Are there any *nix hosts out there that offer guaranteed backups and honestly do it?

Yes, I know it's better to do you own backups and not to count on the host; but what if you don't have enough room on your hard drive at home to back them up, or what if you occasionally forget?

Anyone had to call on a backup from a host, and was able to get your data back? If so, please name that host.

"but what if you don't have enough room on your hard drive at home to back them up, or what if you occasionally forget?"

Well, if your site is that important to you then you will make room to back it up and you shouldn't forget. Those are not good reasons for not backing up. We do backups as noted on our site but as you said clients really need to make sure it is done locally also.

We do backups every day for our customers and retrieve the backup files for them upon request so they can download them when needed. No big deal.

Yes Im sure you'll find that most reputable hosts do backup their shared clients. Many may only use this data in a disaster situation like we used to, but recently we decided to make backups available for clients to use at any time. We do charge a small fee to retreive the file(s) you want though.