This document compares statements made by Fields victims in “Reports From Fields Groups Victims.docx”, to highlight the patterns of sharp practice employed by Fields Data Recovery.

  1. MISLEADING CUSTOMERS ABOUT PRICES AND DATA RECOVERY PROSTECTS
  2. VICTIMS GIVEN THE RUNAROUND – “NOT AVAILABLE” “IN MEETINGS”
  3. DAMAGE/THEFT
  4. MISSING OR FRAGMENTED FILES – FURTHER CHARGE TO RECOVER MORE
  5. CAUGHT OUT USING FAKE NAMES
  6. DATA RECOVERABLE IN SPITE OF FIELDS FRADULENT CLAIMS
  7. STAFF IN THE BACKGROUND
  8. UNFAIR/ILLEGAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS
  9. SUSPICIOUS CLAIMS ABOUT “ORDERING PARTS FROM THE USA”
  10. TACTICS EMPLOYED BY NOTORIOUS SALESMEN
  11. CONFUSION ABOUT FIELDS’ LOCATION

MISLEADING CUSTOMERS ABOUT PRICES AND DATA RECOVERY PROSTECTS

I had a couple of phone calls from them telling me that there was physical damage to the drive and had to send it to their “forensic partners” and then that they managed to make an image of the drive and recovered 90% of the data. They then requested payment of £557.55 which was made by card over the telephone.
Victim of Fields

...very confusing, Email saying ‘ swapped the Heads’ by Rapid, no cost but further faults were noticed and now cost £195 non refundable and further £195 only if data recovered...oh and 95% chance of recovery
Victim of Fields

A number of days later, I received a phone call from Mr Reece [Daniel Rees] stating that a full recovery of my data was possible complete with the full, original folder structure. Needless, to say I was delighted and happy to pay a reasonable fee for such an comprehensive piece of work. The price proffered by Mr Reece was £435, which was substantially more than the initial estimation
Victim of Fields

Not long passed and I received a call from a sale rep saying that it looks likely that a full recovery can be offered, and would I be willing to go ahead?
A few days passed and he called to say that the recovery was complete with 95% of the data retrieved. The fee would be £400.00.
Considering their website mentioned recovery from £97.00 I was slightly surprised to find that it had reached that much!
Victim of Fields

I received an email from Jason Murphy saying that he had an update on the hard drive ...I called him and he said the drive had been “fully recovered” and he said the cost would be £450.
Victim of Fields

Jason calls to say that they can’t recover any data from the drive as is and would need to order a part, at a cost to me of £270+VAT. He was spitting out a lot of numbers at me and said it was 60/40. I was under the impression he meant that they think that they can recover 60% of the data. He said his technician/engineer thought that there was a good chance of recovering the data, and wouldn’t recommend that I go ahead if he didn’t think it was a good idea
Victim of Fields

Last year I sent in a fail hard drive to get my data recovered. I sent it in and was given a quote of £517 to restore roughly 95% of the data on the drive.

I winced and decided to go ahead and pay the money as I valued the data on the drive and made the sacrifice to have it returned to me by a professional data recovery service. The most important thing on the drive was a folder that stored all my travel photographs from the last 8 years.
Victim of Fields

He also said that what I had done was pretty standard and based on the fact that the physical drive was still working, it was just a matter of scanning it for the data and rebuilding it, which would cost between £200 and a maximum of £400.
He called me back about an hour later saying they were able to find the 3 documents I described.  I asked if they were able to open them and if they were readable.  He said yes.  I also asked if the information they would send back to me would also be readable.  He said yes.  Based on this I accepted the recovery and paid £454.
Victim of Fields

I spoke to a Daniel Richards who was affable at first, telling me this would be a “Mary Poppins” recovery??
I was quoted a price of £395 which I paid. They called me to say they had only recovered 173gb
Victim of Fields

I sent my hard drive off to Fields who said that the problem was caused by bad sectors and that my data was 100% recoverable. Paid £395.00 + VAT. Got DVD back supposedly containing my data but couldn't read it.
Victim of Fields

They apparently replaced the head but could still not read the disk, so they recommended sending it to their “advanced team” who have a 99% success rate.  So I said yes, send it over.  I was quoted £585
Victim of Fields

I have been dealing with Rapid-data recovery. They are the most completely incompetent company I have ever come across. I was given the yarn about the drive being too difficult to fix themselves and going to another group which was going to cost me 450 pounds.
Victim of Fields

