Useless support - doesnt read my messages, makes up rubbish and ignores my answers.

[informedwally]

Suddenly, after I had renamed a folder, Dropbox split it in two, one with the old name and one with the new.  Random choice of which sub-folders to locate where.

Support said it was because I had used the "&" character in a file or folder name, and that because Windows 10 couldn't handle that character, then neither could Dropbox.   I said, rubbish, Windows let me rename it using that character, and retained it!  Worse, only one Windows machine originally messed up like this, and the original machine stayed fine.

Anyway, I renamed the folder to remove the "&" character, deleted the other (randomly re-installed) folder, but now there's a new problem.  Every time I delete it, Dropbox sync's, and then recreates that old folder on all machines!  I've done this twice now and there's no way 

So I've asked for help with this - and he just keeps asking the same questions over and over and over again, without reading my answers, I wonder if it's even a human being or just a computer sending out pre-written responses.  

Over 10 more messages going round in circles saying the same things over and over (the guy can't read!)

I said "you have to repair dropbox because it shouldn't mess stuff up and start moving files around everywhere just becuase it can't handle a character that windows can handle!"    - These messages went back and forth saying the same things because obviously he hadn't read it.  He kept saying "please send a screen shot of the missing files" but there were no missing files (to my knowledge) and I hadn't said that there were!  I repeatedly over and over again asked to escalate to an actual technical person and it was ignored.

FINALLY!!!! (three weeks later) He says he's checked with a senior enginer and he was wrong all along and the "&" character should be fine  GRRR!!!!

So THEN he asks for the SAME details ALL OVER AGAIN!

What a total waste of time trying to get help from Dropbox, and still its recreating my old original folder every time I delete it.

For 15-20 messages or so, he was telling me complete rubbish, answering questions I hadn't asked, and in general making the whole situation worse. 

And there is no way to escalate to complaints.

So I tried the chatbox on the dropbox home web page. I said "please can I have the complaints department". They ended the chat immediately. So I started another, and they sent a webpage with a list of contacts (which I already had), and then just ended the chat again.  These are NOT people who care about their customers.

And IF I finally got a semi-intelligent response, I expect them to say "delete dropbox on all machines and reinstall" which would take over a week due to the size of the data, and should not be necessary, and doesn't find the original bug which caused this, which makes me worry what files have been lost that I'm not aware of. 

[Jay]

Hi @informedwally, thanks for messaging the Community.

I'm sorry to hear about your support experience. Do you have a ticket ID so I can locate it on the system here?

Regarding your syncing issue, renaming a folder can temporarily create a duplicate folder if there are many files and subfolders inside the folder itself. This is to facilitate the moving of files from the 'old' folder to the 'new' folder, since moving files isn't instantaneous. Once the files have moved over, the old folder is deleted.

To answer your question about filing a complaint, doing so in the ticket itself is the best option as we don't have a method of doing so via the community.

Please feel free to get back to me with the ticket ID.

[informedwally]

I've repeatedly asked in the support chat for him to escalate to somebody else. He just refuses, about 5-10 times now.

https://www.dropbox.com/support/ticket/11493717

[informedwally]

And, i'm sorry but that's NOT what happened.

in the following, "___" replaces confidential alphabetical characters I cannot publish here

1). I rename "___ Clients" to "___ Clients & Output"

2). Two Windows 10 Machines complete the change on their folders, completely, all is ok

3). A third Windows 10 Machine, when switched on, keeps both folders and never completes the change

4).  I ask for urgent support on a chat, panicking because I've lost my folders, I am told that this is because dropbox cannot cope with a "&" character

5). I rename "___ Clients & Output"  to "___ Clients and Output"

6). I move all remaining folders from the old "___ Clients" to "___ Clients & Output"

7).  I await dropbox saying it has completed its' sync

7). I delete "___ Clients" folder

8). The above folder, repeatedly, keeps re-creating itself, and certain files within it also. I keep deleting it, it keeps re-installing itself.

9). I ask support to fix this, because if Windows let me rename it with a "&" character, but dropbox can't handle it and starts spewing files and folders everywhere, then it should handle the error. It should warn the user that it can't handle it, and should stop work before it starts messing up more folders and files.

10). I am very concerned I have been loosing other files and foldres, which I have long suspected, because I regularly loose files I know very well that I stored in dropbox and it said it had sync'd and uploaded them, so I am very worried.

11). Support guy keeps going in circles not understanding my question, asking same questions over and over again in circles, While I keep asking him to escalate to someone who speaks english or actually reads my email

12). Support guy keeps talking rubbish

13). After 10-15 emails he says that it was NOT the "&" character, and this can be handled ok by Dropbox. !!! The whole support issue was completely wrong!!!!!  So there is some other bug. I yet again ask the support guy to escalate and hear nothing.

14). I use your online chat bot and ask for complaints department

15). you terminate the chat

16). I ask again on another chat session

17). You send me a webpage of contact details, none of which get you to a complaints department or a tehcnical support department that actually have sufficiently working brain cells to read and understand my issue - and again just terminate the chat

It's obvious I'm only talking to a computer no matter how much i try to beg for help or escalation. There's no way to get meaningful help so I've had to make as big a noise as I can to get this fixed. 

[Lusil]

Hey @informedwally, thanks for getting back to us with the ticket ID. 

I just wanted to let you know that we were able to find it and have made sure to pass your comments along. 

Since the member of team who's reviewing this case for you has access to internal tools that help carry out a more efficient investigation, I'd recommend continuing with them. 

As soon as they have more information on how to continue, they will get back to you via email. 

I hope this helps to some extent.