Fields Data Recovery

HIS IS A SCAM! DO NOT SEND YOUR COMPUTER OR PAY THEM.

This is a company run by jerks. My Macbook Air crashed and wouldn't turn on, but the memory was still intact and I just needed a single file from it. Here's my story:

After being quoted $700 for the recovery of my data, I asked why it cost so much to extract data from the intact memory of a computer. I was told by Dylan Saxner at Fields Data Recovery that the process is very involved and is not simply plug and play.

He stated, "It takes about 1-2 weeks of highly technical work to extract your data from this type of computer." I said that I could believe that, and that I would discuss with my wife prior to authorizing that amount, which is a LOT of money for us.

Once we decided it was worth it, we went ahead and paid Fields the $700 and told them to go ahead and start working on it. Then later on that evening, we bought a new Macbook Air and set it up. Low and behold, as soon as we signed into icloud, all of the missing files popped up magically! I IMMEDIATELY emailed Dylan and stated very clearly to STOP work on the laptop.

It was after hours, so we also followed-up the next morning via phone.

When we called the next morning as soon as they opened, we were told by Dylan that the work on our laptop had NOT YET STARTED and that he would get a message to the techs to stop work as we requested. We requested a call back by the end of the day to confirm that this had been done. When it got close to the end of the day, we called Dylan back and apparently he was gone, so we left a message at that point for him.

The following morning, just 24 hours later, we called Dylan again. At this point, his tone became different than the salesman who talked me into sending my laptop to Fields days earlier.

He sounded frustrated and angry with me and my wife. We wanted to ensure that he had stopped work as he told us he would, but at this point, he said, "I can't stop work because we have already FINISHED working on your laptop." WHAT?! What happened in those 24 hours between you telling us that work "had not yet started" and then all of a sudden work is FINISHED?

At this point, I went onto their website to try to look up their "about us" or "meet the team" pages to see who exactly I was dealing with. However, I believe that Dylan or someone at his company at this very moment BLOCKED my IP address from accessing their website.

I was able to load their homepage, but as soon as I tried to click to any other page, I was given an Error 1006: Access denied message telling me that "The owner of this website has banned your IP address." WHAT?! This is infuriating and reeks of a fly-by-night shady operation.

I then said that I was done speaking with him and needed to speak to his manager. He told me that there was nobody there to talk to other than HIM. I said, there's gotta be someone higher than you in the building.

I want to speak to them right now. After putting me on hold for 15 minutes in silence, a guy who sounded like a 24 year old frat bro picked up and said his name was Todd.

I had a suspicion that Todd was not actually a manager, as he didn't seem to care at all about listening to me or assuring me that his company was legitimate. Rather, he turned everything I was saying around on me. According to him, it was OUR fault that HIS company was spending so much time on the phones with us.

WE were costing HIS money company. THEY like to underpromise and overdeliver. When I asked why Dylan would have told us the previous morning that work had not started, and then now all of a sudden work is completed, despite emails stating to stop work and numerous phone calls ordering them to stop work on the laptop, Todd because ENRAGED and INDIGNANT.

I wish I were exaggerating here when I say that Todd screamed at me several times over the phone. It was verbal abuse by every meaning of the words.

I calmly informed him that he was yelling at me. I asked if he usually screams at his customers who are trying to calmly and respectfully inquire about his company's business practices. He lowered his voice and said "I'm not yelling..."

I told him that there were only two outcomes that we want: Our preferred outcome is that Fields erases whatever cloned image they have of our laptop, and then mail it back to us. The other outcome, if they are unwilling to do that for us, is that we want that laptop destroyed.

I told him that we were going to initiate a dispute with our credit card company and file a police report. We do not need the data that is on that computer but are worried, based on our interactions with Dylan and Todd, that they will steal my wife’s identity from her computer or do something else unscrupulous with her data. At this point, Todd again became enraged and started screaming at me at the top of his lungs.

I told him if he doesn’t stop, I’m going to hang up. He didn’t stop, so I hung up.