Mr. Nikaein had asked Mr. Rees how much the data recovery job would cost, to which Mr. Rees informed him clearly that it ranged between £97 (as advertised on your website) and £150. Mr. Nikaein then told Mr. Rees that on this basis the worst case scenario would be that the recovery would be no more than £150
... . Mr. Rees then informed Mr. Nikaein that the cost would now be between £200 and £400, which is contrary to what was discussed on their call...
... at no time did Mr. Rees ask Mr. Nikaein for permission to move forward on the recovery job based on the new costs he provided Mr. Nikaein on Tuesday 11th May. On the contrary Mr. Rees clearly tells Mr. Nikaein that the hard drive is with the Advanced Lab and the data is ALREADY being recovered slowly.
As an Adaptec partner ourselves, this was one of the factors why Mr. Nikaein contacted your company, however this is not the sort of sales tactic that I would expect from any company especially those that are in possession of sensitive data. It seems to me that this is a tactic used to ambush individuals who may desperately need their data and that the initial price of £97 to £150 is just a bait.
Victim of Fields

So following these emailed quotes I telephoned Data Phoenix again and clarified that I am sending a Raid drive and therefore can I confirm the cost, he said "the cost would be £295 and its great that I'm sending a Raid drive as that gives them Two Bites at the Cherry".
... At this point I was alarmed that they were then quoting me a 'no obligation' £590 +vat + hard drive cost.
They then messed around for a few days (I also spoke to someone called Jason) claiming that they were doing me a favour and really the cost should be £995 because I had sent a Raid drive.
Victim of Fields

Jason Murphy phoned to discuss my drive. Assured me that all my data was recovered. Never received comprehensive report on recovered data or fault. I enquired possibility of refund and was told that they will review their quality control and investigate this. In the mean time I could bring in my drive for a 2nd recovery attempt.
Victim of Fields

You are aware that we were given information by your member of staff, Dan
Richards that 98% of our data was recoverable, but of the 20GB we sent you, you only returned 4GB via DVD's and much of those files were duplicated ...paid Rapid Data Recovery £790 + VAT
My wife, a director of this company, received a verbal assurance from your Dan Richards (a supervisor?) that "the good news" was that you were able to extract "98%" of our data.
Victim of Fields

I found Rapid Data Recovery via an online search, and called them. I spoke to Daniel Rees, who was polite and friendly, and quoted me between £75 and £150 + VAT, stating that £150 would be the worst case scenario
I received an email a fortnight after depositing my hard drive, informing me that the Head Disk Assembly unit had failed and would need to be replaced, and the drive rebuilt. It said that this had been attempted using replacement parts, and that although the procedure had been successful, the data was 95% corrupt, and would need to be sent to their partner company, Fields Data Recovery in Hammersmith, who had the necessary forensic tools. This would be done at £395 + VAT if I was willing. I was told Fields had a 99.9% success rate with cases such as mine
Victim of Fields

The problem: Their poor service has cost me £893 plus numerous calls and hours of my valuable time so far and I still have nothing to show for it.
Victim of Fields

So, much to my subsequent regret, I phoned Rapid Data and spoke to a man with a Welsh accent calling himself, if I remember correctly, ''Daniel Richards". It may have been “Daniel Rees”, and I think I may have spoken to a “Daniel Rees” on a subsequent occasion.
Mr “Richards” seemed very confident and said the most it would cost would be £200 plus vat.
The next call comes a day or two later: "we need to replace the heads. It’s going to be £195 plus VAT for the parts and labour."
Anyway to cut a long story short he said he would drop the recovery fee to £55 bringing the total to £250 + VAT. This was a contradiction of the confident, and blatantly false, promises and assertions made to convince me to send my drive to this company in the first place. From this lie on I did not trust this company.
Victim of Fields

Having sent my disks to fields with an inital cost of £200-£300 I was told that because the second disk had a "head" problem the recovery cost would be £581. I had 64GB of data and they said that they had recovered 56GB. I viewed the filelist and agreed to the recovery.
On receipt of the recovered disk, nearly all spreadsheets, docs & zip files were corrupt and unable to open. Most text files of a larger size that were recovered also had corrupt data.
It was only because they recorded the phone calls that they admitted I had been misold by virtue of the fact that I had been told there was 56GB and there was only 28GB, they offered me £355 refund.
Victim of Fields

so I contacted rapid data as they advertise low rates so I sent my drive off to them. And of course they ring me, the problem too difficult to fix, has to be sent off to their specialists or something so they can check it, will cost about £300 to fix, but I'm still not under any obligations to accept. And then of course they call me back, it will cost £400 something.... I say I'll think about it and that I'd call them back in a couple of days.
Victim of Fields

