So here's my new update on the drive. This afternoon Bob had told me that barring an act of God, he could think of no reason why my data wouldn't be ready. As I'm leaving I called him to let him know I was on my way, and then, when I'm ten minutes from pulling into their parking lot, I get a call from Bob saying “we got to 98% and then started getting errors so your data won't be ready today.”
“Why not?”, I ask.
Bob of course has no explanation for me other than “there were errors”, so I ask to speak to someone more technical. He tells me that he's technically qualified. This is the guy that types half his emails into the subject line, and gave me incorrect information about RAID types when I asked about other options. Anyway, I tell him that I don't believe he's technically qualified and that I am extremely unhappy with the service I'm getting. I demand to speak to a different sales rep or a manager.
“I'm the only person you're going to be talking to here,” he tells me.
After multiple mistakes, being repeatedly misled about them, and an apparent chasm in communication coupled with a “you'll get it when you get it” attitude, at this point I'm starting to feel like I'm never getting my data back and, especially given Bob misplacing my payment records the day before almost forcing a double-payment, that it's being held hostage. I tell him that if 98% is copied, to just close my case and give me my drives back and I'll deal with the 2% loss.
Then he starts yelling at me — “This is your fault you know! If you weren't pushing us so hard to get your data back you wouldn't be in this predicament!”
Whatever.
From the first day I walked in there I'd been asking for expediated service (which is advertised on their website). I made it very clear every time Bob mentioned a delay that I was more than willing to pay in excess to get the data back sooner rather than later, but even though I asked at least three separate times, each time he refused to even talk about the subject. I don't know if they don't really have that service, or if Bob was just refusing for some reason, but it wasn't cool at all.
Anyway, a few minutes later I pull into the parking lot. Apparently Bob had split after my phone call and wasn't there any more. Because I was obviously pissed off, I was handled by Scott, their “senior consultant” who I assume must deal with most of their damage control. I'm sure he's heard a thousand customers complain about the recovery process so I think he took that aspect of my complaint with a grain of salt, but I don't think he was too happy to hear that Bob was actually blocking me from talking to others there. Not that I expect anything to come of it…
So now I have my drive here with I assume most of the data on it (my initial checks show most of it). I'll probably take one of these Lacie drives I picked up for the video editing machine and set them up temporarily for this for the short term… Definitely not happy with how this was handled! That said, it appears to be over though, and in combination with my local and remote backups, I've really lost very little data. Hopefully late tonight I'll run a few tests. I can't think of any reason why there won't be an experience update tomorrow, and then images the day after.
Oh, and as a general “PS”, their security arrangements really suck. Last night when I was there picking up the CDs (of the wrong files), they left me at their front desk for an extended period with no one around. There are no cameras, and their computer is left on after hours logged in to an admin account, and their files room was also open and unlocked and not on camera. Anyway, not that I have any interest in breaching their security, but I just thought it reflected even more unprofessionalism.
I'll compile this all into an article, along with everyone's first and last names and the company information as soon as I've had a chance to double-check all my facts, times, and so on. Monday probably.
