Name and shame - FRAUDULENT DR COMPANIES

[Odiferous]

I get quite a few jobs from clients who have sent their drives to one of the "respected" companies for recovery.

With these jobs, I find that the "respected" company, having completed a successful recovery and being in possession of the client's data, have subsequently presented the drives as "unrecoverable" to most intents and purposes.

I am planning a crusade against these "respected" companies (most of which are "household" names) and would like to hear from everyone who has been in this position. (All the pros out there - you must have been there.)

Fortunately I (granted, with the confirmation of some colleagues - specifically Sean) have always been able to overcome these apparent sabotage attempts - but this is not necessarily the point.

If you have experienced this sort of behaviour, please contact me via info attttt retrodata.co.uk.

I will then contact you and establish if you want your details published (warning - you will risk legal attacks but, on a positive note, everyone partaking in this should see a strong increase in business due to the publicity this will attract.)

Another warning - I will be obliged to carry out certain checks on your company to see if you are above board and not "in it" for the publicity alone. If you're scrupulously honest, you will have no problems.

I have tangible proof that one, specific prolific DR company (who also manufactures hard drives) has been pulling the wool over their clients' eyes. This is criminal fraud, and a practice that needs to stop now.


Duncan Clarke
Retrodata.co.uk

[craig6928]

and as they are well know company they know how to screw business
or bigger companys


your more likely going to get sued by them if you decided to go against them
but again if you got proof you should be ok


i know one all ready it begins with on

[pcimage]

Nice one Duncan.

I am quite prepared to state what I found with that drive you sent me for 2nd opinion. Specifically that the drive had clearly NOT had the work done that they stated.

Also the fact that things had been changed, so the drive was NOT as it was when sent in by the client (unless of course he had PC3000/salvation to make these changes himself!)

I'm only being vague here with no specific info, for obvious reasons. I have a full log of what we did to get the data back.

I am sending the client his data this week, so we just got to make sure he his happy with his data before we run with it, sound OK?

Cheers

Sean

[dick]

Wow its like a real life soap opera unfolding.
Good luck to all those willing to take part

[Odiferous]

Nice one Duncan.

I am quite prepared to state what I found with that drive you sent me for 2nd opinion. Specifically that the drive had clearly NOT had the work done that they stated.

Also the fact that things had been changed, so the drive was NOT as it was when sent in by the client (unless of course he had PC3000/salvation to make these changes himself!)

I'm only being vague here with no specific info, for obvious reasons. I have a full log of what we did to get the data back.

I am sending the client his data this week, so we just got to make sure he his happy with his data before we run with it, sound OK?

Cheers

Sean

Good man! I thought you'd decided it wasn't worth the risk - but the sooner these cowboys are put in their place (i.e. the queue at the insolvency practitioners) the better.

Will buzz you tomorrow.

NB: Anyone else with tales to share - please PM me - or even post publicly - but for legal reasons, it's probably best to PM me first.


Duncan

[BlackST]

OW... OW... OW... something against cowboys ? I wear boots, horse owner and I spend much time on the saddle... I start feeling discomfortable here...

[pepe]

Hi,

I also experienced such fraud many times from a local company, but I don't see how to prove my statements at the court. I am not a forensic investigator, my words are weak for them...
All this thing would just be too expensive and probably not worth.

pepe

[hddguy]

I agree with pepe. It would be far to difficult to prove any theories I have, no matter how sure I am. The media would have been handled by customer, most likely shipped via courier to a DR company, they would have handled it, and im pretty sure they would have terms and conditions stating that as the disk is already damaged further damage may occur, then shipped back to customer then off to me.

But despite this I do know what lengths some companies will strech to, and I only hope that the views, posts and opinions of all legitimate DR engineers here will encourage it to stop.

Maybe we could directly approach the companies personally, this would surely apply some pressure

[pepe]

Maybe we could directly approach the companies personally, this would surely apply some pressure

I doubt they would admit anything...

pepe

[Odiferous]

Maybe we could directly approach the companies personally, this would surely apply some pressure

I doubt they would admit anything...

pepe

That's why this will probably go to online IT journalism / news sites such as techworld.com and informationweek.com.

It's also why, if you are going to do this, you have to be in possession of all the facts.


Duncan

[hddguy]

It's also why, if you are going to do this, you have to be in possession of all the facts.