VICTIMS GIVEN THE RUNAROUND – “NOT AVAILABLE” “IN MEETINGS”

I was told that I should request a refund by a chap in customer services - who funnily enough has now left!
Victim of Fields

Their attitude switched when I complained, they became extremely belligerent and rude. I was told that 4 people had left the company since they took on my case including the customer services manager Owen Kilminster
Victim of Fields

They put me through to customer service which was dead and they almost treat it all like one big game... Then the call wouldn't be answered, So I called on my mobile and they picked it up straight away... they avoid numbers that they record.
Victim of Fields


I kept calling Daniel Rees to get my server returned. I was told that the manager (William) was away on holiday
Victim of Fields

I arranged to meet someone at 2pm to collect my server at Pall Mall but when I got there the receptionist said they had “just gone to lunch”. I was not pleased with this since I had made a prior arrangement to deposit my valuable data but had to leave my hard drive there anyway.
Victim of Fields

Again no word until I chase them again. Same story, the person who was dealing with you has since left!
Victim of Fields

Having heard nothing from Jason since 4 Feb, I called Fields to follow up. I was told that Jason was “in a meeting”. I left a message to have him call me back.
Victim of Fields

Asked to see them (as they said they would be there) she looked a bit thrown, said they were all out at lunch.  Now this did not tally at all wit the "extremely busy office noises" playing in the background when I had called them.
Victim of Fields

Call answered by Jason Murphy who confirmed he is not customer care and that Peter Pfennig is in a meeting.
Requested to speak to anyone else in customer care but advised that they are all in a meeting.
Victim of Fields

I emailed Mr Rees and said that the price quoted was out of my budget for the time being, and politely asked for my hard drive back - not wanting to trust the postal service I again said I would come to collect it from their Pall Mall office. There was no reply. I travelled up to London again, to be told by the receptionist that all the staff were in a meeting.
Victim of Fields

I think I have about of 30% of the usable data, the rest is rubbish. I have over 2500 items in my thrash can of their unreadable data and empty folders which, funnily enough, add mbs to their "recovered files". Tried calling and emailing about that and my "account manager" is either busy or cuts me off.
On 16 Dec 2010, at 15:06, Jason Murphy wrote:

Dear Natasha,
 
I am currently in a meeting until 4pm. I will forward your request to customer services regarding your recovery.
 
Regards
 
Jason Murphy
Victim of Fields

I'm also forwarding you, 2 emails from myself to Rapid Data Recovery, showing a bogus email address and no reply from them. It also shows that I attempted to contact them on the phone as well. Of course, without success
Victim of Fields

DAMAGE/THEFT

I eventually arranged to drive down and collect my server. When I did I found it was kept outside in the bad weather, it was all rusty and the hard drives and PSU were all wet!!!!
Victim of Fields

Failed to get response because of this, and no sign of them wanting the £195, so I asked then for return of hard drive ensuring no damage to the unit
Hard drive returned second class post in a jiffy bag but damaged, the unit had its sides and back hanging off.
Victim of Fields

Sure enough, I was only returned one of my drives not both of them
Victim of Fields

I phoned them back and politely told them it was out of my budget but could they please return my drive.  They then offered to drop the price to £316, but I politely refused and said no.
I received the drive back the next day, but it was NOT in the anti static bag I sent it in, it was NOT in a securely padded box either – just wrapped in bubble wrap in a UPS bag!!!  Additionally, they did not return my power supply and USB cable
Victim of Fields

To my surprise the disk did turn up the following morning. I immediately had it collected by a company recommended by a friend in the computer business (the first company I tried refused to accept it because it had been with Rapid Data Recovery first and they were sure, from previous experience, it wouldn't even be worth looking at). In short, I paid some £265 for them to look at it, only to be told that whatever state the drive had been in initially, it had been badly damaged by Rapid Data Recovery and appeared to have been wrenched apart, with scratches on the internal disk platters and dust contamination. Consequently nothing could be saved.
Victim of Fields

