I won't be updating this post any more. You can follow progress here now: Livedrive Updates

Update 18/10/2011. Incredibly, it has now been 47 days since I first asked Live Drive for help. It has been 43 days since they have made any attempt to contact me, and 19 days since I telephoned them to be told that my problem was being escalated to senior management and that someone would be in touch. I feel sorry for the poor person who runs their Twitter account, because he or she tried to tell me someone would be in touch, although they too are now ignoring me, and they seem to spend their time fending off complaints with a pretty standard "Someone from support will get in touch with you." I find it incredible that any business can continue to function in this way. I'm left wondering if this attitude to customers is driven from the top by Andrew Michael, Michael Hogan and Nick Cowell, or is what's going on being kept well away from them by a bunch of incompetents in middle management?

Update 03/10/2011. Still not a word. Despite her promise on 30th September, I didn't even get the email from the young lady confirming my case had been escalated. Another comment below from someone who has been similarly let down, and the Livedrive Twitter stream seems to have "stopped."

Update 30/9/2011. Still no response from anywhere. I telephoned Livedrive (not cheap from Spain) and spoke to a young lady. After listening to my tale of woe, she put me on hold to go and talk to her manager. After a few moments she came back to me to tell me that my issue had been escalated to senior management. I asked her when I could expect to hear from someone and she replied she couldn't say. I told her that social media was full of stories of people being badly let down by Livedrive and she told me that they did have issues in support and were trying very hard to recruit more staff to deal with the backlog. I asked her specifically if the company was in trouble and she told me they aren't. I reiterated that I can deal with the loss of data if that's the case, but that what I have found unforgivable is the fact that nobody is talking to me after paying for a service for some time. She promised to pass that on and to email me a response to my ticket confirming that my case has been escalated to senior management. I'll keep you posted.

Update 26/9/2011. Despite writing the post below a week ago and sending a link to it via both email and Twitter, I still have had no response from Livedrive. They seem to have adopted a policy of burying their heads in the sand and ignoring me. Very sad.

Some of you may remember that I wrote a post back in April, extolling the virtues of the Live Drive backup service which I had been using for some time. If you missed it, here it is: Livedrive Cloud Storage.

It’s with regret that I have to withdraw my recommendation.

I don’t like it when people throw their weight around on social media when a business has made a mistake. But Livedrive’s decision to ignore me as a client with a problem leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth – the more so because other people have used the service on my recommendation.

The short story is their backup service didn’t work for me when I needed it, and their support system has been the worst I have ever experienced from a company to whom I have been paying money.  read more »

After two and a half years of solid posting, it’s been weird to have left this site alone for so long. But I’ve had a great time doing new and exciting things all over the web!

And I thought it was time to give you a little update.

My focus has been on getting myself organised in my new role marketing several businesses, and it’s been a learning curve for me, and quite fascinating because of that. Working with people who are not only at the cutting edge of retail, but are also at the top of their game has been challenging and rewarding.

I’ve talked quite a bit about Booost Oxygen, so for today’s post I though I’d fill you in on another of the group’s businesses:

The Platter Company  read more »

This is a guest post from Archan Mehta.

When it comes to staff development, employees were once pawns in the hands of the company.
 
In the company's wisdom, employees would do well if they were sent away for a course. As their careers progressed, employees assembled an impressive list of courses they had attended. However, the learning that took place was sketchy. Not only that, it was infrequently measured by companies.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net