Circuit City--City Assure Refusal to return hard drive from laptop sent in for repair DalFT. Worth Texas

Unfortunate.

In the future, use a competent, independant, local, computer service for your pc issues. At least that way, you know who you're dealing with (the person doing the repairs) and if the unit cannot be repaired, you'll get YOUR PROPERTY returned to you.

About the software you had. In many cases, if you can prove the software was legitimately PURCHASED, the software CAN be replaced. Even software that was purchased and downloaded from the internet can be replaced. Many software vendors will work with you to replace downloaded software (free of charge) under such circumstances; especially in your case where you can prove the computer was sent for repair and then graciously disposed of instead of returned to you by the repair facility

I have successfully had software vendors provide replacement license keys, software downloads, etc., in similar situations. The legitimate software vendors will work with you to help replace the programs you lost. IF they programs were old and/or no longer published (software company out of business) you may be out of luck.

Good luck.

Unfortunate.

In the future, use a competent, independant, local, computer service for your pc issues. At least that way, you know who you're dealing with (the person doing the repairs) and if the unit cannot be repaired, you'll get YOUR PROPERTY returned to you.

About the software you had. In many cases, if you can prove the software was legitimately PURCHASED, the software CAN be replaced. Even software that was purchased and downloaded from the internet can be replaced. Many software vendors will work with you to replace downloaded software (free of charge) under such circumstances; especially in your case where you can prove the computer was sent for repair and then graciously disposed of instead of returned to you by the repair facility

I have successfully had software vendors provide replacement license keys, software downloads, etc., in similar situations. The legitimate software vendors will work with you to help replace the programs you lost. IF they programs were old and/or no longer published (software company out of business) you may be out of luck.

Good luck.

Unfortunate.

In the future, use a competent, independant, local, computer service for your pc issues. At least that way, you know who you're dealing with (the person doing the repairs) and if the unit cannot be repaired, you'll get YOUR PROPERTY returned to you.

About the software you had. In many cases, if you can prove the software was legitimately PURCHASED, the software CAN be replaced. Even software that was purchased and downloaded from the internet can be replaced. Many software vendors will work with you to replace downloaded software (free of charge) under such circumstances; especially in your case where you can prove the computer was sent for repair and then graciously disposed of instead of returned to you by the repair facility

I have successfully had software vendors provide replacement license keys, software downloads, etc., in similar situations. The legitimate software vendors will work with you to help replace the programs you lost. IF they programs were old and/or no longer published (software company out of business) you may be out of luck.

Good luck.

Unfortunate.

In the future, use a competent, independant, local, computer service for your pc issues. At least that way, you know who you're dealing with (the person doing the repairs) and if the unit cannot be repaired, you'll get YOUR PROPERTY returned to you.

About the software you had. In many cases, if you can prove the software was legitimately PURCHASED, the software CAN be replaced. Even software that was purchased and downloaded from the internet can be replaced. Many software vendors will work with you to replace downloaded software (free of charge) under such circumstances; especially in your case where you can prove the computer was sent for repair and then graciously disposed of instead of returned to you by the repair facility

I have successfully had software vendors provide replacement license keys, software downloads, etc., in similar situations. The legitimate software vendors will work with you to help replace the programs you lost. IF they programs were old and/or no longer published (software company out of business) you may be out of luck.

Good luck.

Once you send in the computer, Circuit City and the extended warranty people are NOT responsible for your data, once it is sent off, it is gone if they can not fix the PC.

Your fault.

It pains me greatly that you lost your data and your computer as well. As a long time employee of the company that administrates the extended warranty, I will confess that when something like this happens to a customer I speak to, I feel terrible. Not just because of the fact that it happened, but because of the fact that we as a company need to do a better job of keeping customers informed of the possibility of data loss and salvage, especially on accidental damage issues.

I myself have pointed out the underparr expectations we're required to give to customers; unfortunately if you take a unit to the store, you're not given these expectations, and they're not always as thoroughly given as they should be when you call us to set up service. I can only say that I myself advise a customer strongly that when a unit is being set up for service, particularly for accidental damage, that the computer may be salvaged. I have also tried to get my superiors to address the issue with the inaccurate status emails that are sent out to customers stating that computers have been repaired when they are in fact being salvaged.

All that I can do is express my empathy and my own frustration at how difficult it is to effect change with regards to how we address customer issues.
I CAN tell you, there are people aware of these problems that take calls from customers on a daily basis, and we are trying to get these issues addressed by our higher ups.

By the way, when we provide service expectations, we do advise people of the possibility of data loss and the importance of backing up data. There ARE ways to do this without the computer turning on. You just remove the hard drive temporarily and connect it to another computer is all.

make a ghost image of your hard drive, and re-install it on another. Than De-Gause this hard drive/re-format it makes it alil harder for people to get information than b/c u have to have certain tools and software that some people dont have to get this info from the hard drive.

I like to keep my computer & my money seperate.

Now- how do you contact your online banks to take control of your accounts?

You should have backed up your hard drive as you 'went along', but that would not have prevented any sensitive info on your hard drive being accessed once the unit was operable. Hard to know what the 'salvage' people really did with it.

Your story seems to suggest that Circuit City views the customer's properts as Circuit City property once warranty assistance is requested.

B/t/w stop eating & drinking around your computer. Sugary liquid getting into a keyboard is bad enough with a desktop but at least you can plug in another keyboard. With a laptop? h*o-boy!

I agree that Circuit City sucks and would never do business with them personally. However, I am completely blown away that anyone would ever send out their hard drive with personal info. all over it.

For future reference, anytime you have to part with a hard drive:

1. Obtain a different hard drive, reinstall the OS and/or do a system restore to put the system back to where it was when you bought it.

2. This ensures that you are not sending any personal information for low life thieves to steal your identity with.

I would not trust Circuit City or anyone for that matter with my personal information, you are just begging to get screwed, which you may have here.