Not long ago I bought a USB Drobo to replace the multiple hard drives that I had collected over the years.

I started by purchasing four 500GB drives, which I am already replacing with 750GB drives. Due to the way that Drobo works, you get redundant storage but less than you’d get if you added the drives up. For example, if you have 4×500GB drives you get about 3×500GB worth of storage, and Drobo protects your data so that if any one of those drives dies, you can replace it without losing your data.

I had heard about Drobo on Twitter and on Mac Break Weekly and had watched the demo, so I knew basically how it worked before it arrived.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this

New Drobo Volume.png

I dutifully checked the Help file before contacting support, and saw that the only way to change it was to reformat the entire {bleepity-bleep} thing.

I sent this email to Drobo tech support:

So I replaced my 500GB drives with 750GB drives, and now Drobo is telling me that I have to have another Volume (see attached image), and that the only way to get around this is to reformat the entire thing?!?! If I chose HFS+ why would you limit me to 2GB by default?! I really don’t want 2 volumes, but I don’t have enough space elsewhere to move all the data off the Drobo and then reformat and move it back on. This is pretty disappointing. Had I known about this earlier I would have set it up differently, but EVERYTHING I saw said “Hey, just add more hard drives later, it’s just that simple!” not “Just add more hard drives and eventually end up with multiple volumes” :-/ I know it’s my fault for trusting marketing-speak, but you could throw in a line there about the 2TB limit, if not in the “commercial”, then at least when I start putting drives in for the first time. Had a dialog come up and explained this limit to me (similar to the Help file), I would have chosen 4TB without hesitation. Anyway, that’s my feedback, for what it’s worth. TjL

And received this reply.

Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:05:02 +0000 (GMT) From: Drobo Technical Support To: “luomat@gmail.com” Subject: Drobo Case # 10909 [ ref:00D56kRy.500556Q8D:ref ] Good Morning, Timothy, I apologize that when you were given the option to size your volume to 2 TB, 4 TB, 8 TB or 16 TB, in the Drobo Dashboard, you chose to size it to 2 TB. Next time you run into something you do not understand in our software, please do not hesitate to give us a call and we will walk you through it. Have a wonderful day, Wanda ref:00D56kRy.500556Q8D:ref

to which I wrote back

{Expletive deleted} you and your snotty passive aggressive attitude. You’re marketing something that you claim is so simple you don’t need to worry about a thing. Oh, except for this one setting that you’ll probably run into pretty soon if you’re dealing with such large quantities of data. I’ve already had people ask me what I think about my Drobo. I’ll be sure to tell them what I think about the support they offer. I’ve got 4 extra hard drives that I was thinking “Hrm, return them or buy another Drobo.” Guess I’ll return them. TjL

I gather from Wanda’s snide comment that I chose a 2TB setting. I have no recollection of that being asked, but of course with 4×500gb worth of data, I would have thought “Oh, well, it’s less than 2TB, so I’ll choose that.”

There’s an old saying that goes something like “try to make something fool-proof and they’ll start making better fools.”

I wish I could see the initial start sequence again, perhaps I didn’t read it carefully enough, but I would hope that it says something like “Confirm 2TB partitions? If you add larger drives that exceed a total of 2TB, Drobo will automatically make a second partition.”

And I would have said “Oh, well, in that case, I’ll go for the larger size.”

(Technical aside: the strangest thing is that the default format is HFS+ which is a Mac format, but the 2TB limit is there for Windows compatibility [if I am remembering the Help file information correctly] which has trouble dealing with discs larger than 2TB. Ok, but then why is HFS+ the default format?)

The minor aggravation of the 2TB partitions is minor. The response from Drobo tech support is not.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve known so many people in tech support, but each line of it reads “You did this yourself, you stupid moron.”

And that’s perfectly understandable to think but it is not acceptable to say when you are being paid to be the public-facing side of a company that I just shelled out $350+ to. I don’t expect you to kiss my ass because I bought your product, all I expect is something like this:

When you initially setup the Drobo, you *were* asked how large you wanted the partitions to be. I’m sorry if it wasn’t clear what this setting meant.

Boom, that’s all you need to say. Simple, clear, precise.

You could even throw me a bone and add “I’ll pass along your comments” even if you don’t do anything but roll your eyes and file my email under “Clueless Morons Who Are Unfortunately Our Customers.”

Do I allow that “Wanda” might have been having a bad day? Sure. Tech support is often a godawful job. But when you’re being paid a salary to respond to people’s tech support emails, you scream in the breakroom, and smile in the email.

Should I have used profanity in my response? No, that was a dickish move on my part, but I did it, and I admit to it. But if you want to know how to turn a minor irritation with your company’s product into full-blown anger at your company, here’s a good recipe.

(BTW I was quite serious that I was considering purchasing a 2nd Drobo, because I’ve got 4×500GB drives already. But after this I will not. No, I don’t mean `not ever’, I mean anytime soon.)