Mozy: Why You Might NOT Want to Use It...

So, my computer hard drive crashed. Completely. But, silly me, I wasn't worried, 'cause I was smart enough to have backed up to Mozy, an on-line service.
Well, you know what goes before a fall, right?
I have numbered my reasons for not loving this service; they are in parentheses as you read along.
Seems that Mozy is AWESOME, simply wonderful, for backing up. Hums along in the background, doing just what you have asked.
However, getting your stuff back, now there's the rub.
So, it all started when I tried the streaming download. I need to explain that on the restore page, there are five options. The first three are based on the Mozy Home software on your own computer. The last two are web restores. (1) Each of these are loosely defined, but there is no explanation as to why you might want to choose one over the other. So, that's my first point of contention.
Not knowing what I was doing, as I said, I tried the streaming download. (2) Which failed repeatedly, and always at the same spot. So, that wasted a few days.
I contacted support by chat (the only option available to me) and was told to do a web restore, as it was more stable. OK. So, I ordered a web restore of my complete hard drive, and waited the nearly three days it too to get back over 320 zipped files. (3) I couldn't open them
Contacted support again and was told that the files were (4) too big to go into a sub-directory and needed to go into the main menu.
As I finally got to opening them, I realized that this would take me forever. (5) Each zipped file contained bits and pieces of various files. There would be 3 photos, with their file structure, 2 Quicken data files, in their file structure, and a few fonts, with their file structure. In other words, the Mozy software didn't gather files from one spot to make up one zipped file.
It took me hours to just do a few and I quickly abandoned this method.
Then, my next move was to replicate my file structure on my new hard drive and then chose to stream one folder at a time. (6) Except that the Mozy server was moss-growing slow. It would go as fast as lightning one moment and then so slow that I could have knit a sweater (if I could knit) while waiting.
Twice, (7) it completely froze up on my computer. I contacted support yet again when it took over an hour to download one 2mp photo, and there were over 400 in the same que. And, when I tried to stop it, that's when it froze. I was told the only way to stop a restore that was either slow or frozen was to uninstall and reinstall the software on my computer. Had to do that twice. And, there is NO way to tell where a restore failed; there is no list of files so that you could start again at that point. No, you had to try the entire file again.
I was told that restore could take time, just to let it run. I asked specifically if one hour for one photo was an acceptable download rate. She completely avoided the question.
(And, it wasn't my computer; I tested my internet speed and it was 15.5 somethings per second.)
When dealing with support, it was (8) obvious that they were handling more than one customer at a time. It would take several minutes for each response. And, when I asked for her undivided attention so I wouldn't have to keep repeating myself, I was told that that couldn't be done. She had to give a little help to many people so that we wouldn't have to wait so long. I'd wait longer quite happily if my direct questions and history and problem were addressed.
Now, I moved on to the 4th method of getting my files back: a web restore of individual files. This worked well. But, really, did I have to waste nearly a week to figure that out? I think if I had had the attention of any one of the many support staff with whom I chatted, I might have gone directly to this method.
However, this was not without its problems. (9) There is NO correlation between the confirmation page that your web restore has been ordered, the email you receive telling you the restore is ready for downloading, and the actual restore page at the Mozy site where you can find your restores listed. So, if you are requesting several restores ('cause you need to order them file-by-file, remember?), you are never sure which download is ready and complete.
To clarify: on the web restore confirmation page, there is no number or name or any information to identify your order. Then, in the email you will get a number similar to this: Web Restore #123456 is now ready for downloading. And, when you go to the web restore download page, it will be listed like this: 10/10/10 2:30pm 400 files 3.9MB. See? How am I supposed to keep them separate?
And, to complicate things further, (10) the restore history page is quite unreliable. I had the same download listed more than once and it did not accurately refresh to "downloaded."
So, between #9 and #10, I had pages and pages of notes to keep track of where I was with each requested download.
And, then the real capper: (11) Even with the web download, I have had to request the same folders again and again. And, each time I get back a different combination of files. Really. If I hadn't had a photo organizer that had a catalog and "knew" what photos I had, I would have never known that I had hundreds of photos missing. I will be finding that more and more photos are missing until the cows come home. When looking on the Mozy site with the question, "Why aren't I getting all my files back?", all the answers were how the customer failed in some way. It was never even implied that Mozy could be at fault. Heck no!
So, Gentle Reader, if you are still with me I applaud you! And, my one word of advice is to never, never, never rely on an on-line service for your primary back-up. Get an external hard-drive, too. They are cheap these days. (Have something off-site, too, in case of a house fire or a lightening strike, etc.)
Now I need to go and get dinner going and stop obsessing about this! Thanks for letting me vent.