BT Advisor Messed Up My PC

castlegard

Hi!

Friday the 17th October, I noticed there was some security issues with my broadband.I suspected it was being used by someone else and I wanted the wireless key number to be changed.

The technical assistant who was helping me with the issue was from India and while conversing found out she has been working there for only 2 months.Anyways she had remote access to my PC and she battled on for more than an hour to change the wireless key and resolve the issue. She finally gave me my new wirless key and asked me to restart my PC. I restarted my PC and found out all my personal files have gone.

My computer which is XP operating system now looked like windowns 98.
While she was still on the phone, she asked me restart more than 3 times and still my PC looked like an alien to me.

I phoned the supervisor of that department yesterday and he tried to run some tests with my computer but there seems to have a fatal error occured.He fianlly advised me to get a local technicain to fix the problem and they wud reimburse the charges.
He also gave me the complaints department no.

So I went ahead and got the local technician and he tells it wud cost me more than £500 pounds to fix the issue and thats without any of the softwares I had previously installed.

I phoned the complaint department today and ecxplained the cost.Since the amount is very high they have given me the adress to write to BT.

I work from home and I donot have internet and my important documents are missing.I have to get my PC fixed ASAP and here is the dilemma.Will BT cover all of the costs for the repair and compensate me for the loss of my files and inconvenience caused? Any advice how I shud proceed is welcome.
Thanks for reading this post.

normanmark

£500 to fix the issue? Sounds like you're being severely ripped off there from the 'technician'.

Double check on your laptop to see if its not that you're logging in under a new user account.

Search for the file names of your important documents as well, they could be on the hard drive but not visable.

castlegard

well...it is my desktop and i have only one user account..I have tired searching for the files...they seem to have disappeared. What my technician tells he needs to install windows xp again and all the drivers.. Waht wud be a fair price to pay?
And thanks for replying

normanmark

You can do it yourself, its quite simple.

Or find a friend who knows & im sure a few pints will be a fair price for their time & costs.

reddwarf2002

WOW!! £500 for re-installing Windows XP and the drivers?? This gotta be the con of the century!

[Deleted User]

Did you tell your technician that BT was picking up the tab? :rotfl:

castlegard

ok...guess i have to find someone else to do this for me.
Anyways how much do you think is a fair price to reinstall xp install all the drivers and get it back to factory settingS?

Thanks for the replies everyone!

normanmark

Its no more than a 2hr job, looking at £20 max.

PaulK_3

Have you got windows XP on CD? If so just boot from it and do a repair install, tell it to not format the pc and only delete the windows folder. 2 hours, job done.

mikey72

£45 to £60 to re-install windows, and maybe the same again to install your own software and get the broadband working.
There is a possibility your files are still there, on a different profile on the hard drive. You need a data recovery specialist, not somene who will wipe the drive and start again.
Never give anyone remote access.

Jemma-T

The files MUST still be there. I'd be amazed if they weren't. As an emergency measure you could try getting an external disk drive (I can recommend one -loads in Argos, ASDA, Tesco etc) and drag over the entire folder in My Computer called "Local Disk C". It should be called that or something similar.

If this is a complete emergency and you have no idea about computers (you shouldn't be touching them then) then I'd say hand the PC immediately to some who does and be clear about what you must get from it. If you can't get a technician then you could try installing Vista over XP and it'll save old your files in a new folder. That sounds messy too really if you're as useless (sorry no other word) as you sound.

You could go to a local PCWorld but in this case I'd recommend a home visit from someone local. Lots of people advertise around here who do that so they must be in your area too.

I can reinstall XPSP3 with all updates in less than an hour but to install all drivers and test everything (as much as possible) I'd add another hour. £60 max.

If you are going to ask for more help here you should post much more info about the PC, any errors you've been getting etc.

Also try and run Belarc http://www.belarc.com/ and that'll post all user accounts and disk space etc. Copy/paste the info here if you're stuck.

Get your files!