Complaints

This profile includes complaints for SalvageData Recovery Services's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  SalvageData Recovery Services

  43 Alpha Park Ste A Highland Heights, OH 44143-2202

  
• 

  SalvageData Recovery Services

  4758 Ridge Rd # 404 Brooklyn, OH 44144-3327

  
• 

  SalvageData Recovery Inc.

  1930 Veterans Memorial Hwy 13 Islandia, NY 11749

• 

  Salvage Data Recovery LLC

  300 Mount Lebanon Blvd Ste 7 Castle Shannon, PA 15234

• 

  Salvage Data Recovery, LLC

  111 Thomas St NW Washington, DC 20001

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:02/15/2023

  Type:Service or Repair 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 July 12th 2022 I spoke to ****** ******* a sales rep with SalvageData Recovery Services. It was at that point he processed my credit card over the phone with him and said I would be sent a physical copy of my hard drive with the data in tact. They then sent an email with some data in it, so I reached out and then they said they would send the physical drive working and in tact and I waited for it, but never recieved it. Now SalvageData is saying the data was deleted and my hard drive is lost and my $300 is gone... This really is not cool. For the record I initially sent 3 drives in, 2 HDDs and 1 SSD they did send me back 2 HDDs that I did not pay for the data recovery for, but they never sent the SSD I had paid for back, so just a waste of money and time. Ideally I would like to recieve my data that I had paid $300 for, but if that is not possible I would like a refund as the service I paid for was not rendered. Case ID: Description: Data Recovery Service (Auto) Invoice Number ******* Customer ID ************** Total: $300.00 (USD) Payment Information Date/Time: 12-Jul-2022 7:30:08 EDT Transaction ID: ***********

  

  Business Response

  Date: 02/15/2023

  Client was sent a download of his data multiple times  and had ample opportunity to download it. Per our policy we only retain data for a short time after recovery completion. We have provided the service to the best of our ability and since we no longer have the originals or the copy, we are unable to offer a refund or replacement.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/25/2023

  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.

  In June of 2022 I contacted Salvage Data about repairs to a damaged hard drive. We specifically needed data that was inaccessible because the drive had stopped working. After talking with the company and the assigned rep, ***** *******, we sent the drive to the company and waited for an assessment. About a week later we received an evaluation report of the damage and a phone call from *** ******** In that phone call I was told the damage to the drive was constrained to the reader head and by replacing that the company could recover more than 90 percent of the data on the original drive. In addition I was sent a file list that included the names/locations of the majority of the missing files. These were only previews and could not be viewed. It was at this time the rep asked me to commit to the $1,600 payment to receive the files. A note in the evaluation report stated that some files within a certain location might not be fully intact, but combined with the rep's statement that more than 90 percent of my files were safe and the inability to view more than the files names we moved forward with the contract. Upon receiving the drive, I checked some of the files and it looked like the recovery was successful (the drive contained about a terabyte of data). About a month ago I needed older files off the drive and I began searching for them, but I realized the vast majority of the contents were corrupted or unreadable. Only 1/9th of the files sent back to us actually functioned. When this complaint was brought to company we were told that they had already discarded the original drive so couldn't attempt again. When asked about the corrupted files they told us that there was a disclaimer present in the file list. It's my claim that the company deliberately mislead me about the quantity of files recovered to convince me to complete a $1,600 payment. Salvage Data has refused to provide a refund.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 01/25/2023

  We are very sorry to hear about your issue. Upon reviewing your case, we discovered that your recovery has been completed on 08/23/2022. Should you have contacted us sooner we would've gladly revisited your recovery. Unfortunately you're far outside of the grace period and we are no longer able to offer you a refund or re-examine your data since it was wiped per our standard procedure.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/25/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  The company is claiming that because we're outside some grace period, which I dont believe was ever mentioned prior to payment, they cant refund or re-examine the data. I continue to claim that they mislead me about their ability to recover this data and regardless of a grace period could not have lived up to their claims for recovery. Either their claim to me prior to payment about the amount of data recovered was wrong/intentionally misleading or they didn't do a basic quality check of the hard drive before sending it to me to confirm I was not being sent unusable data. Either way the company has not acted in good faith and has not held up their end of our agreement.
  
