*SIGH*

[feng_shui_house]

File retrieval services sent me an email telling me how to pay $299. I thought, oh ok, that's great. Then I went to the website and logged in to discover $299 was for parts & labor to START, and $1,590 due after 'successful retrieval' and $60 if I wanted the failed hard drive reassembled and sent back to me. Ok, no.

I called the guy and said, I can't afford that, they told me if I decided not to do it, they could send me the hard drive back for $25. I'd like them to send me back the hard drive, and my external drive that I left there, too, please. I'm not a business, it's just a personal computer with about 6 months worth of unsaved designs and writings on it.

He said, it's just the price that's the issue? I said yes. He said, well, let me call my boss and talk to him, I'll get back to you in a few hours.

Yeah, I don't hold out much hope. At the very least I want them to send me back my 500GB external drive for $25. That they could easily do.

I think their 'free diagnostic' consisted of someone glancing at the computer and saying 'boy that's old'. I'm sure they didn't do a thing.

Comments

[vera_j]

My dear friend, I have been with you all the time.
I understand your shock because I was shocked as well. The price! What do they think? And all your work...
Damn!
So I am waiting for any news from you. In the meantime, have BIG HUGS.

[feng_shui_house]

*HUGGLES* Thank you. :^) Yeah, when I pried info out of the girl, asking for a price range, just a range of the MINIMUM to what was likely. She said it started at $300. That's a LIE, because NONE of the jobs will be done at $300! That's just to open it up and see what 'donor parts' they need to access the data.

So, if he doesn't get back to me, I'll call him again tomorrow and see about getting my perfectly good external drive returned. And forget about the rest entirely.

[vera_j]

Yes, don´t let them blackmail you, bastards.
Can you get anybody else to help you?

[feng_shui_house]

There aren't many options in my area. They did get back to me and cut the price way down, but still... $950 is too much for me. On Monday I'll try calling again and see about at least getting the external drive back & MAYBE they will be able to take out the computer hard drive & send it back to me for a reasonable price.