If you want Dropbox or Google Drive like access for file storage than pay for Dropbox or Google Drive. The lower end My Cloud devices are NOT a 1:1 replacement for Dropbox or Google Drive.
There is what you “hoped” and the real world. In the real world uploading speed can vary for a whole variety of reasons. Same goes for local LAN speed. For remote access it appears one is going through the WD2Go.com/MyCloud.com site. If this is the case it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is a delay introduced that causes slower download speeds a the remote location. One can always use the FTP option of the My Cloud to connect direct to the device, or roll their own VPN or SSH connection to see if that improves remote download speeds.
Many if not most of the complaints in this user to user support forum are due to people NOT reading the WD My Cloud User Guide. Many more complaints are due to unrealistic expectations of the single drive My Cloud devices. There are several well known issues (El Capitan, no remote mapping, 999mb copy) for which there is no official fix from WD (or Apple).
If you haven’t read the following thread already, it is recommended one do so since it details some of the speed issues that one may experience that are not necessarily WD My Cloud related.
https://community.wd.com/t/before-you-pack-up-your-wd-and-return-it-lets-talk-about-copying-speeds/91887
