Comp Recovery

The skinny:

In the summer of 2012, my external hard drive was pushed off a coffee table and rendered unusable.  I was desperate to get the information back.  After researching companies, I decided to go with Comp Recovery here in Philadelphia because they were local and by all accounts, legit.

"Yes we do take walkins and we have a FREE evaluation with no obligation. Our prices are generally $495-$1495. We have a class 100 Clean Room, a 92% success rate and our policy is based on NO DATA NO CHARGE."


On August 27, 2012, my EHD (external hard drive) was picked up.

What followed was a hellish, stressful, expensive, fruitless experience.

140 (ish) emails, numerous phone messages, and 17 months later, January 10, 2014, I received this email:

"I apologize I could not get back to you earlier. After 12 years, the business will be closing. We have moved out of the office already. However we will still be available for few more months in order to complete some projects and close some cases including yours.  We have no fund availability at this moment but we hope to close your case by the end of February. Your total refund is $$ and the external drive you gave us. Donor drives are the responsibility of the customer. We already have a NO DATA NO CHARGE policy and cannot be responsible for a donor drive when the recovery is unsuccessful. If we receive the funds we are expecting sooner, We will make sure to submit a refund immediately. Thank you."

There are a couple of lessons to take away from this:

1. CLOUD.  If it's important, store it in the cloud.

2. LEVERAGE.  If you do decide to go through a recovery, make sure you pay AFTER the work is completed.
3. Let it go.  If you didn't have it on the cloud and you lose the material, let it go.  It is NOT worth the stress and terrible experience of recovery.  Your one small hard-drive is so non-important to a company that does data-recovery that you will never get the service and attention necessary to complete the recovery (and your recovery will constantly be pushed back in favor of larger projects).

4. Commitment.  If you do decide to pursue recovery, read the fine print. If they haven't heard from you in x-days, then they can take your money and never complete the recovery, so you best be on top of contacting them constantly. Contact via email (or both) so you have a paper-trail. Document everything.

5.  Perspective.  For me, this was a huge choice to spend, what is for me a lot of money, on recovery, but I really thought it was worth it.  If I had recovered the data (maybe even at this point), it may still have been worth it.  In the end, it is only money, but man! do I feel swindled and dragged through the mud.  I consider myself a fairly savy consumer, but unfortunately, I misjudged here (side note: I did have other people look at the correspondence & company, and they too were fooled).

Are they just terrible people?  Does the company not really exist?  Was it just a perfect storm of terrible timing & events?  Did they actually recover my data and sell some of the information?

I'll never know.  But I do know, I'll never attempt a recovery again.

Interviewing Surprises and Excitment

I had a phone interview on a recent Monday. The interview had been pushed back, rescheduled, and almost did not happen. 

When it did happen, it was great! Surprise! I had thought the position was a wash, but it turned out to be a super exciting opportunity!

At the end of the phone interview, I was invited to an in-person meeting with some other team members. Was I available on Thursday (I was not)? How about Monday early morning (I was!)?

Then, the next day, I was sent an email to the effect of: You may ONLY interview on Thursday at time-X ("Unfortunately our time is limited and I will not be able to offer you another time or reschedule.").

I fretted.

 - Did they purposefully ask for a time they knew I was unavailable because they already had someone else in mind (and did really NOT want me to come in for the interview, but felt obligated since that was how the Monday phone interview ended)?

 - Did I really want to work at a place that was so inflexible?

 - Was it really possible that there was NO other time available?

 - Was this indicative of the culture of the company?

 - Could I even change my schedule to make it??

I did change my schedule, and interviewed on that Thursday. I fully expected (given my other experiences with interviewing), that they'd already have someone else in mind for the position.

What I did not expect was a great meeting! I was very pleased that the more I learned about the organization, the more I felt connected to it. The energy, mission, and people are all of my ilk. It was an uplifting experience to see that a connection such as this could still be possible!

A few take-away lessons from this experience:

1. Benefit of the doubt. While a lot of interviewing is dreadful, don't assume that every experience will also be dreadful. There are still good people out there to work for. Besides, when you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME...

2. Go anyway. Even if you are 70% sure that this is NOT going to work out, you should go to the interview. Whether you think they've already decided on someone else or you just get a bad vibe. Here's the thing - you don't know FOR SURE. So, GO to the interview. Find out as much about the nature of the position and the organization as possible.

3. Confidence. Not only show up at the interview, but show up believing you are the best person for the job. They would not have asked you to come in if they did not see something that interested them about you. Even if they have decided to hire someone else, you may change their mind when they meet you.

I have only been applying to positions I really want and to which I am well suited. I AM the best person for the job. They'd be luck to have me. This is your attitude.

In addition, I would add...

4. Practice. The more I interview, the better I get.

5. Ask questions. I have become fearless. This is the place you will be working. Hopefully, this is the place I will be working at for the next 10 years or more.  I will give it my 110%. So, I ask questions. Heck, I even ask about the funding sources, the stability of the funding, and the growth of the company.

and finally...

6. Keep your chin up. It's really hard not to get discouraged, but keep your chin up. Remember that finding a job will probably take 6 months. Keep sight of the big picture - if you find a job you love that you can stay at for 5, 10, 15 years, won't it all be worth it?!

7. Luck. Sometimes, it's just bloody luck. So, don't go getting on yourself if you are not offered a job. It might just be that they really hit it off with someone else - almost a chemical reaction. Also, nepotism is a real thing. It might also just be that you hit the interviewer on a bad day. There are factors that are out of your control. Accept it and move on.