Ontrack have gone as far as they could go - the damage was severe to the drive but when questioned they won't give any indication as to what they believe has caused the damage. they have been able to recover very little. the guys at fields sent me a list of files that they suggested they could recover and not all of those files are actually recoverable - this suggests to me that either they were wrong about what files they could recover or something has happened to the drive since that report was produced.
Victim of Fields

I phoned Rapid Data back and authorised payment to them by Visa debit card over the phone (my card was subsequently used in several attempted frauds all attempting delivery of goods to Wales, and targeted to sums of around £200. This has never happened to me before or since.)
Victim of Fields

After a while I realise they are fobbing me off so  I thought I'd send their drive back(which is read only btw so no use) and hopefully I'll get my drive. My Lacie drive is a wireless hub as well and it did cost me over £200 a few years ago, so I really wanted it back as Lacie could fix it for £50.
Victim of Fields

I only received a refund for the original amount, no compensation. I lost years of work, that can never be retrieved, as they didn't return the original drive.
Victim of Fields

I was also very disappointed when I sent it to a completely different lab that when the disk was opened in an ISO certified lab that finger prints and dust were found on it. In addition to paying £224.25 to Rapid, my business has lost £2,000 due to time spent re-shooting the images that were lost on my hard drive.
Victim of Fields

MISSING OR FRAGMENTED FILES – FURTHER CHARGE TO RECOVER MORE

They found only 19% of what was on there - whereas I was able to simply fit the drive in a caddy from PC world, plug it into my mac and there was 100%!
Victim of Fields

When I got the laptop and data back I did have all of my data except for the photo images which were the sole reason for sending it in the first place!
Victim of Fields

I called Daniel four times over the following week and eventually was told that they had received the new PCB, installed it and tried to recover the information. I was told they were only able to get 2% of the data back before the second PCB broke down, and that the data recovered was all corrupt.
Victim of Fields

I sent “Rapid Data Recovery” (Fields Associates Ltd) my 140GB hard drive for work...
... I received a package through courier delivery. When I opened this box, I was faced with a DVD containing a mere 2.3GB of information...
Victim of Fields

Using iTunes, I was also easily able to cross-reference the number of records recovered, with the number of records in my iTunes library. The recovered data was short by missing approximately 33% of the total records. Worse, when I reluctantly loaded the recovered files into iTunes, none of the files appeared to work.
Victim of Fields

This went on for further week until I finally I received my damaged drive plus an external drive with the recovered data on it, or so I thought. This is when I discovered that the address was in Bridgend. As it turned out only 5% was readable and the rest corrupt
Victim of Fields

I eagerly opened the new drive to inspect the photos and the other data. While I found that much of the data had returned there were NO photos in the data anywhere to be found. I had expressly told the team that the photos were the priority and that I didn’t mind the other stuff not returning but the photos were a must have.

I was then transferred from a very well mannered technical person to an obnoxious customer service agent who was flustered on the phone and accused me of not paying!!! I then painstakingly explained the entire situation to this person as nicely and calmly as I could. This person then continued to explain to me that the transaction from last year was a different and a closed transaction and that I needed to pay a further £300 to get the photos back
Victim of Fields


I spoke to William again on the 3rd Feb where he informed me that they were able to successfully recover all my data and that the integrity of the data was in tact. 

I then asked him to check if they were able to recover the 3 word documents.  He called me back about an hour later saying they were able to find the 3 documents I described.  I asked if they were able to open them and if they were readable.  He said yes

As I was at work I only had time to check the word documents recovered.  I found that I could not open all of the word documents as I thought I would be able to.  Even though that was not what I expected based on my conversation with William, I could still deal with it provided the 3 documents I was looking for were there.  I could only find 2 of the 3 and unfortunately the missing document was the largest and most important

After work I looked through the rest of the data on the drive.  Again, many of the files I could not open, they appear to be corrupt.  Again, that is something I can live with.  But then I looked through the recovered .jpg files.  All I can say is 'What a mess!!'.  Every single file has the same created and modified date.  The size of the files are totally incorrect.  Eg.  I have a picture that based on its properties is 465MB !! 

