Vent: client said 'just wipe it' and I found 14 years of tax returns on the 'empty' drive

Had a walk-in yesterday, older guy brings in a laptop that 'just needs a quick reset.' I ask if he wants the data backed up and he goes 'nah, it's empty, just wipe it.' Ran the diagnostic and the drive had 14 years of QuickBooks files, family photos from like 2009, and his dead mom's will. I stopped everything and called him back. He was shocked, said he forgot he'd moved everything over after his old PC died. Took me 2 hours to clone it to an external he bought at Best Buy for $60. He tipped me $40 cash and apologized like 5 times. How often do you guys actually trust a customer when they say a drive is empty? I feel like I've learned that phrase means 'absolutely do the opposite.'

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the_susan20d ago

...and honestly I'm kind of on the customer's side here. If I say a drive's empty and someone spends 2 hours cloning it, I'm gonna feel like I got charged for nothing even if it was a happy accident. Most people who say that actually mean "I don't care what's on it" not "there's literally nothing on it." You saved him from his own mess, sure, but now he's gonna expect that treatment every time and it just slows everything down for the rest of us.