  At best Salvage Data sent a product without checking to make sure it was functioning, at worst they checked the product, saw it wasn't working and sent it regardless - perhaps hoping the issue would not be noticed until after this "grace period." 
  
  A refund should be issued immediately.
  
  Regards,
  
  ****** ******
  
  
  
  
   

  

  Business Response

  Date: 01/31/2023

  As a Data Recovery company, we deal with sensitive and personal data on a daily basis. As such, in order to honor our customer's privacy, we do not check the data manually in order to maintain their integrity and peace of mind. An explicit request and permission from customer is required from the customer for us to manually check the data, otherwise we fully rely on our software to determine the data integrity, which was evaluated at 99% for this particular recovery case. Should the customer have asked us to check the data prior to being shipped out and agreeing to the terms and conditions of the recovery service - we would've gladly examined the case further. Needless to say that we have no way of checking the validity of the complaint that the data was not recovered successfully after months of being in customer's possession. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/24/2023

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  I sent my hard drive in and was quoted 300$ to repair, they then told me it would cost 1400$!!! When I said I no longer wish to use their service, they insisted they wont return my hard drive, unless I pay their ransom fee.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 01/24/2023

  The cost of service was never $300 and you customer was explained that we will provide an accurate quote after the evaluation. Since the customer does not wish to continue with the service - he is responsible for return shipping cost which is $40. No extortion involved. We also offer an option to pick the drive up from us or provide your own return shipping arrangements.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/24/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]
  
  Regards,
  
  ******* *******
  
  
  
  
   

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/19/2022

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  SalvageData bricked my laptop and will not provide any support. I sent my laptop to SalvageData for data recovery. Immediately upon going through the effort of sending it in, they informed me it was not recoverable because of the type of laptop it is. They could have told me this without sending it in. Prior to sending in the laptop, I was able to boot it up to an operating system and to the computer's firmware which is installed on the logic board and would allow me to reinstall the operating system when needed. They warned me that they would probably have to delete the data from the hard drive while attempting recovery, which was fine, because that's separate from the firmware and I would still be able to reinstall the OS and use the laptop. But when I received my laptop it now will not even power on to the firmware to reinstall the OS, making it completely useless. They destroyed my laptop. I have called them multiple times and emailed for support and when I finally got a response they told that they will not provide any support. I have been in contact with ***** Support who confirmed the issue and quoted me around $700 to repair it.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/21/2022

  Customer was provided with shipping label to have the Laptop sent back for examination to determine if there was fault during evaluation that could've caused the issue.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/08/2022

  As stated previously, we've conducted an investigation of the matter and determined that there was no modification performed by us to the laptop. As such we are unable to offer any repair or replacement service as we have not damaged the laptop in any way. We are very sorry that your laptop is not functional, but we are unable to assist with the matter as we are not liable for repairs or replacement because we have not performed any work on the laptop that could result in its damage.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/15/2022

  Are you requesting the same level of documentation from SalvageData?

  I already explained that ***** said that the issue is the logic board and that if I were to send it in I would be paying about $700. I spent a lot of time on the phone with them troubleshooting and this is the conclusion they came to. SalvageData have not provided any clarification on the questions that I sent to them, which are much more pertinent to the situation. Have you requested this information from them?

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/19/2022

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  My laptop had files deleted. I was able to get into the BIOS. Using a bootable USB key, I was able to get a command prompt to verify that files were missing from the C drive. I sent the laptop in. When it came back, I could no longer get into the BIOS nor access a USB key. They also sent back a bag with 7 screws. I sent several e-mails asking what they did so I could fix it. I was told they only take out the SSD/HD and the screws were for the mounting. Both drives were screwed down so the screws must have been from something else. After getting no response from my e-mails I called and talked to manager George. He said it isn't their responsibility. He offered to have me send it back and they would put the screws in but would not guarantee that I would be able to get into the BIOS. I only want to get it back to where it was before I shipped to them. I was never told to send just the affected SSDs. I was able to see that no files were deleted from the HDD.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/20/2022

  We are a data recovery company and deal exclusively with data recovery related issue. This was the case with the customer who had a laptop with internal hard drives installed that seized to function. Customer shipped the entire laptop to us without first removing the storage media, which defaults us to extract the hard drives. The process is fairly simple and is essentially consists of taking off couple screws and detaching the storage device. We examined the faulty storage media, provided customer with the quote, which he agreed to and the service was provided. Customer verified their file list, confirmed the data we recovered and both his data and his laptop were shipped back to him. 