When I open it in paint and save it under a different file name, its size is actually 334KB.  I have also found the opposite.  Files with a property size of 45KB, that I would assume to be poor quality and unusable, are actually in the hundreds of KB and worth recovering.  I also cannot open a lot of the pictures.  Basically I have a drive of data with no integrity.  I have over 40 000 .jpg files to sort through to try and locate the actual 4600 travel photos I am after.  I have nothing to go on!! 
Victim of Fields

The drive only contained the “desktop” folder, nothing of the data I requested was actually recovered
Victim of Fields

I sent my hard drive off to Fields who said that the problem was caused by bad sectors and that my data was 100% recoverable. Paid £395.00 + VAT. Got DVD back supposedly containing my data but couldn't read it.
Victim of Fields

I telephoned Data Phoenix again and clarified that I am sending a Raid drive and therefore can I confirm the cost, he [Daniel Rees] said "the cost would be £295” and its great that I'm sending a Raid drive as that gives them “Two Bites at the Cherry".
Either way at this point I wanted my data, they said was 100% retrievable! They also used the excuse that they needed to removed the retrieved data from their servers in their 'LABS'. I felt like I was dealing with one or two cowboys from box room in Birmingham.
So to this day I am still awaiting the Caddy and have a drive which may or may not have my data on it.
Victim of Fields

When I emailed you last Thursday, March 11 (see below) I advised you that my hard discs contained 20GB data comprising 24,000 files, you returned just 4GB containing many duplicated files. I also advised you that on March 3 and again on March 4 my wife was informed by your Dan Richards that we could expect 98% of the data to be returned.

I have paid £790 + VAT in the expectation that I would receive more data but I do not feel I have received value for money.
Victim of Fields

Send me back the image of the hard drive, the old parts, the certificate, the image and an explanation why you couldn’t recover even 1% of data after 3 weeks
Victim of Fields

Ontrack have gone as far as they could go - the damage was severe to the drive but when questioned they won't give any indication as to what they believe has caused the damage. they have been able to recover very little. the guys at fields sent me a list of files that they suggested they could recover and not all of those files are actually recoverable - this suggests to me that either they were wrong about what files they could recover or something has happened to the drive since that report was produced.
Victim of Fields

Eventually sent a internal HD back with what was suppose to contain my data - As they sent it on an internal hard drive I could not access it. After numerous calls I was sent a sleeve, only to connect up to find the data on it was not mine.
Victim of Fields

Having sent my disks to fields with an inital cost of £200-£300 I was told that because the second disk had a "head" problem the recovery cost would be £581. I had 64GB of data and they said that they had recovered 56GB. I viewed the filelist and agreed to the recovery.
On receipt of the recovered disk, nearly all spreadsheets, docs & zip files were corrupt and unable to open. Most text files of a larger size that were recovered also had corrupt data.
Victim of Fields

After I went and bought the enclosure and connected the drive to my computer I discovered that loads of the files were either empty or unreadable unix files. Most of the data I didn't bother copying to the computer, I think I have about of 30% of the usable data, the rest is rubbish. I have over 2500 items in my thrash can of their unreadable data and empty folders which, funnily enough, add mbs to their "recovered files". Tried calling and emailing about that and my "account manager" is either busy or cuts me off.
Victim of Fields

I'm another victim of 'Rapid Data Recovery, they stole £454 off me just before Xmas and sent me a hard drive full of corrupt files. I've since filed a complaint against them with my credit card company who are fighting on my behalf. They are attempting to get my money back.
Victim of Fields

The sticker on my hard drive shows that while being worked on with Rapid, it clearly went to Fields. Why then would Rapid not flag that it had already in fact been to the Fields lab? Why would Rapid also recommend I send the drive to Fields and that they could potentially do more work on it as I incur more expense? 
Victim of Fields

CAUGHT OUT USING FAKE NAMES

I phoned and complained and got through again to Daniel Rees, except he was posing as a fictional manager called William
Victim of Fields

I contacted Daniel Evans [fake name used by Daniel Rees] from Rapid Data and was quoted between £97 and £150...
Victim of Fields

WIlliam Lewis [fake name used by Matthew Latchem Smith] (Rapid Data) rang me confirmed would repair once initial £195 was paid
Victim of Fields

I got an answer from Fields...surprise, surprise, it was William Lewis,who answered as I recognised his voice, but he denied that Fields had anyone by that name working there. 
Victim of Fields

I then rang Rapid and again eventually got an answer, it was Mr William Lewis again, and this time again nervously denied it was him and said, “I’ll just go and fetch him”, immediately putting down the phone. 
Victim of Fields

