I had a hard drive crash in September 2013…read more
It was my first experience with a crash, ever, and I foolishly chose the first company I happened to come across, thinking they would all be similar. I made such a poor choice. Overall I had experience with 4 different companies, and Data Retrieval was by far the worst.
First, their website is very misleading. You pay $99 for a 24 hour diagnostic service, with a one week turnaround time. Most companies have similar turnaround times, though will diagnose your problem for free. After I submitted my drive and case, they quoted me about $3000 to fix the problem, which I thought was ludicrous. I later found out that this was in fact, very overpriced. They also offered a cheaper alternative of about $1600, but said the process would take 6-8 weeks. I took the cheaper price and was resolved to wait. I was very stressed at the time, and didn't realize how ridiculous it was. They said there was an 85-90% chance of recovering everything, and that they were very confident they would be able to do so, so I tried to relax.
A few weeks in, I got in contact with them and founnd out that they hadn't even started to do any work. At 6 weeks in, I finally got an update, though no practical answer as to the actual condition of the drive. I was told to wait, and that they were still very confident they would retreive my data. 7 Weeks in, same update - just wait, we are confident. I would email my case worker, call and leave messages, and would never get a response. I could only talk to the receptionist, who could only give me vague answers.
Over 8 weeks in. I call my case worker repeatedly, and instead of returning the call he finally sends me an email, saying they failed.
When they shipped my drive back, they had to send it to a fedex store instead of my address due to a technicality with my billing information. The fedex store wasn't even a fedex store. It was some obscure packaging center that wasn't even associated with Fedex. I had to pay them $10 just to pick up my drive.
Literally every other company I tried afterwards offered me a better price, had better customer service, faster turnaround times, and were simply easier to manage overall.
5 months later, I found out I'm being billed for an online server to backup data. What?! They had never provided any information regarding this service whatsoever. Apparently, it was all in the fine print. They refused to refund these charges, despite me having no knowledge that this thing even existed. The company name on my checking account wasn't even consistent with the others I had received.
Their communication skills are terrible. Everyone who works there is some type of foreign. Their grammar skills within emails are full of spelling errors and mistakes. They do not communicate clearly, and do not give practical updates or advice.
When I tried another company, I was shocked at how superior the service was in every way. People spoke to me clearly, gave me realistic expectations, and were very prompt and direct with their analysis. I was like night and day compared to these amateurs.
DO NOT USE THEM! There are so many better options available... literally any alternative will suit you better.