Too good to be true?

[lcoughey]

One of my resellers got an e-mail from another lab boasting the following:

Our Programs Include, but are not limited to:
Physical Flat Rate of $299.00 Plus Parts and Shipping
Logical Flat Rate of $129.99 Plus shipping
Prompt Turnaround Time
97% Recovery Success
100% Customer Satisfaction
Dedicated Account Manager

Thoughts?

[drc]

BS. Fields? ABC?

[HDD Spaz]

can't you post the details?

I can't see how it is economically viable to perform recoveries for such a rate. Theres always a catch. If they are that cheap why don't you outsource all your work and cut your hours to 5 a week.

[pcimage]

Hmm, we see bodged DR attempts from these "happy shopper" firms nearly everyday.

Got an opened WD5000AAKS today, once I'd blown the dust out and cleaned the fingerprints off the top platter and replaced the heads, it's imaging OK (well apart from bad sectors on H5 of course).

How to turn a £800 case into a £1600 job in one easy step!

[CK]

Parts costs for some physical recoveries are more than that! DR really is becoming a race to the bottom. We have received a number of jobs from customers that have gone to cowboys like this. They were charged a "re-assembly" fee of 150 quid after the drive was opened. What a rip-off!!

[pcimage]

Fleecing c**ts!

Not heard of the "re-assembly" fee before, must be a new scam.

Trouble is "Average Joe" just sees the cheapest price and assumes he'll get his data back for that price, but that ain't gonna happen!

$299 Plus parts.... "yes Sir, we used $3000 worth of parts on your case, cough up $3299!"

[HDD Spaz]

$299 Plus parts.... "yes Sir, we used $3000 worth of parts on your case, cough up $3299!"

you have just given me an idea.......

[CK]

ok.....I think we have to realise that there are lots of cowboys out there who are happy to just charge an analysis fee / parts charge / re-assembly fee / inflated shipping charge and not actually bother recovering data.

If they can make 200/300 for doing nothing, why bother ACTUALLY recovering the drive? If they get a few of these per week, it's easy money. Most of us know they are running PC Repair businesses or selling ink cartridges, etc etc

It frustrates me when people compare our service offering to this bullshit. That's life I guess, there will always be a rip-off merchant trying to scam a few quid for as little work as possible.

For this reason, I am always happy for our customers to visit our premises and actually inspect our lab - we've spent a lot of money on proper facilities and this approach is the only way to differentiate our service offering to what others claim on their websites.

[HDD Spaz]

If people are more concerned with a cheap price than the reputation and quality assurence a good data recovery centre can provide when trying to recover their critical data then maybe your better off not having thier custom because whatever you quote will get refused. This wastes everyone time and money.

[The Real ABC DR]

ok.....I think we have to realise that there are lots of cowboys out there who are happy to just charge an analysis fee / parts charge / re-assembly fee / inflated shipping charge and not actually bother recovering data.

If they can make 200/300 for doing nothing, why bother ACTUALLY recovering the drive? If they get a few of these per week, it's easy money. Most of us know they are running PC Repair businesses or selling ink cartridges, etc etc

It frustrates me when people compare our service offering to this bullshit. That's life I guess, there will always be a rip-off merchant trying to scam a few quid for as little work as possible.

For this reason, I am always happy for our customers to visit our premises and actually inspect our lab - we've spent a lot of money on proper facilities and this approach is the only way to differentiate our service offering to what others claim on their websites.

I agree, but just having premises is not enough.

How many of you have actually done anything about the scam merchants ? I was picked on by some on HDDGuru because I spoke out when I realised I was under attack from these conmen.

Fields Associates (Rapid Data, Dataphoenix and Fields Data Recovery) then threatened to sue me for £250,000 and £25,000 per day damages for helping the victims.

I was taken to court by Fields Associates Ltd and they assumed like many others that I would back down but I had the proof and exposed their fake 10 page reports .

They make a lot of money selling paper, if they cannot do a simple repair or "forensic scan" to escalate the price to £1600, they would then send the drive back damaged and contaminated with a form stating "no recovery possible" one was even missing parts internally in a report I have seen (Sean can back me up on this one one ).

My rants helped find many more of the victims sold fake data recovery reports.

These "Papermills" have tried to put their competitors and their clients out of business by pretending to do recoveries, preventing us having a chance to make a living doing what we do well Data Recovery. they obviously have no thought for their victims.

Suing me for damages for helping expose their lucrative scams is one thing but sending out a process server "thug" and physically assaulting me is another, I can only think he was on a tight schedule taking out so many documents to s many accross the country.

I was vindicated and the Judge awarded me more than they had tried to sue from me They were "mulcted" and the Judge was not very pleased with them ... Fields have since been settling out of court with other victims.

