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JMHO but when possession of the property is given to a repair facility and the only way the shop can “guarantee” the payment for services is by holding the item in lieu of payment.

After the agreement is signed then possession of the “asset” is transferred to the repair facility until an acceptable method of compensation is provided as [ayment for service. If it is an “estimate” service prior to parts replacement etc. the same holds true as a guarantee so they do not get stiffed. It is typically expressed to the customer when the unit is taken in and if they refuse to pay then it is held for a period of time and then disposed of as needed to recover costs

In this case the sticker means only that initially it was an asset (monetary value) but it means nothing if the entity is no longer in business. The person representing them is responsible for the payment whether personally or via an approved method by an agent with the authority to have the item and provide monies for the work performed. Another aspect is if this is an exploratory one (how much to fix) then the cost is open ended as one part replaced may expose another’s weakness and it is left up to the provider and the “owner/user” to determine what finished means.

Being that this is an Apple product they are famous for data loss not being covered, only return to out of the box function and they provide little if any help in data recovery. I am sure those here with iPhones will back this up as well as the many videos of people who will do this when Apple has refused and then Apple comes after them. A business ploy and the ideal is to put all of your files in a “cloud” environment, return it to factory refresh and the data if not backed up locally on a device (USB drive etc.) which is the customers responsibility or in the cloud is not going to be recovered. They will load a fresh OS on it and validate basic functions but anything else (Apps, files etc) is gone

An unanswered question is was the drive internal or external, I posit it was the internal one and they will perform as detailed above and recovery of your data is your responsibility. I feel that he (Hunter) did not do cloud backup or we would not be having this discussion and He did so to keep the stuff on there safe from investigation. If it was on an external drive the same holds true, they will only take it back to factory state and no responsibility to anything external recovery onto the system

I have been where the servicer was many times with a frantic customer hoping that their files can be put back on but I would never unless royally compensated even attempt to reload all the apps and then reconnect data structures to them (external or cloud). If I was to do so, I would load a fresh O/s, hook up the internal to an external and see what I could recover using software tools I have to do so but it is a crap shoot as to what is on the drive and what it belonged to on the system. If the drive started internal I would NEVER reload the OS without a scan with it hoked up externally to determine quality and quantity and leave it that way until the client could figure it out. The fact that they all talk about the “drive” tells me that they were installing a new one internally and hoping to migrate files on the original back on or provide access to them as an external storage device.

Sorry for the long response, been in the game for a long time at a commercial and personal pc level.

Hope this helps

Last, no matter what I can try to recover files but I will never take responsibility for the success/failure of the activity but always do my best

That’s why I am called the Bulldog, I get my teeth into it and use all my experience to do the best for the customer

But they will pay for it or I stop and hold until they do

Bulldog Over and Out