NerdsToGo - Milwaukie, OR — Local services in Milwaukie

(To the business's response: The business owner did not attempt a fair resolution. The local manager tried, by apologizing for the employee's mistake and agreeing to compensate me for the cost of the data recovery. The owner rejected his own store manager's agreement with me.)

I caution anyone to be wary of working with this company, particularly with regards to data recovery. They destroyed my data backup due to negligence, and then refused to rectify the situation. I lost $1,700 to professional data recovery costs as a result.

In greater detail: I damaged my laptop with an accidental water spill. I had a complete data backup that was only two weeks old, but I wanted to recover my last two weeks of data if I could. Flustered and not deeply experienced with technology, I took my laptop to Nerds to Go. I thought a professional would have the knowledge to make better decisions than I could, particularly when I was stressed about the damage I had caused to my laptop.

Their employee connected my only data copy (on my external hard drive) to my damaged computer, without alerting me to the risks. He should have backed my laptop up to a separate device, or at least cautioned me that I might lose my data on my external hard drive if he connected it to my damaged computer. He did not. And I lacked this knowledge at the time, which is why I had paid for professional help in the first place.

The laptop died while connected, and destroyed my external hard drive in the process, making inaccessible my almost-complete data backup (speculatively, by shorting out the external hard drive).

This happened on a Friday. Over the weekend, I spoke with many companies and professionals, and everyone determined that Nerds to Go had damaged my external hard drive by transferring data from a dying laptop onto the device. My only remaining hope was in a data recovery lab.

Before Nerds to Go opened on Monday morning, I had already sent my laptop for data recovery as my first step, as I feared that it might corrode further due to the water damage. I wanted to give the laptop the best chance of yielding its data, in case the external hard drive proved unrecoverable.

I called Nerds to Go as soon as the store opened on Monday, and asked to speak with the manager. The manager agreed that his employee had caused the fatal damage to my external hard drive, necessitating data recovery. As a result, he offered to pay the full cost of recovering the data off of my external hard drive. Because I had already shipped my laptop out for data recovery, I asked if he would cover that cost up to the amount that I would have paid for recovering the external hard drive (a lesser cost). The manager agreed to this resolution.

Because the store's manager was polite, professional, and took responsibility for the situation, I was willing to be accommodating, and to accept compensation for the cost of the external hard drive data recovery (less than the cost of the laptop data recovery) as sufficient to resolve this matter.

A higher-up manager at Nerds to Go then got involved, and refused to honor the store manager’s agreement to compensate me for the partial cost of recovering the lost data.

The entire episode cost me $1,700 before I could regain access to my data by sending the device to a professional data recovery lab, and caused enormous distress. None of this would have happened had Nerds to Go's employee simply understood the process to protect my data backup when he attempted to recover data from my damaged laptop. Nor would it have happened if I simply stayed home. I would have used my external hard drive to recover all of my data, missing just two weeks of material. I could have saved my $1,700, and the enormous distress I experienced when I discovered that Nerds to Go had destroyed the backup of 10 years of my professional life.

If Nerds to Go advertises their services in data recovery, they should train their employees in basic standards of data protection—and should compensate customers like me who lose their data due to...

My computer almost stopped completely working. The diagnostic tool was the only option for me to run & safe mode wouldn't even work! What was I going to do? I had so much needed data on my computer which we really didn't want to lose however, we were worred this would be the case... This being said, I contacted NerdsToGo after doing some research. I also asked some questions on the phone. They offer discounts for military and have coupons for $25.00 off service (same as military discount) on the internet. Chris came to our house to work on the computer. Since it was expected to take longer than one hour, he took it back to the shop. We found out the hard drive needed to be replaced. Thankfully, they were able to use one we already purchased and didn't pressure us into buying one they had in their shop. However, they did mention the SSD hard drive which sounds really neat.

He told us it would take a few hours to complete the data recovery process. Over the course of one week, I contacted them as I hadn't received any messages letting us know what the status was for our computer. We were told the data recovery may not completely happen as they were having a difficult time in doing so. This was understandable as I have had problems with this unit in the past. I was told there are a few ways which they can attempt to do this. The entire team at NerdsToGo worked on my computer. Finally, they were able to recover all of our data off of our old hard drive! It may have taken over a week to do so however, after thinking everything was gone for good I was happy with the results I received! Total cost was about $240 with discount.

We were even told about an online service (Maacrium Reflect) which backs up data you have on your computer. They even said they would help me set it up via Team Viewer 14 (which allows them to have remote access to your computer while you sit by and watch / learn).

When I had a difficult time in using my scanner which I didn't have prior to having my new hard drive installed, Chris helped me find the apropriate website to go to and when that didn't work he found another.

Polite, clean and respectful. There to answer any questions you may have & will not nickle and dime you. Will pick up and drop off computer for no additional cost (you may want to call and confirm this).

Thank you for your great support...

I called Nerds To Go when my docking system was not operating correctly, especially the large monitor was not displaying an image. On the phone Chris was very professional and responsive, asking lots of questions to diagnose the problem. He booked an appointment right away for that afternoon with Dean to come to my home.

I had been trying to troubleshoot the problem, disconnecting and reconnecting the many cords involved. To no avail. Dean checked things out systematically. To my chagrin he was able to easily find the power switch for the power strip which I had not found. The switch which was off! That helped a lot! I took advantage of his time to ask a lot of questions about using my computer which Dean answered well. I decided to use their cloud backup service.

But...the next day the monitor was off again! I booked another appointment, talking over ideas with Dean. In the mean time I again disconnected and reconnected cords, including for the first time the plugs into the power strip. And...the monitor image appeared! Everything worked! I felt very foolish calling to cancel the appointment, but Dean joked that now that I was experienced I should come and work for them! He did not make me feel incompetent.

Needless to say, I recommend this team highly as they responded quickly to my needs in...