Complaint Review: California Data Recovery

Up until I paid the $249 base payment in order for them to start the work to recover my data, they were professional ... it went all downhill after that, I mean way down:

- They didn't respect the deadline:  I gave them 2 weeks and after almost 4 weeks they were still not done.
- They lied to me like a was a complete moron, on everything, gave bogus excuses, etc.
- They were not returning my calls or emails.
- They broke my external hard drive that I brought to them to copy my data on, and it was perfectly working fine before that.
- I went to their office on several occasions to pick up my data/laptop as they promised it would be ready on X day, but it was not ... I was even told that "they didn't have time to take care of me as they had more important customers to take care of"
- They incorrectly handled my hard drive (at this point I really think they intentionally damaged it).  It was spinning fine when I brought it to them ... I had a <system 32> software problem, but now the hard drive doesn't spin at all and they lost ALL my data.
- And guess what happened when I picked up my laptop because I couldn't deal with them anymore ??  They gave it back to me without the hard drive ... I had to drive back there for a 5th time.

If you deal with them, be aware that the servers are NOT at their Fairfax location, but in Phoenix.  They apparently have 4 servers, and one of them was defective at the time I brought my laptop there ... of course they uploaded my data to the defective server and that was their excuse for not meeting the deadline ... do you know a lot of data recovery companies that would take 2 weeks to repair a server when it's the core of their business ???  And why not just transfer my data to another server and be done with it ???  Oh yeah, because they damaged it beyond repair.

I tried to get a refund from my credit card company and filed a complaint with the BBB, but none of them thought I was exploited enough to get a refund ... BE CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH THEM, BE VERY CAREFUL, because the initial paperwork they make you sign covers them legally, however badly they handle your case, you can't get your down payment back.