Jottacloud offers «unlimited storage» – throttles at 5 TB
The cloud storage service Jottacloud changes the terms of its subscription for unlimited storage. You may be entitled to a refund, according to the Norwegian Consumer Council.
The Norwegian cloud storage service Jottacloud has for several years advertised to provide unlimited storage space for private customers.
The service’s customers, however, were served bad news on the first of June. The terms will change as of August 1st. Customers who have stored over five terabytes will be provided reduced upload speed.
To prevent abuse
“We are now introducing a necessary measure to prevent abuse of the service. It is important to us to specify in the terms of use when such a restriction on bandwidth is introduced,” General Manager of Jottacloud, Roland Rabben tells digi.no.
“The reduction in the upload speed depends on the total amount of storage. A user with just over five terabytes will hardly notice a difference, while a user with 20 terabytes will notice a larger reduction in the upload speed,” he adds.
Rabben explains that they will determine the levels of reduced speed during July. He, therefore, cannot say anything about how much slower the service will be, yet.
Will render the service useless
Digi.no has been contacted by one of Jottacloud’s customers, affected by the change. The customer informs that he has about ten terabytes stored. He has a one-year subscription period, in which the entire year is paid for upfront.
“I perceive this as a significant deterioration of service. That every photo and video file hereafter should potentially upload at a snail pace. As I am already using more than five terabytes of storage, this will potentially render the service useless for me,” the customer writes.
He has asked Jottacloud to cancel the subscription and be refunded back for the remaining period. The company rejects this claim.
“Customers who have purchased annual subscriptions, and cancel, can use the subscription for the entire period. Only purchases that are in the cancellation period will be refunded. If a user changes to another subscription, the remaining value of the subscription will be deducted from that,” Rabben explains.
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Use of more than 5 terabytes is excessive
Rabben is quoted in a Dinside article from November, where he boasts that «The subscription has no barriers in terms of bandwidth or storage space».
However, this clearly changed in January this year. As it read in the new terms, «unlimited» refers to available storage, and bandwidth limitations and the number of API calls may occur.
The company, at the time also stated: «Jottacloud does not limit bandwidth or storage on unlimited subscriptions, but it reserves the right to prevent excessive consumption and abuse of the Service».
Thus, the terms have changed yet again, in that the speed will be reduced by consumption in excess of five terabytes.
Asked whether Jottacloud thus considers storing more than five terabytes as excessive use, Rabben answers that the average among customers is well below five terabytes. He emphasises that less than one per cent of subscribers will be affected by the change.
It is also not the first time that Jottacloud has put limitations on its «unlimited» subscription. According to a forum thread from 2016 on discussion.no, several users were told that they had to reduce their storage to less than ten terabytes, in order not to be considered as abusers of the service.
One of the forum users cites former policies regarding that «Storage can be considered excessive if consumption is far above average for Jottacloud customers. For example, we will define storage over ten terabytes as excessive».
This was, however, not stated in the guidelines that were in force before the first of July.
May have the right to claim a refund
It is likely that Jottacloud has the right to change the terms, as long as they have informed that it can happen in the agreement – which they have, according to the Consumer Council:
“As long as it is stated in the terms that they have the opportunity to do so, they are entitled to do so. They must, however, notify and grant a possibility to terminate the agreement.”
However, when Jottacloud does not provide such an option in practical terms (by not offering any discount or refund), the case may be different.
“It may be considered as such a big discrepancy that you have the right to a refund. You should first complain to the company and try to resolve the matter with them, though. If the matter is not resolved, we can mediate in the case – if you have purchased the service for private use,” Halsos of the Consumer Council concludes.
© digi.no / #Norway Today
