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Forum Discussion
Don't Require Quota to Access Shared Folders
It makes absolutely no sense that I have to increase my quota in order to access a folder that someone is sharing with me. That quota is already being paid for by the other person. Did you let your CFO design the user experience, because this is absolutely NOT customer obsessed.
As a customer, I should be able to access folders and storage shared from another customer's account regardless of the amount of quota I have. Even if I have a free account, I should be able to access the content.
Requiring customers to have paid quota to a access a folder shared with them is certainly going to backfire from a net promoter score point of view. I, for one, will never be recommending that anyone use DropBox to share files until this functionality is fixed.
4 Replies
I will ask them for a view-only link. If that works, then this is an example of the interface confusing the person sharing the folder. I know it was not their intent to require people to use up their own DropBox quota or purchase DropBox quota, but that is the resulting customer experience.
Do you make it clear to users who are sharing a folder that others will need to match the quota of the shared folder? I doubt it.
Any way you look at it, this is a ridiculous way to do shared folders. Anyone who has access is paying for the same disk space. That's great for the DropBox CFO, but it is not good for customers.
I can share a GoogleDrive with edit access to dozens of people and only I pay for the drive space used. Why does DropBox do this in such a non-intuitive non-customer-friendly way?- Rich
Super User II
I just want to access to them so I can download them. Why should I have to purchase quota to download files from another person's account.
You don't need to purchase anything if all you want to do is download files. Just ask the person to send you a view-only link instead of inviting you to a shared folder.
A shared folder is intended for colaboration, which would typically mean edit access or sharing files back and forth. As such, you need the share in your account. If you just want to download, you can do that from a shared link without having to upgrade your account.
That is a terrible way to manage quota. I don't want a copy of them in my folder. I just want to access to them so I can download them. Why should I have to purchase quota to download files from another person's account. That is really not customer focused at all!
When I share a folder from Google Drive, people can download and access those files without requiring them to increase their quota. This issue is a great reason to never use DropBox.
This is not how shared folders should work. Nor is it how shared folders work with any other service. This is a money grab and not a technology issue. Is DropBox letting their CFO control product features?- Rich
As a customer, I should be able to access folders and storage shared from another customer's account ...
That's not how it works. You're not accessing files in another person's account. When you accept a shared folder, you get your own copy of the folder in your account, and as anything in your account takes up space, you need to have enough quota to hold the folder you wish to add to your account.
It's also a method of preventing abuse by stacking free accounts for unlimited space.
