DATA RECOVERY SERVICES - A SCAM FOR EVERY MAN WOMAN AND CHILD

Dear Data Recovery Douchebags,

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for disregarding fair business practices and trying to screw the little guy over a barrel. It's refreshing to know that in this dire financial market, there are still some companies that put themselves and money before disposable things like ethics, and making the world a better place, or helping others.

You probably don't remember me, even though I was just in your disgustingly shabby crack den/ storefront 20 minutes ago. I'm the guy that wasn't willing to pay $1200 for $4.95 worth of your services. Let me recap so you can know from whence I bleat. ie: where I'm comin from.

I brought my corrupted external Maxtor hard drive in just over a week ago, under the pretense of getting some personally valuable data off of it. It had crashed the night before and since I, like many others, don't fancy opening up a hard drive to screw around with it, I consulted the first name in Data Recovery Services that I found on Google. That would be you guys. The ad said "FREE DIAGNOSTIC" so I thought, great. Then I called to get a ballpark figure for how much it would cost to retrieve my lost data. The guy on the phone "Scott" gave me a figure of "starting at $300". So I thought... hmm.. that's not so bad. I could pay that if I have to... but nah, they wouldn't charge me $300 for retrieving two pdf files... That's silly. So I brought the drive in.

At your shop, I asked again for a ballpark figure, and was told by the guy at the front desk "Well it can be anywhere from $300 to $2500, depending on how difficult the data is to get". I thought, that makes sense. The tougher the job, the more work involved, the more you have to pay. That's how it works. Solid. So I went home and waited for the call I was told that I would get telling me that my drive was ready. It never came. You asked for my phone number, and never used it. Instead, one of your staff "Eric" lazily sent me an email and never bothered to call. Just curious to know how "Eric" thought I was going to get that email if my computer wasn't working because of a busted drive. I'll grant you that the drive is external and generally people have alternate sources to check their email. I digress.

I got the email, and had to call you for a quote. I was told by "Eric" that there was nothing physically wrong with the drive and it would be an easy retrieval, just a couple bad logical units, he said. I asked for the cost quote at that time and nearly s*it my pants when he said $1200. That's twelve hundred, not twelve. Twelve hundred dollars to retrieve two pdf documents from a working hard drive. At which point I laughed and said I'll be in to pick it up tomorrow. His response "Uhhhh ohhhh..." I said "Well it's a free estimate right? I can come get my drive anytime right?" to which he said "Uhhhh.. ohhhh... yea, but give us a day to put it back together, we'll give you a call when it's ready." That was three days ago. No one ever called me back.

Today, I called to find out the status of it and was told "It's ready come on down". So, again, thanks for not calling me back and following through with anything at all. I went down there and was handed a bag full of screws, a bent framed shell casing, and the actual hard drive in a small bag. That is not the way I dropped it off, and it's not the way I was told I was getting it back. Thanks for being such lazy f*cking a*sh*les, that you couldn't be bothered to screw in a couple of screws once you found out I wasn't giving up $1200.

I brought the drive home, promptly plugged it back into my system, downloaded a little program called Power Data Recovery, and, in less than five minutes, had ALL OF MY DATA BACK. Let me type that again. I GOT ALL OF MY DATA BACK FOR FREE IN FIVE MINUTES WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO CHARGE ME $1200 AND A WEEKS WORTH OF WORK FOR.

Here's a little tip for free (although I should charge you $1200 for it). If your clients are willing to pay $300 (which I was) for something that costs you nothing... take it. Your business model works the same way an illegitimate auto mechanic's does. You prey on people who aren't tech savvy and hope that they don't know anyone who is.

Little FYI, since I'm going to be posting this warning all over the net. You might want to rethink that money making scheme you're working on. It's only going to work for so long. DATA RECOVERY SERVICES - only use em if you wanna get screwed.

Sincerely,
Brian T.