I have lots of luck with it. I tailor each use to the particular track I'm working on, though, and don't rely on the "presets". It's important to set the audio range to the proper settings. It needs to be set to match the audio you are processing, not the destination audio.
For instance, my voice is a mid-range male voice. When I process my vocals, the range setting is set to "mid".
You really need to set it correctly, or the results will, as you have discovered, be rather drastic and disasterous. It's not an automatic thing by any definition.
The
Time Shift Plug-In Guide does a pretty good job of covering all of the features. Using those features in the manner that you need/want is really up to you.