I ordered a Data Recovery and Hard Drive Repair, and my business experience here was both unprofessional and extremely frustrating. The pricing was a bit over the top, but by no means unreasonable, however, the staff and policies at Cornice just disgusted me.
The main receptionist knew very little technical details of any kind, resulting in many questions being answered with a simple "I don't know," and the technician, though available on occasion, was overly reluctant to addressing my concerns.
Furthermore, the staff deliberately neglected to inform of certain actions which they were taking. For example, Cornice attempts to save many hidden files, and even applications (without the proper directories installed), and when asked if such actions would be taken, I was explicitly told the staff does not attempt such services. The main problem in this was the fact I had prepared accordingly based on what I was initially told, resulting in unnecessary spending and time lost. Furthermore, in my professional opinion, a company should be liable for what is both said and done, thus the fact Cornice would tell me one thing and do another is inexcusable.
Even more aggravating was how they were unable to give any sort of time estimate, and their inability (or unwillingness) to answer most any question about the actual recovery and repair process. All inquiries as to an ETA were met with complete ignorance, and when asked how much work was completed or how much work was left, Cornice gave only vague answers. When asked about specifics on file corruption or the recovery process, no clear answer could ever be given. Cornice would promise to give me updates via phone call, when no such calls were ever made. The status of my computer was essentially kept hidden from me, which caused me to be anxious and nervous.
After extended periods of time, in which there was no contact from Cornice, I would attempt calls myself to try and receive some answers. Not only were the answers still vague and unclear, but often times I would be put on hold for long waits, only to call back later with a different employee to find that the reason I was put on hold was because physical customers walked into the store shortly after my call. I was appalled at how they prioritized their customers in this manner, and felt they should at least give me some indication of why I was put on hold or how long I should wait, so as I can decide simply to call back. Mind you, these wait times were well over 15 minutes and in some cases 30 minutes without any response from Cornice.
Upon pickup of my computer, no final diagnostic, nor work log was included, and thus, I find many files (some of which were critically important) are corrupted. I understand file corruption is by no means the staff's fault, but I do find it unreasonable that they could not tell me which files were corrupted. By this means, I find Cornice to be very sub-par when it comes to data recovery.
The actual hard drive repair was done nicely, however there were some discrepancies initially. I was told I would receive a 2TB third-party hard drive installation, however, the staff found my iMac would only accept Apple hard drives, so I would have to take a 1TB Apple hard drive for the same price quoted for the 2TB. This would be fine, if not for the fact it added another week to order the new Apple hard drive on top the wait time for the first hard drive. My main problem with this is why Cornice was not aware of this prior? If Cornice was experienced, they should have known my iMac would refuse a third-party hard drive and should have never bothered attempting to install a non-Apple hard drive, thus saving me time and energy.
Due to my above experiences, I highly recommend AGAINST choosing Cornice as your Apple computer service provider for repairs. My experience is my own, and yours may vary. read more
