Not really looking for solace here just venting and telling my story in case it helps a fellow business dot the i's and cross the t's.
Back in November we had a long time customer bring a PC in that had a hard drive failure. Drive would not spin up so pro data recovery was provided as an option. The customer had a backup we created a year ago but had many files created in the last year that he wanted to recover. We provided him with the standard $100 eval to send it out and also provided a liberal range of typical repairs before doing so which were $800-$2500. He was okay with that and approved us to send the drive out. In the mean time, we restored his backup from last year to a new computer he decided to have us build. No labor tacked on at all. We figured he was going to be paying through the nose for his data recovery and we would makeup any profit from that. In between waiting for the data recover eval results, he brought the new PC back in a couple of times to sort out an issue he was having with a very old DOS based word processor called Prowrite. I know, DOS right?... All of his files for his boat appraisal business are in this program format. My tech reloaded the new PC with XP since he bought the new PC with 7 Pro. Got the program working and he was off. The hard drive eval came back so I personally called him to discuss. Out of the entire drive, 93% files were recovered good and 7% recovered partial. I explained to him that many of these files are not needed since they are system files and such that were already replaced with the new PC. I advised him that I could simplify the summary and provide the list of recovered for Prowrite and all sub folders and files which turned out to be 96% recovery out of 3956 total files in the Prowrite folder and all subfolders. I explained to him that he needed to view this list of files to see if any of the files he deemed important were Good or Partial. I explained that we cannot decide as to whether his files are important to him, just whether they are recoverable or not. He agreed to do so before committing. Later the same day he comes in to prepay the recovery fee which amounted to about $1800. A few days later the drive with the recovered files arrives and we call the customer to bring the computer in for us to restore. Also note, no additional labor has been added for anything including the XP reload. My tech restores the Prowrite folder and shows him how to access both the restored data and his original data from his year old backup. Fast forward a few days and his computer is back again. He is unable to open a few files that are important to him. My tech gets the file names and determines they are in the partially recovered list. We inform him and he admits to never viewing the list I sent. He also proceeds to say that by his account, only 50% of the files he needed had been restored. He comes up with this figure by deducting the amount of files added or changed in the last year from his original backup. We explain to him that the recovery process attempts to get all files, not files he may or may not have a backup for. The recovery company does not know he had some of the files from a previous backup and did not need them recovered. I explained to him that it was his responsibility to view the list and he did not. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for files that are not recovered. If we had been provided with a list of files he deemed important, we could have searched the list and informed him they were good or partial.
He brought the computer back in again this week with a letter stating he is very happy with the new computer and the service we provided but feels the data recovery company misrepresented the amount of files recovered and that if he knew only 50% of the files he needed were recoverable, he would not have spent the $1800. He goes on to state that he could dispute the charge with his CC company but he would rather not do that. He also accepts "partial fault but feels he should not be on the hook for the entire amount."
I just finished reviewing all files we kept on this job as well as looking at a list of files he brought in this week that he deemed important. Of those files on this new list, several are partial, and several are good. Had he looked at the list in the first place, he would have known this prior to committing to the recovery job. I wrote a reply letter as I want any future correspondence with this client in writing. My reply basically recalls the sequence of events and communications between us and points out that he neglected to review the list of files we sent. I also pointed out that all labor involved with building, restoring, rebuilding, and restoring recovered data has not been invoiced.
This is the equivalent of buying a lottery ticket, not winning, then wanting your money back.
Back in November we had a long time customer bring a PC in that had a hard drive failure. Drive would not spin up so pro data recovery was provided as an option. The customer had a backup we created a year ago but had many files created in the last year that he wanted to recover. We provided him with the standard $100 eval to send it out and also provided a liberal range of typical repairs before doing so which were $800-$2500. He was okay with that and approved us to send the drive out. In the mean time, we restored his backup from last year to a new computer he decided to have us build. No labor tacked on at all. We figured he was going to be paying through the nose for his data recovery and we would makeup any profit from that. In between waiting for the data recover eval results, he brought the new PC back in a couple of times to sort out an issue he was having with a very old DOS based word processor called Prowrite. I know, DOS right?... All of his files for his boat appraisal business are in this program format. My tech reloaded the new PC with XP since he bought the new PC with 7 Pro. Got the program working and he was off. The hard drive eval came back so I personally called him to discuss. Out of the entire drive, 93% files were recovered good and 7% recovered partial. I explained to him that many of these files are not needed since they are system files and such that were already replaced with the new PC. I advised him that I could simplify the summary and provide the list of recovered for Prowrite and all sub folders and files which turned out to be 96% recovery out of 3956 total files in the Prowrite folder and all subfolders. I explained to him that he needed to view this list of files to see if any of the files he deemed important were Good or Partial. I explained that we cannot decide as to whether his files are important to him, just whether they are recoverable or not. He agreed to do so before committing. Later the same day he comes in to prepay the recovery fee which amounted to about $1800. A few days later the drive with the recovered files arrives and we call the customer to bring the computer in for us to restore. Also note, no additional labor has been added for anything including the XP reload. My tech restores the Prowrite folder and shows him how to access both the restored data and his original data from his year old backup. Fast forward a few days and his computer is back again. He is unable to open a few files that are important to him. My tech gets the file names and determines they are in the partially recovered list. We inform him and he admits to never viewing the list I sent. He also proceeds to say that by his account, only 50% of the files he needed had been restored. He comes up with this figure by deducting the amount of files added or changed in the last year from his original backup. We explain to him that the recovery process attempts to get all files, not files he may or may not have a backup for. The recovery company does not know he had some of the files from a previous backup and did not need them recovered. I explained to him that it was his responsibility to view the list and he did not. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for files that are not recovered. If we had been provided with a list of files he deemed important, we could have searched the list and informed him they were good or partial.
He brought the computer back in again this week with a letter stating he is very happy with the new computer and the service we provided but feels the data recovery company misrepresented the amount of files recovered and that if he knew only 50% of the files he needed were recoverable, he would not have spent the $1800. He goes on to state that he could dispute the charge with his CC company but he would rather not do that. He also accepts "partial fault but feels he should not be on the hook for the entire amount."
I just finished reviewing all files we kept on this job as well as looking at a list of files he brought in this week that he deemed important. Of those files on this new list, several are partial, and several are good. Had he looked at the list in the first place, he would have known this prior to committing to the recovery job. I wrote a reply letter as I want any future correspondence with this client in writing. My reply basically recalls the sequence of events and communications between us and points out that he neglected to review the list of files we sent. I also pointed out that all labor involved with building, restoring, rebuilding, and restoring recovered data has not been invoiced.
This is the equivalent of buying a lottery ticket, not winning, then wanting your money back.
