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Second time I have used this company and even though they advertise to be the cheapest data recovery company in the UK and give you a money back guarantee they are nothing of the sort. Both cases were very diffrerent and was charged the same amount and even though they quote you prices excluding VAT they charge you VAT on top claiming that it says so on their websites. They are impossible to get hold of on the phone and never call back when they say they would.
Would not recommend them and ertainly won't use them again!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I completely agree with this complaint. DO NOT NOT NOT USE RAPID DATA RECOVERY or FIELDS DATA. They make you wait more than a month for recovery, never call you back, change their stories about what they promise you, send you the wrong things, and give you no reason for any of it. They say Fields data is their "partner" but it is actually the same company. Their invoices will not specify anything specific, thus protecting them from any "promises" they made.
I encourage people to send their stories to BBC Watchdog and Brigend trade office.
The company goes by:
http://www.rapid-data-recovery.net/
or http://www.rapid-data.net
Avoid them at all costs!
I paid them to recover my precious data from a failed hard drive, which they subsequently trashed and overcharged me for. Naturally I can prove this (and intend to in a court of law) but that’s beyond the scope of my post.
These companies are all based in Bridgend, Wales and are well known for their sharp practices involving taking money for services not rendered and simply relying on their no refunds policy in the T&C. Quite often they damage hard drives and claim that the drive was irreparable – but still charge for an “attempted recovery”.
Their model is simple. A flashy template website with stock photos with claims of being the best in the country (or the world) at what they do. Their websites also make dubious or false claims about their certification and accreditation, as well as unverifiable claims about their current or former clients.
They quote you and usually offer a “money back guarantee”. You pay - but then a mysterious technical problem prevents them from carrying out their promise. No money back, refer to your T&C they will tell you. Try calling their bogus or non-existent “customer service” department and you’ll be rudely reminded of their no refund under any circumstances policy.
Ripping off large numbers of people for relatively small amounts of money is less likely to cause a fuss than ripping people off for thousands of pounds. Don’t take my word for it, Google the company and see the flood of complaints about them.
http://data-recovery-blog.com
One of the worst experiences I have ever faced in my professional career was the loss of a body of work, my feature length script. After I took my laptop to Rapid, they performed a free diagnostic, and suggested I approach Fields to ensure a full recovery. Fields was able to retrieve my feature length script in its entirety and I have to say both companies performed very well.
I went to an IT repair shop who recommended Rapid for my laptop recovery. Rapid did a free diagnosis and told me they would send it to Fields who would be able to offer a 80% recovery, as opposed to their 40%. Apparently Fields has better technology and they are more equipped to handle invasive hard drive recoveries. It was more expensive, but Rapid was very helpful by not charging me for the diagnosis, and sending me to a helpful company.
Rapid recovered my I-phone after it got soaked. I had so much info on there, and they got everything back for me that I needed, even my contacts that I had neglected to back up.They’ve obviously been around a while and know their way around data recovery. I was very happy with their service and the time it took to recover it, thanks Rapid.
I noticed that this company is linked to Action Direct.
Do a search for " Rapid Data Recovery scams"
This is one scary company expert in everything but with complaints all over the net, not just in the UK
I did some more digging and searched for action " direct Bridgend " in google
found these websites all mentioning various companies all operating in the same way.
Martin Lewis forum has a lot of comments
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2011027
a lot of complaints received by trading standards
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/number_ ... #incoming-97951
Fines for sharing information ?
http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t30421.html
this one has a video that shows how they hike the price and lie about their offices
http://www.datarecoverycompanies.co.uk/fields-group-c696.html
Everything in previous comments is being repeated, at this time Dec. 2010 concerning Rapid. Have been waiting 3 months for return of hard drive after being charged a fortune for 12gb of recovery from a drive containing 120gb, almost zero communication. Always excuses but unable to resolve any problems. Beware they still operate and should be brought to heel soon before more people are ripped off.
1. They have 46 Trading Standard complaints against them (Rapid Data is just a trading name, they are called Fields Associates and Fields Group), they have 8 CCJs. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/complaints_to_trading_standards_2
2. There are hundreds of complaints about them if you Google Rapid Data Recovery scam although they are working hard to get them all removed.
3. They post fake reviews using identical names, even the director uses a fake name when threatening people he has complained about. Google James Walsh.
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31rsjemi2Sg – They are famous... In Germany. Please take a look at this video and understand that the authorities in the UK have been slow to take this company seriously.
Fields employ an army of SEO Article writers probably based in Asia to flood the internet with shill reviews, shill articles and other fake posts and comments as well as doing everything they can to take down genuine posts about their services as you can read here.
As you can see around 43 days ago they suddenly posted 5 positive reviews after months of inactivity, in an attempt to mitigate the damage done to their already tattered reputation.