Sorry if any of you guys felt I was firing in all directions, but I was unsure who were involved in the scams and attacks on my business but it worked and more is now coming out.

Fields claimed in the court that they "have a good working relationship with Bridgend Trading Standards going back 5 years !" - Seems they assumed that the hundreds of "mistakes" they made would be treated as acceptable.

Anyone can have an off day but for so many and then ignore warnings from concerned competitors was their own mistake.

PM me if any of you received the Injunction Letter they sent out last October . That is another one of their Papermill operations which has back-fired.. High Court Injunction hearings are very very expensive.

[HDD Spaz]

replying to more posts which are over 18 months old...... a little obsessive is you ask me.

[The Real ABC DR]

Hi HDD Spaz

I have been quite busy the last 18 months or had you not noticed from my post ?

Don't get so upset I don't login under my company name very often,

I will be back shortly, just looking at the other comment you made......

[dr.king]

sorry ive not been posting recently guys but i have been ill over the past year or so preventing me opening my recovery shop on time

but rest asured i have been watching the forum regulaly, but having nothing to input (eg no updates) i havent felt the need to post pointless drivvel. couldnt help but to comment on this though!

i dont know this andy guy personaly or abc but he does seem to have a one-man vendetta against fields, and this posting to months old comments does seem a bit obsessive, has he not got better things do to rather than muck-rake?

perhaps he should concentrate on recovering data, rather than this one-man crusade??????

but.... i am nearly better now and am activly seeking dr engineers in the sheffield area.... so WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

Dave

[helpdisc]

One of my resellers got an e-mail from another lab boasting the following:

Our Programs Include, but are not limited to:
Physical Flat Rate of $299.00 Plus Parts and Shipping
Logical Flat Rate of $129.99 Plus shipping
Prompt Turnaround Time
97% Recovery Success
100% Customer Satisfaction
Dedicated Account Manager

Thoughts?

it is possibile in some countires in Europa

[fzabkar]

Fields Associates (Rapid Data, Dataphoenix and Fields Data Recovery) then threatened to sue me for £250,000 and £25,000 per day damages for helping the victims.

I was taken to court by Fields Associates Ltd and they assumed like many others that I would back down but I had the proof and exposed their fake 10 page reports .

They make a lot of money selling paper, if they cannot do a simple repair or "forensic scan" to escalate the price to £1600, they would then send the drive back damaged and contaminated with a form stating "no recovery possible" one was even missing parts internally in a report I have seen (Sean can back me up on this one one ).

I'm wondering how you managed to convince a judge that what Fields were doing did not constitute legitimate data recovery. From what I've seen, the legal profession are almost completely ignorant of anything that is even remotely technical. Moreover, the data recovery profession has no accreditation scheme, which means that there are no recognised, independent standards to judge them by. This in turn means that there can be no genuine "expert" witnesses.

[guru]

Just like having a bad builder or plumber, which quite often are more expensive than a Data recovery

[BlackST]

I'm wondering how you managed to convince a judge that what Fields were doing did not constitute legitimate data recovery. From what I've seen, the legal profession are almost completely ignorant of anything that is even remotely technical.

From what I have seen HERE and in MANY civilized countries (and even on less civilized, to say it all...), the legal profession (and law enforcement people too) are NOT ignorant at all and when in need they HIRE someone who knows more than them .
Such "hired" people assume specific , heavy responsibilities , and for this they get really good money, of course

Moreover, the data recovery profession has no accreditation scheme, which means that there are no recognised, independent standards to judge them by.

Same for gardeners, car mechanics, "TV/AV shops" , plumbers, painters, locksmiths, wirestrippers... so what ?!?

[fzabkar]

Moreover, the data recovery profession has no accreditation scheme, which means that there are no recognised, independent standards to judge them by.

Same for gardeners, car mechanics, "TV/AV shops" , plumbers, painters, locksmiths, wirestrippers... so what ?!?

That may be your experience in Italy, but here in Australia all those professions have minimum standards and licencing requirements. My local college even has a training course for cleaners.

[BlackST]

The fact there is someone who offer training courses even for cleaners doesn't mean that a specific title is mandatory required to be a cleaner... No wonder in Europe in general we live much better - freedom of enterprise and opportunities for everyone, at least in 90percent of fields.

[R3 Data Recovery]

As a company we try to recruit individuals who have already gone as far as they can under their own steam and need to be in a company which can give them the training, investment and on the job / real world experience they need.

As most of us start as one man operations it can be a difficult descision to put trust and investment into someone you don't know.

Building a customer focused business has always worked for me. Investing in or helping others build spare capacity for when demand is high is also good business but does require trustworthy and honest people though.