Company in TX claims to have beat Sandforce Encryption

LarrySabo

Member
I guess @Sam is the only one who can clarify this. I assumed it was Ace Lab because DeepSpar made the referral and they are a AceLab partner, as we all know.
 

Sam

Member
I can see where some confusion may have arisen.

Edited my original post so it's clear I am referring to the company mentioned at the beginning of the thread.

Happy New Year all!
 

lcoughey

Moderator
Does anyone else find this response to my question, "Just checking to find the cost to recover from a 480GB SSD with a Sanforce controller," rather unhelpful?
We charge $149 per hour and it is based on the complexity of the recovery, it can typically range anywhere between 6-30 billable hours.

Basically anywhere between $894 and $4470. That is a very broad range...especially when even DriveSavers posted range is $700 to $2700 and, when pushed, said most cases are $2100 to $2700.

It is probably just me, but I don't trust companies who won't give a straight answer to a pricing question.
 

LarrySabo

Member
lcoughey":ttvibxes said:
[post]9274[/post] It is probably just me, but I don't trust companies who won't give a straight answer to a pricing question.
It all depends. I use price ranges for my recoveries but don't charge if the data recovered is not worth my final asking price. Sometimes you waste time, other times everyone is happy. So, it depends if he has a similar policy.
 

lcoughey

Moderator
LarrySabo":ra9pj418 said:
lcoughey":ra9pj418 said:
[post]9274[/post] It is probably just me, but I don't trust companies who won't give a straight answer to a pricing question.
It all depends. I use price ranges for my recoveries but don't charge if the data recovered is not worth my final asking price. Sometimes you waste time, other times everyone is happy. So, it depends if he has a similar policy.
There is one thing to say that all our recoveries fall between a very large range and then when asked about a particular scenario, you usually are able to narrow in on the range, aren't you?

So, for example, a company could say that the range is between $500 - $3000, depending on the scenario. But, if a client were to ask how much it would be if the heads had failed, you could then easily rule out the bottom half and say, those cases tend to land between $1500 and $2500, or something like that.

The key here is the using of a low price to bait the client into sending the drive in for an assessment when you know, with certainty, that it will never be even close to the low end price. A lot of clients, when quoted the considerably higher price quote, will feel that they have no choice and pay the price.

For me, I'd rather gain clients from honest up-front, no surprise pricing.
 

LarrySabo

Member
lcoughey":96fcvndg said:
[post]9276[/post] A lot of clients, when quoted the considerably higher price quote, will feel that they have no choice and pay the price.
Mine don't seem to feel that way, given that they walk away when the price is too high. Some may, but there's nothing one can do about that. The risk is that some DR shops will sabotage the drive to make recovery by others impossible; if customers fear that's the case, I can understand their feeling that they have no choice but to pay.

The problem is, one never knows in advance how feasible/difficult a recovery will be, until it's completed. Up-front quotes that assume all recoveries are of average difficulty can make you work for next to nothing on difficult cases. Quote too high, and you don't get jobs that could turn out to be average difficulty or easier. To suggest that having a pricing range and determining the final quote after recovery is completed is dishonest, is unfair, IMO, provided the shop offers the terms I do and is trustworthy.

Just quote his maximum price and if it's not worth that to your customer, the DR shop is the only loser. If they approve and it comes in cheaper, your customer gets a bonus.
 

lcoughey

Moderator
I'm not saying that the price range system is all bad. But, to say that you cannot narrow in on a range based on details provided does seem like a bait and switch tactic used by many...not all, but many.

I get calls from people all the time stating that their tech says that their heads are toast and need to be replaced. In such cases I tell the client that if the tech's diagnosis is correct, the price will likely be our major recovery rate. But, it is not uncommon for a tech to misdiagnose the drive and it might just be a minor recovery.

Back in the day when we did quote based on each case, we still had a unofficial ranges, based on different issues, for example:

Logical - $300 - $600
Firmware / Electronics - $500 - $900
Heads / Spindle - $750 - $1500
Slim Chance - $1500 - $5000

It doesn't seem to hard to tell a client, "based on your description, the price would probably fall within this range, but until we assess it, there are no guarantees."

It is all in the approach.
 

lcoughey

Moderator
After some research of my own, I believe I just found a way to increase the percentage of recoverable SandForce SSDs at Recovery Force.

Sent from my BBB100-1 using Tapatalk
 
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