Rapid Data Recovery - DataPhoenix Theft and criminal damage Internet

In November of last year (2009) following minor corruption of my company server's root partition I contacted a company called Phoenix data recovery to recovery the data. No problem at all I was assured and could be done within 48 hours, although at a premium rate.

Needed the data quickly I agreed to the premium rate. However getting the disks to Birmingham was a problem and would delay things. No problem at all we have a sister company on Pall Mall I was told (Rapid Data Recovery), drip them there. Disks dropped off. Several phone calls informing me everything was going smoothly, but then suddenly a problem. Data not recovered but would work through the night to try something else. No luck. Could I drop the server off and another way would be tried?

 This I did. No luck there. Could try something else. More money that original price quoted. Had a sense I was being done as a few things were quite adding up. Enough of a techie to know when someone doesn't know what they are talking about. Refused extra cost and sked for server to be returned and then and we kind of lost contact. No data, no server, no contact.

Contacted 100 Pall Mall to find that company wasn't based there, so tried to contact them via the Birmingham address. After some time found that there were not based there either. Both addresses are Regus business centres. Tried to get receptionists there to contact the respective companies. Never heard a word. Eventually got hold of them again a few weeks later and server would be sent back. Expect it in a day or two. No charge, we haven't recovered your data. It wasn't.

A couple of weeks later managed to get someone to pick up the phone. Account manager on holiday, has it not been sent back? We'll sent it now, you'll have it tomorrow. Tomorrow, like the server, never comes. Tried and tried to contact again, solicitor tried. No luck. Looked into Rapid Data Recovery - not an actual company. Looked into Phoenix - not an actual company.

Eventually traced them both back to Fields Data Recovery. Did a bit of research and found a horrific trail of unhappy customers with different but similar problems. Reported theft of my computer to the police and trading standards.

Eventually got hold of someone at Fields Data Recovery, who offered to send the server back. Refused and arranged for my courier to pick up server from Pencoed in Wales, seven weeks after I had been promised my data. Server no longer works. This maybe because it appears to have been stored outside and is rusted and wet. Reported criminal damage to police and also Bridgend Trading Standards.

I still do not have my data back. Reckon we're about 15000.00 out of pocket thus far and unclear at the moment how much of this the insurance will cover. My advice is avoid Fields and any of the other names it uses like the plague . There is a mass of information available on the internet about the bad experiences people have had. If you have a bad experience pursue Bridgend Trading Standards to act. If they had acted when they got the first complaints I and many others would not be left in dire situations