CK wrote:
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.