  Upon arrival, customer reported that he's missing "both 32gig SO-DIMMs" and his laptop is not functioning. Customer insisted we "stole" his ram to multiple company representatives and insisted to talk to manager. I've reached out to the customer and upon questioning him regarding the RAM, he informed me that he mistaken the expansion slots for something that he already had. After that he insisted that 7 screws that he received ( that were part of the laptop that held the original hard drive units) somehow are related to the laptop not functioning. The only service we performed on the laptop was to remove the said hard drives and perform data recovery on them. What most likely happened is the hard drives were installed back with spare screws that are abundant in our lab since there is no difference between one laptop screw to another and the extra bag of screws was simply attached along.

  We never verified whether customer's laptop is working, as it is not the scope of our job and thus we are not liable to offer repairs or replacement on customer's laptop.

  We extensively cover the information on how to ship the storage media to us at the following page which does specify that storage media should be removed prior to being shipped for service: https://www.salvagedata.com/shipping-guides/

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/20/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  I was never given any instructions that I was to only send the drives.  I never received that link to the instructions.  When I first tried to send my laptop, I took it to one of their drop-off locations.  That site called Salvagedata to refuse to ship my laptop.  Salvagedata was aware that I was trying to ship my laptop.  I still did not receive instructions at that point to only ship the SSDs.  If they weren't going to take any responsibility, then they should not have opened the laptop up.  
  
  Regards,
  
  ******* *******
  
  
  
  
   

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/20/2022

  As previously stated - we are a data recovery company. Customer sent his laptop to recover data. The data recovery service was performed. All our policy statements are public and available on our website. We are neither aware of whether the laptop was functional prior to being sent in for data recovery service, nor are we responsible for any damages that the laptop might have suffered afterwards. We are unable to offer any type of repair service for the laptop because that is simply not the scope of our business nor has there been established any fault on our part.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/26/2022

  Type:Billing 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.

  In November 2018 I contracted SALVAGEDATA to recover data from a thumb drive that was estimated to take several weeks. Nearly 13 months later, at the end of November 2019, SALVAGEDATA contacted me to inform me that the data had been recovered and was ready for review. In their emails, they state that I had a limited amount of time (5 days) to review the detail and at the end of that time my payment method on file would be charged in full. After their 48-hour notice for review email, I never heard from them again. Fast forward another 2+ years, it's now February of 2022 and I'm out of the country on business. When I return, I have a message waiting from SALVAGEDATA that they are going to send me to collections if my bill is not paid in 7 days. Unfortunately, those 7 days had expired. More unfortunate, I never even knew there was a bill due. From December 2019 through February 2022, there was no communication from SALVAGEDATA. No notifications that the "payment on file" was not approved, no phone call saying that they needed a payment, and no files, which had at this point (and even in December 2019) had become meaningless. Their 2-4 week estimate turned 13-month delivery has turned into a collection case on me... with no notification in 27 months that the payments had not been made. Today I spent an hour or so talking to the collections agent and then the company who had sent me to collections, SALVAGEDATA, to understand there reasoning for, 1) not notifying me that the charge was not completed as their email stated it would be, 2) how a 2-4 week estimate turns into 13 months, and 3) whether or not they were willing to admit that they were somewhat culpable for this non-payment. Luckily, they were able to answer all 3, but not with anything good. 1) Genrally, "We don't notify people if their payment is declined.", 2) No real comment, 3) "Yes. I admit that we could have done that better, but COVID..."

  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/27/2022

  1) not notifying me that the charge was not completed as their email stated it would be    - we made multiple attempts to contact the customer via phone, e-mail and text over the course of his recovery.
  

  2) how a 2-4 week estimate turns into 13 months  - the initial recovery quote for the case was double of the final amount, customer was notified that the delivery times may increase due to the nature of the recovery process as well as the fact that we deeply discounted the service and it was put into economy queue.

  3) whether or not they were willing to admit that they were somewhat culpable for this non-payment - customer is responsible to ensure the payment is provided for the completed service. Customer had access to their account where an invoice and all applicable information is available for view at any time. 

   

  In conclusion - customer was provided with their data at a deeply discounted rate and no refund is deemed to be due as such.