Read the evidence carefully and make your own mind up.
www.datarecoverycompanies.co.uk/get-safe-online-reporting-online-scams-i413.html
Unfortunately I fell for the scam from Rapid data, wish I googled the reviews before sending off my external drive, but I was desperate to get my data back and they seemed so friendly on the phone.
Sent off my drive, was told the most expensive repair would be £300, which I thought ok as I had 190gb on my drive. Then they get back to me, quoting serious issues with my drive and the price would now be £425+ vat+delivery to recover 80gb of files. They emailed me the file list in an attachment, but none of those showed the size. When I told them I would think about it and call them back, the pressure started saying that they are really busy, can only keep my files on their servers for a day so I need to make a decision. They also reduced the price to £320+vat plus delivery, all ended up costing about £390. I paid, then after about an hour I got cold feet and called them to cancel. Was told the work has already started and could not be stopped. Whatever. They promised to deliver in three days and so far so good - the package arrived when they said it would.
What I got was an internal hard drive for which I had to go out and buy and enclosure costing £30, in order to connect the drive to my computer. I was told once I return their drive, mine would be sent back... yeah right.
First - the so called recovered files - loads of them were just empty folders with nothing in them. Then loads of the files that had something in them had some unreadable unix files that I could not access. I deal with high-res photography and needed some of the images that were not backed up on discs, so imagine my horror when loads of those photographs were "recovered" as a negative? Many high res photos size 100mb each are in the form of negative and unreadable!
Tried calling and emailing, got one email back that customer services would be contacting me regarding my concern. Fat chance, heard nothing! In the end I gave up, sent back their drive so at least I could get my own drive back to give it to someone who could actually do the job, but so far no drive and no word from Rapid data. My drive cost me £200 so I could do with it back to have it repaired.
Luckily paid by cc so called them so they froze the amount pending the investigation. Now I just have to prove somehow that the data I got was not what I was told I'd get.
So yes, another unhappy customer.
Yes, I got conned into sending them my crashed hard disk drive, but then totally no response or call back from them.
Checked their address on Google Maps (too late!) and could not find the address of 100 Pall Mall!
Right old scammer, but why are they not procecutes or shut down.
This company is a complete scam run the other way do not give them your money do not believe Todd do everything you can to deter business from them I lost 900 dollars trying to recover data I have a completely useless hard drive after a month of phone calls and hard drives being sent back and sent back and forth. I agree with every negative complaint you see here. Their stories are the same as mine!
I declined their offer to get my documents off my hard drive due to such a high cost (they pretend it is going to be aorund £100, then they tell you it is going to be £400+), now it seems they may have damaged the drive before sending it back to me. It is in much worse state now than it was. Impossible to prove, of course, but with their general attitude and behaviour, I would not put it past them!
This review is based on my experiences with Fields Data Recovery, to whom I sent a couple of RAID disks last month.
NOTE: I thought I'd be fair and contact them (via their so-called complaints procedure) prior to posting a review online so that they could have the opportunity to make amends, but they refused to accept that they had made any mistakes and/or apologise for their obvious incompetencies. It just sums up the lack of customer care of this company.
These are my complaints regarding them:-
- Timewasters even with express service; their express service (which they just applied without confirmation because I said I wanted the data "as soon as") increases the cost by at least 50% and, in my case, took as long as their so-called standard service, i.e. >3 days (took 1 week in total from them receiving it at Fields Data Recovery to us receiving the recovered data at our office)
- Way too expensive, even when you state you're a charity (which is for whom the data was being recovered); you'd expect them to be charitable given the margin of profits they're receiving
- Can't understand simple instructions and mix up files you're referring to so talking to your 'account manager' becomes a really painful experience as he isn't at all clued up technically and waffles on about data being very difficult to retrieve, bad sector, a lot of work to retrieve the data, and whatever else he can make up
- Whatever you do, do not specify the files you're after, otherwise they'll only look for these specific files and get that wrong too (so just better to specify you want *everything* back)
- Related to the above: had to do at least 4 iterations to get the files I needed; they could have just done it the first time round (delay was as a result of their incompetency and nothing else)
- Tend to come up with made-up excuses, e.g. a MySQL file being in a damaged sector when it actually wasn't even there, requiring SQL viewer to find out what the last modified date was on a (MySQL INNODB) file (especially when they achieved that in a previous iteration without the said application)!