But how difficult is it to differentiate between the facts, opinions, theories, and actual evidence? As I mentioned earlier we have many jobs from a certain problematic company - all jobs are unrecoverable, whether because of platter damage or disk filled with zeros, yes this company has 100% recovery, supplied a file listing, and a very high quote which customer is forced to take. Yet if i name this company, surely that would cause more problems for me that it is worth. After all, platter damage can occur on a disk following or during a recovery, it has happened to me, and disk being returned to customer before being shipped to a different company, wouldnt this affect the 'evidence'?

The facts are that companies will go to extreme lengths to ensure the sale of some work, and to give the impression that they are 'better' because other companies will fail. I just feel that it would be too difficult to point the finger and will likely find myself accused of slandering my competition!

[dobrevjetser]

I had a case where i had to recover a Seagate. I always got the error the mods were not compatible.
After checking out, i found the company where it was before (and where my client asked to return the drive without recovering) had changed the pcb.
When asked for the original PCB they said they could not find it anymore.
Eventually i had to give up because i could not find the correct pcb.

Dobre

[hddguy]

I have very strong feelings toward the obvious malicious actions talked about here. I have dealt with many customers, whose data meant everything. Customers who wanted pictures of deceased relatives, including small children, data including partially completed biographies, dissertations, coursework, irreplaceable wedding photos and holiday snaps. Each and every customer deserves a fair chance at getting the data back, and IMHO if a company cant do a job let someone who can have a go, and simply learn from it and give youself a goal to be able to do that particular fault.

I didnt get to where I am today by damaging media to justify my failure at data recovery, i got here by admitting when I failed and learning from it to better improve my skills and knowledge.

[dobrevjetser]

I totally agree.

Dobre

[Odiferous]

I have very strong feelings toward the obvious malicious actions talked about here. I have dealt with many customers, whose data meant everything. Customers who wanted pictures of deceased relatives, including small children, data including partially completed biographies, dissertations, coursework, irreplaceable wedding photos and holiday snaps. Each and every customer deserves a fair chance at getting the data back, and IMHO if a company cant do a job let someone who can have a go, and simply learn from it and give youself a goal to be able to do that particular fault.

I didnt get to where I am today by damaging media to justify my failure at data recovery, i got here by admitting when I failed and learning from it to better improve my skills and knowledge.

I'm also a sucker when it comes to sentimental data - far more so than critical business data.

However, like you, I learned to admit when I failed - although this is fortunately a fairly irregular occurrence these days.

Too many cowboys about - they need to be stamped on, and hard. And, surprisingly, a lot of the "big boys" have turned into cowboys. Methinks the nooses are tightening around their scrawny, arrogant necks - and none too soon, either.


Duncan

[Doomer]

I had a case where i had to recover a Seagate. I always got the error the mods were not compatible.
After checking out, i found the company where it was before (and where my client asked to return the drive without recovering) had changed the pcb.
When asked for the original PCB they said they could not find it anymore.

We saw that many times. Almost every tenth drive which came from another DR company (and we have them quite a lot) to us has some problems with non-original parts. And usually asking those companies for original parts will not succeed

Eventually i had to give up because i could not find the correct pcb.
Dobre

Well, we actually did recover some cases even w/o original parts. And defenitely non-original Seagate PCB (except for SCSI and 7200.11 drives: these drive are 50/50 ) wouldn't stop us

[pepe]

Hi,

I remember 2 cases I could get something back from another company:
1. A toshiba, the PCB was not the native one. So I applied some pressure on the customer to get back the native one.
2. An N40P, the FW was totally messed up, Hlists overwritten, a complete mess. I told the customer 2 prices, one when I have to recover the translator, one if he can pressurize the criminal who commited the FW messing to pass on the original modules.
He could get it, so things went on the easier path

One more I remembered, an U8 with absolutely no label and a replaced ROM chip. I got that too.
People are helpful

pepe

[dobrevjetser]

In my case, the client was the government, and even they could not put enough pressure. I think the other company must be a big fish that they just ignored the pressure. They told it was to long ago to be able to find the pcb back (a few months).
Dont they have some kind of database where they register what comes in?
Seems to be amateuristic to me.

Dobre

[guru]

Just as a side point. If the customer does not want to pay for the job I "ALWAYS" reverse what I have done......

Put old heads back, write old corrupt module back....But I never make the original fault worse.

Someone once "Apparentyl" , "Maybe", "hearsay" had a drive from OffTrack ;o) where the heads were bent up!!! That was a proper fk up

[hddguy]

Just as a side point. If the customer does not want to pay for the job I "ALWAYS" reverse what I have done......

Put old heads back, write old corrupt module back....But I never make the original fault worse.

I also make a point of undoing what I have done. Might aswell just give the recovery for free otherwise!