Later in the afternoon I called Fields again, and was told that Jason wasn’t available. The person asked me if they could help, and I complained that I had no idea what is happening as Jason isn’t returning my phone calls. The person (who suspiciously sounded a lot like Jason)
Victim of Fields

Below is the original email I sent to a gentleman called Daniel Richards... I visited your website and based on all your claims, companies you help, and reviews from your clients, decided to give you a call.  I spoke with a William Smith
Victim of Fields

I was about to send the array to a company in Newcastle but at the last minute I decided to send it to Fields Data Recovery. I spoke to a Daniel Richards1 who was affable at first, telling me this would be a “Mary Poppins” recovery??
Victim of Fields

I was extremely concerned about sending my drive off in the post, but on the 3rd of February 2010 I sent the following email to “Daniel Richards”... Eight days later I received an email from a new person called “James Thomas”...
At this point I began to think that Daniel, James or Jason were the SAME person - their voices were are so similar... I am convinced that one person was putting the call on hold and then picking it up saying that they were the other person. As I was asking to speak to the manager... etc etc etc... Round the houses, they hung up on me when I suggested that they were scammers.
It didn't arrive, I asked again a couple of weeks later! Giving them the benefit of the doubt... And the same thing started happening Jason, Daniel and Richard started passing the call around... I AM POSITIVE THEY ARE ALL THE SAME PERSON.
Victim of Fields

On one occasion I was put on hold and passed around to about three different people. During some calls I had the distinct impression that I was talking to the same person using different names on different occasions.
Victim of Fields

DATA RECOVERABLE IN SPITE OF FIELDS FRADULENT CLAIMS

Sent to another company ABC data recovery(as you know) for recovery.  They swapped heads and confirmed no work had been carried out by Fields/Rapid as seals were still intact
Victim of Fields

Paul at ABC advises me that a part had become available for order for £132+VAT and I give the go-ahead to order it, after he advises that the part from Fields does not work and is not compatible with the drive
Victim of Fields

Although I have not posted my experiences online as many others have, I am unfortunate enough to have been scammed by Fields Data Recovery recently. I was so distrustful of them by the time I drive returned, I had already googled the company and found this site. It's enough to say that I had to send the disk to a proper data recovery firm, which recovered all of the data, without lying to me, with good customer after sales service and the price that they originally quoted.
Victim of Fields

I also advised you that the 2 DVD's containing c4.4GB data (219718) sent us by yourselves was at variance to the 20GB of data (comprising 24,000 files) you were sent by courier on March 3. This quantity of data was independently verified by Barry Martin Computers who took an image of my disc. He also confirms that you received 7,781 jpeg files (which he has been able to open up).
Victim of Fields

As soon as I explained what had happened the staff at ABC made it clear that they would do what they could, but that because of where the drive had been and the way Rapid Data attempts to recover data often reducing any chance of a recovery they had a policy of charging an additional fee to even open the drive.
The next day ABC called me. They had recovered all my data and it had taken them less than 24 hours to do so. They provided the data on an external hard drive and the operating system was even bootable from the drive, so clearly they had recovered everything flawlessly.
Victim of Fields

STAFF IN THE BACKGROUND

I agree there are backing tapes to enhance the number of employees
Victim of Fields

Asked to see them (as they said they would be there) she looked a bit thrown, said they were all out at lunch.  Now this did not tally at all wit the "extremely busy office noises" playing in the background when I had called them.
Victim of Fields

UNFAIR/ILLEGAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Abigail Richards at Rapid Data Recovery who drew my attention to the following line from the Rapid Data Recovery terms of service.

6.1. The client accepts that Rapid Data Recovery will not examine the contents of any files contained on the media supplied to them. Rapid Data Recovery further accepts no responsibility whatsoever for the contents, integrity, functionality, corruption or usefulness of any data recovered.

