customer while I am not. So even the 85% is too high, it doesn't count the many customers like me.
85% is nowhere realistic though it may be possible that's the number of people they aren't hearing from. Just because you don't hear from customers, that doesn't mean you don't have any with a problem. The worst issue is that people have a problem or at least a potential problem and don't even know about it. If you hadn't visited this forum and discovered how Acronis has mucked up the drivers and bypassed the HAL, would you have uninstalled? Probably not and so wouldn't heaven knows how many other users out there who are blissfully unaware of what might come back to bite them in the butts some day. And like you, can they open a support ticket months later when/if they discover it's atih at fault when they start to have an issue? Not unless they have money. Sad.
To think that the statement "only 85% of the users are NOT having problems" is an UNDERstatement is downright frightning. Disaster recovery software should be released with the satisfaction level in the high 90 percentile range.. with an initial release target of at least 98% satisfaction (not including feature requests). With the horrible satisfaction numbers they're getting on this release, I would be doing some serious housecleaning.. at least that's what most companies do (at least the ones that want to survive). One really bad release (and a 15% "failure" rate is indeed really bad) can knock a company clean out of the running on their next release. When your releases are getting worse every year (as 2010, 2011 and 2012 have reportedly done), someone need to WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE (I know you don't answer me on these subjects, Acronis, but are you listening? I make really good money giving this type of advice to companies.. yours is free).
The implication from Acronis' earlier post was that 15% of the users of 2012 were having issues.. presumably large issues like the one's posted in this forum. If they know that it is that bad, why aren't they opening up the support lines to get this 15% put to bed? I have posted several questions and suggestions (I kinda do this for a living) to them in the forums but seem to get nothing but ignored by Acronis.
people with issues are always over-represented in user forums, as that's why most of them come here. The huge number of user who don't encounter issues don't bother to post here.
Over-represented, maybe.. but there seems to be serious lack of representation of users that actually like this product. Usually people (often lurkers) will come out of the woodwork.. many of the first time posters.. to defend a product. Hasn't really happened here.. even to my surprise. Plus, look at the reviews on Amazon, NewEgg, et. al. It almost looks like Acronis "salted" the reviews because there are a handful of 5-star reviews right at release, followed by pretty much nothing but 1-star reviews. Happy people do have a tendency to say so on Amazon.
Yeah, we get it: ATI has issues and you hate the product. Replying again to my same post from several days ago, to which you've already previously replied, is a bit much. At some point Acronis will just tune out folks like you. That's not what we want.
==> It almost looks like Acronis "salted" the reviews because there are a handful of 5-star reviews right at release, followed by pretty much nothing but 1-star reviews. Happy people do have a tendency to say so on Amazon.
If you look at Amazon's ratings for 2012, the initial batch were all very positive -- that was the basis for my upgrade decision. When I pulled the trigger on my upgrade, 2011 was stable and the 2012 product had 4.5 stars. This was followed by some mixed reviews. Now, it is mostly negative reviews. The product currently sits around 2.5 stars with very negative outweighing positive by a fair margin.
Yeah, we get it: ATI has issues and you hate the product. Replying again to my same post from several days ago, to which you've already previously replied, is a bit much. At some point Acronis will just tune out folks like you. That's not what we want.
New information, new post.. and Acronis seemed to have tuned me out a long time ago. And from the look of some of the responses you have received, I respectfully submit that "you" do not represent "we" (neither do I, but nor do I claim to).
I do not hate ATI.. if I did I would simply go away instead of spending a huge amount of time writing posts about the issues with this release, how upset the community really is about them and, in my experience, how they can fix the underlying issues causing them.
My posts are meant to contain information pertaining to the subject at hand.. in this case supporting my statement that users with problems are not as overstated in this forum as previously suggested.. and are meant for anyone who cares to listen. If you do not, that is OK with me. I just respectfully ask that you take personal issues to a private message (with the preferred option of ignoring them completely). This board is simply not the place for personal attacks.