SALVAGEDATA Recovery ServicesReviews of salvagedata.com

Took over 10 months to recover my data looked at on a simple hard drive. Service was terrible: they kept saying it was a RAID drive, which it was not. I left months of messages to this effect before they believed me and re-visited the drive and agreed. The cost was outrageously high for a simple data recovery.

SALVAGE DATA REP JUSTIN BOOTHE REPORTED TO ME THAT SALVAGE DATA COULD RESTORE MY FILES. BASED ON THAT I GAVE SALVAGE DATA $2,500+ TO DO THE RESTORATION. SALVAGE DATA HAD MY CRASHED DISK DRIVE FOR OVER A MONTH. WHEN I FINALLY CALLED FOR A STATUS, I WAS PUT IN TOUCH W ITH SALVAGE DATA REP ASHLEY LANDSMANN. SHE WORKED WITH ME TO HELP ME REVIEW THE FILES IT RESTORED. THE FILES WERE NOT RESTORED. ASHLEY LANDMANN FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THE FILES WERE NOT RESTORABLE. SHE THEN GAVE ME A DISCOUNT ON THE $2500+ FEE SALVAGE DATA HAD CHARGED THEN CHARGED ME $60+ TO RETURN TO ME THE UN-RESTORED FILES. ALL IN ALL A BIG WASTE OF TIME AND EFFORT.

I sent my hard drive to SalvageData and agreed to pay a high fee because my data was important and I trusted them to handle it professionally. For months, whenever I called for an update, I was told they were actively working on the recovery and that it simply needed more time. Then, out of nowhere, I called one day and was informed that my hard drive had been misplaced and they could not locate it. Their response was unbelievable. I was told NOT to keep calling for updates and that they would contact me if they ever found it. If they couldn't find it, the only thing they could offer was a replacement hard drive. Let me be clear: I didn't send them a hard drive because I wanted another hard drive. I sent it because I wanted my data back. What makes this even more concerning is that I was told they handle tens of thousands of drives, making it difficult to locate mine. If a company that specializes in data recovery can't even keep track of a customer's drive, that should concern anyone considering using their services. To make matters worse, because SalvageData lost my drive, I can't even send it to another recovery company for a second opinion or another recovery attempt. That option is gone. I trusted SalvageData with irreplaceable data, and they lost the drive. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend this company. Stay away!

My experience with Salvage Data was an awful one. I inquired about their services back in August 2025 requesting they pull the data off my old smashed phone from 2018-2019. I explained that my ex smashed my phone and it damaged the touch screen components, that I tried to replace the broken glass twice and that I do not know my PIN due to the age of the phone. I advised that the data on the phone is crucial as I have several police cases open for domestic violence and I was assured that this would be no problem. The consultant explained the process of payment and gave me the options. I told him that I didn’t want it expedited because I am taking my time for my DV cases. We also discussed how my phone is super important to my case. I sent my phone in August 2025. I did not receive an update until 12/11/2025 when a customer service representative asked me for my PIN via voicemail and one email. I called back the phone number given in my voicemail on my work break about 4 hours later and left a voicemail that I do not know my PIN and that it is a 7-8 year old phone. I never received a call back so I assumed that they were working on it. Fast forward to this week, I emailed them again asking for an update, in which the representative says “we have been trying to contact you regarding your PIN but never had contact back”. That is a complete lie. I sent in the screenshot of the call to the company that I made on 12/11/2025 and that again, I do not know my PIN. I explained that I already advised all this information back in August. The representative responded that now I need to send in paperwork that I am the owner of the phone. I told her that I was never explained this and I could have sent in the paperwork back in August when I did the consultation. The representative advises that this is a new policy that was implemented a few weeks ago, but I was never notified despite them having possession of my phone for now six months. This is just awful customer service. Not only am I being called a liar. When it comes to the contact I made back to the company, I sent in a screenshot of the phone call to this company, I still don’t have the information I need for my domestic violence case. I don’t know how to show proof that I am the owner of this phone, considering the age of it. Now they want a $500 fee upfront to unlock my phone, which again was not explained during the consultation, nor was their policy updated to me at any point or even a return phone call. I absolutely have no problem showing. I am the owner of this phone, but I would need it to go to the Apple Store to get that documentation which again I was not notified of this new policy. I did ask for my phone back because at this point this is just probably one of the most awful experiences I had with customer service to date, at which point the representative told me she’ll do a courtesy waive of my return fee. There is no courtesy for this company who takes your property and won’t give you a call back but changes the policy while they have your phone to make things very difficult for you.

Hello, I am writing to express my disappointment regarding a phone interaction I had with one of your representatives. I called as a prospective customer with questions about your data recovery services, but the staff member I spoke with was extremely rude, impatient, and dismissive of my concerns. As someone who was seriously considering your company for a very important and sensitive service, this experience was surprising and discouraging. Customer service is a critical part of trust in data recovery, and unfortunately, this interaction did not reflect that. I hope this feedback is taken seriously, as I would hate for other potential customers to have a similar experience.

My personal external hard drive failed and I sent it to Salvagedata to get it recovered. I communicated with a representative and sent it into them for a quote. They said that I could get my data recovered, and we agreed on a price. The timeline they gave me was 5-10 weeks, which I had no problem with. After about 3 months I attempted to contact them to get an update. From this point on I tried several times to contact them with no luck. Even their website number was not working. Once I finally got a hold of them they said that my data was unrecoverable. This has been a five month process that could have easily been taken care of quickly, but their customer service and support have been horrible and very unprofessional.

They told me $300 minimum but that it can get quite costly and may cost up to $500 when I enquired about the service. I sent in my phone and they quoted me over $2,000!!! The went down to low-priority for $1,100! I of course declined to be ripped off. They then commenced to charge me $40 shipping fee to return my phone even though the misleadingly advertise, no-data, no charge and free shipping. I would call that deceptive advertising.

I arranged to send a LaCie hard drive to Salvage Data. They received the hard drive and called me to discuss the problems and explained that there were numerous sectors on the hard drive that needed repair. They quoted me three different costs for the repair. An expedited repair was going to cost about $5200, a regular time repair was going to cost about $3300 and a no-rush repair was going to cost about $1900. There was nothing on that hard drive that was worth the cheapest cost so I asked them to return the hard drive. I had to bug them to get the hard drive back and after about 2 weeks, I received the hard drive. A couple of days later, Salvage Data called me to tell me that they had sent me the wrong hard drive that they had reinstalled in my LaCie case housing! We exchanged hard drives and they returned my correct hard drive. A couple of weeks later I contacted a local computer tech guy that was recommended on NextDoor that could do hard drive data recovery. He said he would charge me $150 if he could recover the data and would not charge me if the data was unrecoverable. Long story short, the hard drive itself was not the problem. The problem was the power module board for the LaCie hard drive. The tech had me purchase a SATA external hard drive docking station and we put my hard drive in the device and all my data was available just as it had been. I have a feeling that Salvage Data didn't even try to assess my hard drive...othewise how would they not know everything was just fine? I can't but feel they were scamming me. The company may be legitimate and do well for some folks, but I would advise prospective customers to be extremely wary and to ask questions. At the worst, they are scammers, at best they are dishonest. Buyer beware.