NerdsToGo - North Denver, CO

Where to begin. I dropped off an external hard drive that could no longer be read on 10/6/25. I paid a deposit for drive recovery of $50 with the understanding that, if it could be recovered, it might be in the range of $350-500. Fine. I was also told I'd hear back in 48 hours. I never did. Finally, 3 days later on 10/9/25 I called them. I was told it was taking longer than expected and I should hear back "tomorrow." I did not. I called back on Monday 10/13/25 and, on 10/16/25, finally got a call back from them saying they could not recover and they'd have to send it offsite to a company called Secure Data Recovery. Fine. This was presented as a possibility. I informed them that I had gone through this once before with another local company and that the company they shipped it to ended up quoting me nearly $4k to recover a 200GB drive and that I did not want to go through that again. They looked up historical recoveries sent offsite and I was told it could be anywhere between $1-1.5K. Not great, but within an acceptable range. Only because the drive contains photos of a recently-deceased 20 year old young man and I'd really like them back. A week-plus goes by. On 10/24/25 I receive emails from Secure Data saying to call them for an explanation. Not great, as this is how it went down the last time the drive was sent offsite. Why not simply state "Here's the price quote?" I called, waited on hold for 5 min, explained my situation and case # - very little dialogue, I was simply asked to check my email again for an email from "Eric." I did. In it was a link to look at the evaluation and cost. Clicked it: 3 options ranging from ~$3.1K - $4.5K. I noped out, said it was too expensive. This apparently happens a lot as he didn't even question it and simply said an email would be coming my way. Said email arrived - to get my drive back I now have to pay $40 shipping/handling. I called Nerds 2 Go - said this is a scam. I firmly believe these local companies are getting a 10-20% kickback from these arrangements and it's more profitable for them to take this route, create the illusion of difficulty or scarcity by taking forever with the drive, then sit back and collect. Data recovery is not like it was in 1999. This isn't remotely what this activity should cost - yes, they may need to insert new parts etc which might take a couple hours. Yes, it may take forever, but that part is largely automated and they're simply waiting around for it to finish. Maybe Nerds 2 Go does great at other activities, but be careful with recovery or sending offsite unless you think paying that much is worth it.