Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files
For the past two years, I’ve been on the receiving end of a passive aggressive win-back campaign from Dropbox. The feud originally started when I migrated away from Dropbox and hence canceled my subscription while leaving them saddled with over a terabyte of my data to carry forever, like a camel in the digital desert. After all, why wouldn’t I? I was assured by their help forums that my files would not be deleted, no matter what:
However, this hasn’t prevented Dropbox from trying to get me back. It all started innocently enough:
Thanks Dropbox, for letting me know and being there to help! Unfortunately, I had no desire to reactivate my account. Over the next couple of years, Dropbox has tried every trick in the book to get me back – they’ve tried letting me know I’m “100x over the limit”, stating things are “pretty urgent” and that I have to “Open ASAP”. I also appreciate the haphazard use of punctuation and emojis in this email chain. So far I’ve received over 50 emails. I’m honestly a bit sad about the person who has to presumably sit and come up with a new email title every week to keep cranking up the tension. At this point, I’m half expecting them to show up at my doorstep with a pleading look.
Seeing as I was not impressed by being 100x over my limit, Dropbox tried 500x next. Surely this would get my attention!
When that didn’t help either, Dropbox went back on its promise and finally threatened to delete my files in a series of countdown emails culminating with this 15 day reminder:
They even tried setting a date!
The date came and went, but conspicuously, my files were not deleted, although the email linked to a more sternly worded support article saying they would eventually delete data if over quota. Clearly the policy had shifted, although the now incorrect answer is still the top search result. So far though, Dropbox decided to just pretend they never sent the previous email chain and went right back to their previous tactic of strongly suggesting an upgrade.
Logging into the web portal, Dropbox gleefully told me I can “Upload anything”, in a bright red alert box, ending with a “Upgrade for more” button. But my files are still there, possibly waiting for when the emails finally get to me and make me resubscribe again.
What’s the lesson here? Perhaps it’s that we shouldn’t trust corporations to keep their word. Or maybe that promising to host files in perpetuity for non-paying customers is a business model with some obvious flaws. Regardless, I’m curious to see how long this digital standoff will last. Will they eventually delete my files, or will I be receiving increasingly desperate emails well into my retirement years? Only time will tell!
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AuthorSomeday, someone somewhere is gonna screw something up, and your data will disappear completely, and they’ll use the ‘Whoops A Technical Glitch Screwed You’ form email, to their great relief.
Alex
AuthorCompared to many companies you have been treated beyond generous. Remember all the cloud security systems like wink which went to subscription model or your hardware is bust or many other storage sites (like fotki.com from which all of a sudden you lost an ability to download hi-res images without subscription).
Anonymous
AuthorImagine you are running a service and your customers treat you the same as you are doing with Dropbox. Definitely you will not be happy about it. Just let it go and either move your files to other storage or delete them. They are so kind to let you keep your data that long. Sorry to say that but it seems you are an opportunist.
Stanislav Khromov
Author👋 I don’t mind if Dropbox deletes my data. While companies do not have feelings, I think there’s an interesting battle going on between teams handling customer retention and the storage infrastructure which is of course a large budget post for Dropbox. This leads to inconsistent and sometimes a bit desperate messaging, which is what I wanted to shine a spotlight on here. Thanks for reading!