This clause seems to distance Rapid Data Recovery from any blame for delivering services that were unsatisfactory.
Victim of Fields

I call Jason again, and get forwarded to Abby at customer service, who tells me that their terms & conditions say that they don’t return parts. I asked her to point out where in the T&Cs it says this (it doesn’t).
Victim of Fields

I questioned the internet reviews on their poor service and he confirmed that it is unsatisfied customers that did not read their T&C properly. Questioned him about their comprehensive report, no obligation quote advertised on their website. He said that the report is usually only given after recovery and payment has been made and that you have to specifically request the report in writing prior to accepting the quote.
Victim of Fields

I argued that I only agreed to the recovery because I was told there was 56GB and wanted a full refund. They counter argued that I had seen the filelist and I should pay for the 28GB recovered. This continued for 2 days.
Thieving bastards springs to mind. To go any further I was told to go to court.
I am reporting them to trading standards. They can't hide behind T&C's of taking no responsibility.
Victim of Fields

“We understand that you have requested the return of your original equipment.
We received you media on 12/05/2008. As stated in our terms and conditions we normally keep all items send to us for a period of 14 days after all data has been sent. Unfortunately because your request was not received by our laboratory within 14 days of the job being completed we are unable to return your equipment. After 14 days all customer equipment is securely disposed of in an environmentally considerate way as detailed in our terms and conditions.”
This was total nonsense, I had been speaking for over a week with a guy (who strangely disappeared) who said that if it was lost they would replace it - never mentioned they may have destroyed it!!
Victim of Fields

SUSPICIOUS CLAIMS ABOUT “ORDERING PARTS FROM THE USA”


The person (who suspiciously sounded a lot like Jason) told me that they had ordered the part from a US supplier... I called Jason, and after having previously promised to send me the part, seemed a bit confused and asked “what part exactly do you mean? What do you want me to send you?“

I ask Abby for proof that the part was ordered from a third party. She says they don’t do this as they “order things in bulk”
Victim of Fields

To try another recovery they would have to replace the PCB at a cost of £195, due to the part being ordered from America.
Victim of Fields

So after a few days, they have nearly got all the data off, but find it won't complete, so they suggest I order new heads from America- a cost approx 200 quid, so I pay on a credit card.
Victim of Fields

The explanation given to me by phone prior to your further investigation was that as it was not possible to determine the possibility of data recovery visually, you needed to purchase item-specific equipment to do this by other means. However, in your report below, the HDA was clearly damaged visually. Perhaps you can explain what it was that was necessary to justify this cost, since I am not convinced that you did not already have enough information to say that the data was non-recoverable.
Victim of Fields

Two different hard drives are shown in the photos mine (a seagate 7200.11 and the other, a seagate 7200.9 or 7200.10). Parts from the 7200.9 or 7200.10 are not compatible with my drive 7200.11. Why therefore are they both shown in the pictures?
Victim of Fields

TACTICS EMPLOYED BY NOTORIOUS SALESMEN

DANIEL REES

I had to chase them up frequently and was eventually told by Daniel Rees that the data was intact but badly damaged
Victim of Fields

To try another recovery they would have to replace the PCB at a cost of £195, due to the part being ordered from America.
I called Daniel four times over the following week and eventually was told that they had received the new PCB, installed it and tried to recover the information. I was told they were only able to get 2% of the data back before the second PCB broke down, and that the data recovered was all corrupt.
Victim of Fields

Mr. Nikaein had asked Mr. Rees how much the data recovery job would cost, to which Mr. Rees informed him clearly that it ranged between £97 (as advertised on your website) and £150. Mr. Nikaein then told Mr. Rees that on this basis the worst case scenario would be that the recovery would be no more than £150
... . Mr. Rees then informed Mr. Nikaein that the cost would now be between £200 and £400, which is contrary to what was discussed on their call...
... at no time did Mr. Rees ask Mr. Nikaein for permission to move forward on the recovery job based on the new costs...
It seems to me that this is a tactic used to ambush individuals who may desperately need their data and that the initial price of £97 to £150 is just a bait.
Victim of Fields

The following is a classic example of Daniel Rees using the name “James Thomas” and “Daniel Richards” quoting higher and higher prices to his poor victim:

Our FIXED price for hard drive recoveries is just £295 + VAT (additional costs for parts may be required)
Victim of Fields

The diagnosis has been completed on your damaged Raid 1 array and the technician has advised that we are able to recover approx 405GB of data. The file structure appears to be intact.
Data Recovery from Digital Media: £590 + VAT
Victim of Fields

So following these emailed quotes I telephoned Data Phoenix again and clarified that I am sending a Raid drive and therefore can I confirm the cost, he said "the cost would be £295 and its great that I'm sending a Raid drive as that gives them Two Bites at the Cherry".


