Complaint Review: Data Doctors - Tempe Arizona

I found these guys to have questionable business practices (i.e. this is my opinion) . There are companies that prey upon your misfortune. Is this the the case here? I am sure there is fine line between a helpful service and predatory business practice. I will let the reader decide. Data Doctors will charge up to thousands of dollars to retrieve your data.  It starts off with checking out your drive. What they do, I cannot be sure. The prices are from memory, but should be close. I was told it was to cost ~$100 initially, but I wanted the drive checked out within my lifetime. I was told that was ~$350.  I paid and got a call that my data could be retrieved. I was then asked to select a recovery plan (drama plan, in my case). They want close to one thousand to get your data right away, some expensive middle range and el cheapo ($300+) 3 week service. They also "have to" charge you for their external drive (hundreds, and yes overpriced).

2 weeks and some days later, I went in to check on my drive and was told some story about not being able to return it, as the data was being retrieved. It was to take 3 weeks, because I paid for the slow machine. Really? You mean if I bring in my 20G drive or my 1T drive, it will take 3 weeks on the "slow machine"? That seemed rather unlikely to me. I wanted my drive back. They kept saying "it might be done sooner. Are you sure you want the drive back?" I was not sure. If it is just going to sit on shelf, why not try to get the data myself during those weeks or send it to someone that could get the data sooner and cheaper? It was only a few days early, but I was not sure that I could trust a couple of salesmen over a local technician I called. Their story was weird and their prices were high. I was offered to upgrade to express service for the big bucks. It was already sitting on shelf for 2 weeks and some days, but where?

You see, they have to mail it to someone else to get the data. They do nothing in house(?). Why should anyone pay for salesmen to extract cash? I just want to pay an honest hard-working guy to get my files, rather than support salesmen and MBAs. This place is a franchise - not even run by a corporate office(?). The corporate office will send you back to the store. --I edited this section, since it was just my rant and opinion. -- Why? Why pay for this? I called and complained and told them the names of the files that I needed and date when they were important to me. I wanted to get my drive back the next day, so I could get those files using a local service or software. I was told that was not possible, because my drive was not there. FedEx would take days to deliver my drive. I was pissed! How can some individuals hold my drive hostage and refuse to give me the data or the drive? Were they using the info I gave them against me? I told the guy they'd won and just wanted the data whenever. They returned the drive days after I made the call without getting the data. Spiteful?

I am sure they will send a rebuttal claiming no wrong. This is the worst service and experience that I've had with a company of any kind. Never again! No more drama!

My advice: find a local small business to recover your files. It might the person doing the recovery anyway (unless they outsource to India). Try to pay the people doing the recovery, rather than those that feed off of the few doing the work. You'll save money and not have play games (hopefully).