- Can only provide a reliable list the first time around (on their portal which shows Last Change/Modified timestamps next to each file and the folder/file structure); their "linux" software doesn't work for subsequent iterations (what?!) which means you're provided with a list of text files without timestamps (for subsequent iterations) so it becomes impossible to determine if a certain file (which is in multiple locations) is the correct, updated version you're after
- They don't care one jot about customer service; all they're after is your money so don't give it to them until they've met your every demand and you're sure they've recovered the files you're after (I guess this is stating the obvious and applies equally to all data recovery companies)
- Once they get the money, their responses become a lot slower and/or stop completely (surprise, surprise) and it's you who has to call them (only to find they're not at their desk (conveniently) each time you call)
- They provide an FTP link to some of the data (so you can retrieve the most important data prior to them sending it physically) but, again, as I mentioned earlier, with specifying a list to them you know they're just going to get it wrong (which is exactly what happened in my case even though I spelled it out to them clearly along with the full path to each file and in which priority I wanted the data)
- Only went with these guys because they were recommended by a friend and - because I was desperate to get it sorted and wasn't thinking straight - I didn't read their reviews beforehand
- Try more reliable companies who have better reviews (look on other review websites and forums too to get an idea)
Rapid Data. Net are a rip off, I told them that I wanted the excel files recovered, they did not recover one, just some docs and photos, they claim they sent out file list I did not receive, before they badgered me saying they had 98% recovery of my disk. I reluctantly went ahead a a big cost, what a let down and they say they are within their rights. Keep away from these charletons.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will warn against those peopel: I state that everything I write is absolutely the truth.
We first contact:
-When we contact to ask questions about your problem you are called, as
regards the Uk market (but also applies to other markets) from computer
kids who know nothing except less than zero ... but the real surprise is
that they call you from Thailand. Want proof?Ask to meet in person the
person with whom you are speaking.Insist and say that no matter where
you can find ... but you say that you want to meet. ... it is disparate
responses and despair
-the diagnostic and is free, but absolutely off the prices that whoever
calls claims to be able to say that you are going to pay.Lower prices
per item, 'cause each disc that you sent, they will earn a cash
Commission.
- Wales: location of their laboratories.The machines have them, but if they make them pay much
-Attention to accept the budget: winds in 2 phases: the first in which
paid the rent of materials to attempt data recovery: If the data are NOT
RECOVERED, you lose this sum: sum that can be safely on 300 and passes
pounds
-Don't be fooled by trustpilot: Guest reviews: the negatives will be deleted (and there are many)
I write this as, due to a Raid 5 that decided to abandon myself, I was
going to fall into the trap of these people: luckily my friend, knowing
that there works for them before, contacting warned me.Since we're not
experiencing economic beautiful moments, if we our money to people
trying to FOOL the system by opening the labs in places where it can do
with £ 3. ... then you fools, but no stupid.
We do not die this argument, please.
If someone wanted to have more information can contact me
I contacted them once about a hard drive that had gone bad. A woman phoned back and I said that I was busy but would contact them later in the month when I was not under so much pressure. Since then I've had repeated calls from [protected] often leaving silent messages that cost me 8p a time to retrive. THEY WONT TAKE 'NO' FOR AN ANSWER. Appalling bl**dy firm.
Many reading these complaints from consumers and businesses would not realise the level of damage that Rapid Data a Fields Associates Ltd Fields Group member website has caused to the data recovery market.
Good data recovery companies cannot compete against scams, they can only alert others to the scam and it is often too late.
This is why Dr Daryl Hamilton Wallis and Dr Jamie Hamilton Wallis make around £1million per month
Think about why they are eWarfare Experts and Psycho Marketing practitioners have their own “in house legal firm, complaints department and Injunction Serving Operation” They have refined their scams to maximise the profit made and take over other markets in the sector domination by unrelenting growth approach to business.
Quickie Divorce
Lush Dates
Sugar Daddys
PPI claims
Debt Management
Thai Brides
Will writing
Visa Applications
You name the document spooling scam and they will have assessed its revenue generation capability and scalability to see if they can also attract Welsh Assembly Grant money or BOI Thailand Tax breaks using their “Outsourced” Fields Analytics Co Ltd Thailand business - formerly Fields South East Asia Co ltd
The few hundreds registered complaints in the UK are the tip of the iceberg.
Many are not take for £450 or £850 it is oftwn much more.
One school was held to ransom for £40, 000+vat my company recovered the data profitably for a fraction of that.
Beware of a free assessment by Rapid Data Data recovery Specialists Fields Data Recovery Salvataggio Dati Pronto Dati Clinque De Donnees Clinica De Datos Recuperacion Express Datenphoenix and the dozens of other Fields Group member websites operated accross the UK Europe and North America
Do your research there are data recovery blogs and review sites that talk about the Fields Data Recovery scam
And if you have been successful in getting your data back with Fields consider that your money has contributed to extending a global scam to help coporate professional criminals gain connections in politics and government.