I explained that we would charge from 500 to 900 for a RAID 1 recovery. The email sent to you stated that we charge 295+VAT (Additional costs for parts may be required) for hard disc drive recovery. It did not state that we charge 295+VAT (Additional costs for parts may be required) for RAID 1 recoveries.
Victim of Fields

Either way at this point I wanted my data, they said was 100% retrievable!
On the 24th February I paid them £665 + VAT Total £781.38 for the following:
- Return of my data on a 1TB external drive
- Return of Old Drive
So 1 week later I received a 1TB Internal drive boxed in foam that I had No Way of accessing!! For all I know know it may not even contain my data?
I asked again a couple of weeks later! Giving them the benefit of the doubt... And the same thing started happening Jason, Daniel and Richard started passing the call around... I AM POSITIVE THEY ARE ALL THE SAME PERSON
Victim of Fields

So, much to my subsequent regret, I phoned Rapid Data and spoke to a man with a Welsh accent calling himself, if I remember correctly, ''Daniel Richards". It may have been “Daniel Rees”, and I think I may have spoken to a “Daniel Rees” on a subsequent occasion.
Mr “Richards” seemed very confident and said the most it would cost would be £200 plus vat.
The next call comes a day or two later: "we need to replace the heads. It’s going to be £195 plus VAT for the parts and labour."
Anyway to cut a long story short he said he would drop the recovery fee to £55 bringing the total to £250 + VAT. This was a contradiction of the confident, and blatantly false, promises and assertions made to convince me to send my drive to this company in the first place. From this lie on I did not trust this company.
Victim of Fields

 

JASON MURPHY

I received an email from Jason Murphy saying that he had an update on the hard drive ...I called him and he said the drive had been “fully recovered” and he said the cost would be £450.
Victim of Fields

Jason said they can turn things around pretty quickly. I asked how late their office in Hammersmith would be open until and he said “I will be there until 6pm” (yes, he did say that HE will be there).
Victim of Fields

Jason Murphy phoned to discuss my drive. Assured me that all my data was recovered. Never received comprehensive report on recovered data or fault
Victim of Fields

But then, Jason [Murphy] from Rapid data rings me the very next morning and urges me to make a decision giving me the story how busy they are and they need to free up the servers or some other crap. I told them it was too expensive as I'd still have a drive to repair and part with almost £500 to recover the data. I was working when he rang me so he kept really pressuring me, telling me all my docs were safe and similar.
Victim of Fields

CONFUSION ABOUT FIELDS’ LOCATION

I interrogated the receptionist and discovered that Rapid Data was not even based there, they were based in Wales. I was not happy that my server was to be sent to Wales without my consent.
Victim of Fields

I personally delivered my drive to their "offices" in Pall mall, in a beautiful marble and glass building, second floor, very attractive receptionist (for the whole floor.)  Asked to see them (as they said they would be there) she looked a bit thrown, said they were all out at lunch
Victim of Fields

Should you decide to continue with the diagnosis please ensure the disks are packaged securely and then shipped to the following address:

Attn: Matthew Latchem-Smith
Fields Data Recovery
Crown House
72 Hammersmith Road
Hammersmith
London
W14 8TH
Victim of Fields

Delivered Drive at Hammersmith Offices. Was told that I could not speak with anyone face to face and that I should leave drive at reception. Given a receipt
Victim of Fields

Not wanting to risk further damaging the drive by sending it by post, I took it up to their Pall Mall address the following Saturday and found the impressive-looking building locked and nobody there, despite Mr Rees assuring me he would be present. I was advised by the security guard to leave the drive with him with a note to give them on the Monday - I wasn't very happy about this but did so.
...not wanting to trust the postal service I again said I would come to collect it from their Pall Mall office. There was no reply. I travelled up to London again, to be told by the receptionist that all the staff were in a meeting2. I waited for some time then tried phoning Daniel. When I got through he informed me that he, along with my hard drive, was not in Pall Mall but in Wales, in their Bridgend lab. I got a little agitated and he promised to send the drive back back me by courier that afternoon, free of charge.
Victim of Fields

1) Alias for Daniel Rees, see “Post made by Daneil Rees on data-recovery-blog.co.uk on Dec 2010.pdf” he accidentally uses his real name and alias together.

2) This seems to be a standard lie which they tell to all hapless victims who think that Fields Group actually have an office or lab in the Pall Mall.