Stringing customers along

[Nick_CT]

Today I received an e-mail from a gentleman who had sent his drive to another recovery company in my area. He asked, based on the photo provided to him by the other company, whether I thought there was a chance of recovery, as the 'attempt' by the current people was not successful.

The information this company provided him with was:

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"It is with great disappointment that we inform you that all attempts to recover your data have been unsuccessful due to media damage on the hard drive.....
Our most sincere apologies for the long wait, we wanted to make sure we had tried all options before we could call this a No Recovery Job..."
---

Fair enough, we see media damaged drives all the time that are beyond recovery. However, have a look at the picture they provided. In my opinion there is no chance of recovering that drive. Cracked platter, pieces of the outer platter broken off, heavy damage nearer the middle, contaminated to hell, etc etc.

How do you justify telling your client that 'all attempts to recover your data have been unsuccessful"? I most certainly wouldn't touch a drive in that state I can also imagine the 'long wait' whilst the customer was made to believe that there was some hope at all. Rather give the customer the bad news and move on.

This is either crap customer service; they have the 'magic platter fixing put-back-together-the-pieces device' that I don't; or they actually attempted the job. My money is on option 1.

Attachments

[BlackST]

What drive actually is ?

[lcoughey]

Could the delay have been caused by outsourcing the lab work?

[drc]

Generally in this situation my guess would be it didn't look like this until after getting worked on

That's pretty messed up though, hard to imagine what someone competent could do that would end in that

[CK]

Did that drive to go the local DR company or the local butcher?

Someone has fucked it up royally.

[northwind]

Lets just not be so judgemental. We received drives in this situation which were previously 'attempted recovery' by their owners and/or client was TOO DAMN economical with the truth.
We have zero facts about the state of the drive before it went to that other company, and generally I prefer to hear both sides of the story.

Indeed, I wouldn't touch this drive in this situation as well; I would just open the lid, look and close the lid. We also hear complaints sometimes from clients that call us after 2 months of silence, that 'we didn't give them any news about their drive'. Well, obviously, they didn't want their data that much (otherwise THEY would have called during these 2 months) and 99.9% the reason we didn't call is because they failed to give us correct contact info. Imagine that.

Out of topic, but: A guy has left us his samsung drive with 'extremely valueable pictures of his kids', a tough case. We quote, he accepts. We put drive for imaging, it took 3 months to finish. But he seemed to really want his data. After a month of imaging, we tried to call him just to inform that he'd have to wait, but he will get their data. 'The number you are calling does not exist'. Almost two years later, we still didn't hear from him. We still have his 'valuable photos' unclaimed...

[Nick_CT]

My issue here is as the title of the topic suggests. The picture obviously indicates the drive when it was first opened (no way would it look like that after 'recovery was attempted' by a long standing recovery provider, if that's after you've attempted to recover then you should be shot) so if this is what the technician saw upon opening the drive, why give the customer false hope? Why 'attempt' recovery and then, after a long while, say that after all our attempts we were unsuccessful, when clearly you haven't even done anything to it as there was nothing that could be done anyway?

That, there, is my problem with this case.

[jono-ats]

A high percentage of "diagnostic reports" from data recovery companies, that we receive along with failed drives from clients, have no bearing on reality. Often, they are a boilerplate -- every client gets the same diagnosis with "bad heads" or "bad arms", etc. even if it is bad sectors, firmware, etc.

That sort of stuff really bothers data recovery folks who try to conduct their business in an ethical fashion.

That's the main reason I favor a professional association for the data recovery industry. Prior efforts by others haven't gone very far.

[BlackST]

Jono, please... This argument has already started FLAMING WARS...
One rotten apple and even a tree of rotten apples doesn't mean the entire farm is bad.

[jono-ats]

BlackST: Didn't mean to imply that most were dishonest. In fact, from what I've seen, the pros who participate on this (and other) forums are trying to do the best they can for their customers.

My lament is that, unfortunately . . . there really isn't any way for a customer to compare one company to another. And the few who are unethical make it harder on all of us.

Capiche?

[Touchclarity]

The drive in the picture shows a defined ring approx halfway in.... along with the quite obvious and fatal damage, could this possibly indicate 2 events.... i.e. the fatal damage occurred after the initial failure, and it was this initial failure that may have been the focus of prior attempts at recovery....

just my 2 cents.....

[lcoughey]

Could it be that the other lab tried to see if they could get anything off the bottom platter? It is quite clear that they would have no success with the top.

[Nick_CT]

Could it be that the other lab tried to see if they could get anything off the bottom platter? It is quite clear that they would have no success with the top.

The guy who the drive belongs to called me earlier today to ask me my opinion on it. The company in question first quoted him about $700 which he rejected, then kept dropping the price until it reached about $200 at which point he accepted. I hear this often from clients who have interacted with this particular place, that they quote high and then barter with client, sometimes down to 25% of the original quote, until the client accepts

Bottom left of the photo shows a chunk of the outer platter edge completely missing and platter is cracked along almost the entire radius. I doubt for $200 they attempted anything on this drive. Ultimately I feel sorry for the owner of the drive who is really upset by the whole event.

[Alexii]

Did the company charge the guy for diagnostics? Or parts ? If yes - then thats the answer. Cowboys making money with diagnostic charges.

[lcoughey]

This makes absolutely no sense. Why would they even bother dropping the price on an impossible project? It certainly would make sense for them to sabotage the drive, as the client did agree to a price for them to move forward with. The only thing I can think of is that the lab didn't bother physically assessing the drive prior to quoting, thinking that it was going to be an easier project. Then they either screwed up (which would have to be pretty severe to cause that much damage) or they then opened the drive to see the surprise inside.

Do we know what the original symptoms/problem was with the drive prior to being sent to the lab?

[northwind]

The company in question first quoted him about $700 which he rejected, then kept dropping the price until it reached about $200 at which point he accepted.

Ok this is very amusing.
I agree with Alexii, if they charge for diagnostics, then you have your answer.