Completed Jobs, but Client didn't show up

[Bankole Oladoja]

Hello Everyone,

I need your advice on handling some customers/Jobs, I found out I have some Jobs that are complete and client didn't show up for them.

I have almost 10TB worth of data amounting to almost a $1200. Its really frustrating sometimes, calling client severally and yet no response.

Please, with your experiences, how do you handle cases like these ??

Thank you..

 

[LarrySabo]

I like Luke's (RecoveryForce's) method of asking for prepayment of his minimum charge. If they are unwilling to do that, they are not serious customers so are not worth wasting your time on. I'm still too new to do that and instead provide a listing of the files that are recoverable (were recovered) along with the quote. My hope is that they will be encouraged to approve the recovery once they see what data they will lose if they don't approve the quote. I also don't have a minimum fee, to encourage customers to at least let me assess the drive, but a minimum fee will also weed out those who are not serious.

 

[lcoughey]

I require the clients to pre-approve our minimum charge, but we don't actually bill it until we complete the recovery. The only times we have up front fees are in cases of parts and special occasions where we have to physically clean the platters to go further with our assessment.

 

[LarrySabo]

Thanks for the clarification, Luke.

 

[Bankole Oladoja]

Sometimes, I dont request for down payments when it required parts, because sourcing for parts can be very complex, so I just go ahead and do the Job..

 

[Bankole Oladoja]

Luke, Please how do you physically clean your platters ??

 

[Jared]

I think if the platters need physical cleaning it's probably a lost cause, which is why you need the upfront money.

I know I've filled a drive with medical grade alcohol once to remove a bit of salt water film left behind on one platter. But, we never were able to read much from that platter anyway.

 

[abedalkareem]

@ Jared can you clarify what is the composition of

medical grade alcohol ??

thanks

 

[Jared]

It's just very high percentage alcohol. 99% or better so there is very little water content and it evaporates quickly leaving little residue behind. Something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Isopropyl-Alcoh ... 19e9acb03f

Though I've also heard about using sterile water for injection to clean inside of HDD's: http://www.calvetsupply.com/product/Ste ... Ah8V8P8HAQ

There is also a formula from 3M that's supposed to be well suited to this, but it's very expensive and I'm told it's not worth it.