Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/21/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On April 22, 2022, I paid ************ a deposit of $1,340.00 for data recovery on an external hard drive. The company's stated policy is as follows: "If the data isn't OK, we'll refund you the deposit in full - NO data NO charge policy" (capitalization theirs). In the four months that I have given ***** to work on my data recovery case, he has neither delivered usable data nor has he refunded my deposit and returned my hard drive. I have a record of over 30 emails and many text messages which show a consistent pattern of behavior from this business owner characterized by deliberately vague communication, unprofessionalism, and tactics of evasion and delay to avoid delivering on his commitments. He has not once followed through on a deadline or provided transparent and timely communication throughout this process. The communication pattern he established from the beginning can be described as an indefinitely repeating cycle: (1) A date is set for ***** to deliver results or a progress update. (2) The date arrives and passes without any communication from him. (3) I then contact ***** to ask for an explanation. (4) ***** replies with a variety of excuses, all of which invariably conclude with him insisting on more time. Another deadline is set for the next update or delivery. (5) The next deadline passes with no communication from *****, and the cycle continues. (6) Additionally, when I attempt to elicit concrete action from ***** (e.g., by asking for a refund, leaving a Yelp review, etc.) he bombards me and my partner with messages intended to be emotionally manipulative in an effort to get us to cave to his demands for more time, thereby allowing him to keep my deposit and avoid fulfilling his responsibilities. I have expressed to ***** many times that I would like a full refund and my hard drive returned to me by mail since he could not deliver usable data in a timely manner. He refuses to listen to my wishes, in direct contradiction of his own policy.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/28/2022

  Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2022/09/28) */ Hi, Based on what was written, I know this was submitted by ********* Price - he has also been leaving false reviews on our Yelp and Google Business pages. Because of this, I believe this complaint is a misunderstanding because a full deposit in the amount of $1,340 was refunded on 8/24/2022. Further on, I need to point out that ********* was never our customer. We were recovering his friend's data, we never received any payment from him, and all communication was exclusively with his friend. This may be the reason for misunderstanding. To make it as clear and straightforward as possible, here is the history of this case: - We received *********'s friend's broken hard disk on 04/22/22 and sent her the recovered data by UPS on 05/09/22. - *********'s friend emailed us on 05/16/22 that a lot of the data was missing. After we received details about the missing data, we promised her to do our best to get the missing/corrupted data back in good condition. The whole process took longer than estimated due to severe drive damage and specific processes that required special solutions and time. We invested much effort and hours in order to get the missing data back, all at no extra cost to his friend. - *********'s friend initially said that the data is not time sensitive, however on 8/13/2022 she informed us about a deadline until 8/19/2022, at which point she wanted either the recovered data or a refund of the deposit. She also kindly suggested that, in any case, we should keep $340 for our efforts and refund the $1,000.00 out of $1,340.00. To meet her new requirements, we worked after-hours, even overnight and we succeeded in recovering the missing data. - On Friday, 8/19/2022 we informed *********'s friend that her data was recovered, and asked her to do the data verification process, but unfortunately we never received an answer from her. Therefore, we assumed that she didn't want her recovered data anymore. - On Wednesday, 8/24/2022 we: - refunded her the deposit in full, including $340 (she can keep the 83 GB of data we initially recovered for free) - sent her drive back - destroyed all recovered data for privacy/security reasons. She confirmed that she got a full deposit and the original drive back. On the basis of these facts, we would like to ask you to remove this complaint. Thank you so much in advance for all your help and please let me know if there's anything else you need from my end in order to clarify and mend this situation. Best, ************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/09/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I brought my 8TB external hard drive to Kotar now 3 years ago and my case is still not closed. ****** (the owner of Kotar) made that very clear to me, and he also made it clear that there will be clear communications and such throughout the process, and it would be done in a month. Well, 2.5 years later, it still wasn't done. There would be weeks/months with no communication. Every single time minus a few exceptions, I needed to text him to ask for an update. Every time there were apologies and an excuse on why there wasn't an update. 6 months ago, he decided it was not repairable and decided to go with the refund, as his policy is if you aren't satisfied, you get your money back 100% guaranteed. Then more excuses on how the bank is not issuing the refund. This goes on for a few months. He said he will pay me through a different avenue ******************** I have received $500 of the $2630 I paid, but since he paid me this $500 he has not been responding to any texts I have sent him. I am just asking for a refund for the rest of what I have paid him, $2130.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/07/2022

  Consumer Response /* (2000, 14, 2022/08/10) */ It has been resolved, full refund issued.