Your outrage is completely justified. This repair shop is obviously trying to buffalo consumers into paying high prices for minimal file preservation, and you shouldn't have to stand for it. However, you are also unlikely to persuade them to do right by you, either. Do you have anything in writing about this "flat fee backup"? If so, you can always take them to small claims court, which isn't difficult at all--though I don't recommend threatening them with that, either. Just do it if they don't resolve things to your satisfaction within a couple weeks.
My eMac 700 combo... would only boot to a blue screen). I took it in recently for repair... 2 days before the one-year warranty was up and have AppleCare.
Smart move! Might have been a good idea to buy extended AppleCare on the spot, as well, so that you'd have another 2 years of coverage. Alas, by now that's probably no longer an option.
....Because I had been unable to burn CDs for awhile, I was unable to back-up and decided to pay the $150 flat fee to back-up the HD. I was asked if I wanted it on CDs or DVDs and, once assured that they were included in the flat fee and there would be no other charges involved, I chose DVDs for the tech's ease, saying "it will be less button-pushing for you, right?" and he agreed.
In my opinion, $150 ought to have bought you an external hard drive of 80+ GB for this "backup", not just a couple pieces of circular plastic. But if they're willing to spend all that time and effort to burn BACKUP DVDs, okay.
....The tech later left a message to say that he'd found 360 MB which were pertinent to me... I called back saying that there wasn't 1 kilobyte that was NOT pertinent to me
Exactly as you should have done! A backup is a backup, not a few cherry-picked files.
Just now he left a message saying the I'd have to bring an external HD for him to back it up because it would take too long and cost me too much.... Buying an external HD will cost me another almost $200....
NO, it would only cost around $120. [Newegg.com example: Brand new Maxtor 7200rpm 80GB drive (Model#: 6Y080L0) for $69, plus Bytecc firewire enclosure (Model ME-350F) for $45, plus $4 delivery = complete external backup drive for $118.] Why don't you suggest that THEY provide the backup drive, and point out these economics to them. As resellers, they can get the hardware even cheaper! That still leaves them $32+ profit from the backup service.
Am I being unreasonable to interpet my (paid) contract with them for HD back-up for a flat fee of $150 to include, uhhhhh, the back-up of my (entire) HD, which he KNEW (and chastised me about numerous times) was nearly full? Nowhere does it say they'll back-up a maximum of 8 gigs, including only 2 DVDs or charge $30 per DVD over 2 .. and there was NO HINT about further charges, plus he KNEW I'd agonized over the $150 to begin with. I specifically asked all of those questions before agreeing to the back-up and deemed it worth the money, confident that I understood the terms.
If they don't agree to do the complete backup as your CONTRACT specified, then get the external drive I described above, let them back up your files onto it. After everything is said and done, you can go to small claims court and sue them for the $150 back. But wait to sue them until they've fixed your Mac. Your AppleCare is running out....
Any experience or feedback is welcome. My previous computer (Performa) was never in for repair in the almost 10 years I used it .. yes, TEN years .. so I have no frame of reference for computer repairs and there may be "common sense" issues I'm not aware of.
The common sense you've got is a good guide, in my opinion. If you'd sent your Mac to Apple, I think they promise data preservation for far less than $150 anyway.
I'd bet Kyle has some insights on this issue, as I recall him saying his customers sometimes pay for this service.
Good luck. --Jim.
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