Dataretrieval.com Leo Belkin Dataretrieval are scammers and very poor customer service Shaker Heights, Ohio
I like many other people out there was distraught that I had lost a large chunk of my irreplaceable family photos and videos. So in my vulnerable state I reached out to dataretrieval.com on February 1 and was given Mark as my case manager. Before I paid any money Mark was attentive, replied promptly to my emails and called me on two occasions. The initial diagnostic was free and they said they were 85-90% sure they could recover 100% of the lost data on my hard drive. My hard drive was 640 gb and of that total space I only needed about 25% recovered, the home videos and pictures (the drive was mostly music, movies and tv shows). So I thought the process would be successful. They quoted me an initial price of 1,680.00 (tax included) and my heart immediately sank. I couldnt afford such a hefty price tag so I asked if I could pick up my hard drive. I then received an immediate reply that they could give me a massive discount. A day later I got a call and an email saying that they could give me a $ 880.00 or a 48% total discount! (in the email it was bright red and bold like this).
Although still a hefty price tag I went ahead and paid. On February 16th I got an email from Mark stating the technicians were able to successfully, completely retrieve all of your irreplaceable data intact and uncorrupted! I received my hard drive on the 29th of February and immediately began going through the videos and found a large number of the videos and pictures did not work, showed a blue screen or played a random video or music file. I then contacted Mark on the 1st of March to alert him to this and he stated he would contact the technicians. On the 6th of march Mark replied:
spoke to the technician, he indicated that is the way the videos were on the drive prior to failure. He can tell this because what was recovered was an exact image of the drive. Therefore whatever was on the drive is as was originally. Hope that helps.
No it did not help. I had watched a few of the videos the day before I lost everything and they worked fine. I immediately replied to Mark that this was not true. I did not get a reply from Mark that day and I have not heard from him again. Multiple emails and voicemails were left and none were responded to. After multiple calls to customer service I was able to get into contact with Leo Belkin, supervisor at dataretrieval.com, who advised that he would look into it for me a and get back to me in a week. Two weeks later I have not heard from him again. After multiple calls to dataretrieval.com I was finally able to talk to an Elana Y, who was very nonchalant and dismissive about my case. After resisting her attempts to get me off the phone or divert me to an answer machine she put me on hold and made some enquiries. She then came back and said the files were corrupted and could not be recovered. This goes in direct contradiction with the earlier email sent by Mark. She then stated she will let Leo know I called and he would get back to me as per the next steps in my data recovery.
I am currently waiting on that and will update as I get more information. I have asked for a full refund if they cannot recover my data. No one has addressed this; all they do is continue to string me along. I see now my experience with dataretrieval.com is not unique and I would implore anyone who is thinking about using them NOT TO DO IT! YOU WILL ONLY COMPOUND YOUR DISTRESS! They take your money, feed you stories and then disappear. This is a SCAM AND A FRAUDULENT COMPANY!
Please stay tuned for updates.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Damiete
Lorton,Virginia,
United States of America
Thanks for responding
#3Author of original report
Sun, April 22, 2012
I would like to thank the CEO of Dataretrievals for responding and for being so thorough in his response. Keeping the lines of communication open is always the way when trying to resolve differences of opinions. In this vein I would like to state some facts and ask a question:
1. I currently am not in possession of my hard drive, and I am not sure what the status with the recovery of my data is.
2. I have not received a refund.
3. I got an email after the diagnostic stating none of my files were corrupt. However, I received a hard drive with many corrupt files. How is this possible?
I would like to resolve this as fast as possible as I feel this has dragged out long enough. Hopefully, with the CEO involved this will be possible and their customer representatives (Mark and Elana) and Leo the manager will be able to improve on their reliability, interpersonal skills and drive to see a job finished. Looking forward to hearing from anyone in the company, receiving answers to my questions and receiving my hard drive and refund.
Thanks to everyone who has weighed in on my dispute and for all the words and emails of encouragement.
DataRetrieval.com
Shaker Heights,Ohio,
USA
An Ongoing Commitment to Customer Service & Satisfaction
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, April 18, 2012
We remain dedicated to resolving Mr. Damiete Harry's case successfully and to his satisfaction. All of the information provided herein (service reports, time/dates, e-mails, phone calls, etc.) is verifiable within our company record system and can be made available for such purposes.
Mr. Damiete Harry contacted us on 2/1/12 seeking data recovery service for a hard drive that had become inaccessible due to an interruption in the power supply while re-partitioning the drive - an event that could have possibly caused significant corruption due to alterations in the MFT (Master File Table) while space and data was being reallocated. The extent of such corruption cannot always be detected until a full diagnosis has been completed or service has been initiated.
By Mr. Damiete Harry's own admission, his dedicated service representative informed him that due to the nature of the recovery service required, there was an 85%-90% chance that all of the lost data could be recovered, but that this could not be guaranteed.
The initial quote for the service required to recover the lost data was $1,680.00 (tax included) which we are confident, given the particulars of the case, was a fair and market-competitive price.
Nevertheless, because we appreciate the value and business of every customer that contacts us and would like to continue to grow our business, we discounted Mr. Damiete Harry's final cost for service by a significant amount, at our expense, in order to confidently retain his business and help him recover his critical data. Mr. Damiete Harry authorized us to proceed with service on 2/7/12.
Data was successfully recovered from the failed drive and made available for verification by Mr. Damiete Harry on 2/16/12. Mr. Damiete Harry processed the non-refundable payment for the final cost for recovery and services rendered later that same day and confirmed with his signature his acknowledgement and agreement.
It is company policy that had the recovery attempt(s) been unsuccessful and data was not able to be provided, Mr. Damiete Harry would not have been obligated to pay the final cost for recovery.
On 3/1/12, Mr. Damiete Harry informed his dedicated service representative of his concerns that not all of his files had been recovered as had been stated in a previous message and, although 100% file recovery can never be guaranteed due to the nature of hard drive failure and recovery service, his case was reopened to see if anything more could be done to recover or restore desired files at no additional charge.
We are disappointed to learn that Mr. Damiete Harry found our customer service to be lacking and are committed to improving the areas of our service process that he deemed to be deficient. As noted, there were complications in communications on both sides, but in every instance, a company representative reached out and made contact in an attempt to address Mr. Damiete Harry's questions and concerns.
We remain committed to regaining Mr. Damiete Harry's trust and satisfaction as our customer, but we must respectfully dispute the wrongful allegations presented in his report on 3/30/12 (which he copied and re-posted as an additional separate incident that same day).
Because he remains dissatisfied, and despite our reaching out to him with a letter offering a fair resolution (and his response to simply copy and paste correspondence onto this site), we look forward to working with him to attain his satisfaction as a valued customer by whatever means can be considered necessary and fair.
Any questions regarding our industry leading service or service policies can be answered by calling and speaking to one of our dedicated customer service representatives at (800) 399-7150.
Our certified, expert data recovery specialist technicians rescue thousands of individual users and major corporations nationwide from critical data loss crises every year by using innovative, proprietary technology and state-of-the-art cleanroom facilities. Call or visit us online today to speak to a professional customer service representative immediately!