Terms and Conditions
1. Authorisation And Legal Rights
- By sending or handing over media, devices, equipment, data, information, user credentials, or any other materials ("ITEMS"), including all data contained therein, you:
- Authorise us, Tecleo Data Recovery and Digital Forensics Lab (“TECLEO”), to handle, evaluate, transport, investigate, recover, repair and any other related actions, and if necessary, bypass security measures, potentially voiding warranties.
- Confirm having the authority or ownership over the items.
- Agree to TECLEO's terms and conditions.
2. Liabilities
- TECLEO will not be held liable for any claims regarding the physical functioning of the ITEMS or the condition/existence of data supplied or direct or indirect damages, including, but not limited to, loss of data, loss of revenue, incidental or consequential, before, during or after our services.
3. Free Consultation
- We have a free initial consultation for digital forensics and data recovery services, providing guidance and expert advice on your case.
4. Data Recovery: Free Collection and Delivery
- We have a free courier service with specific exclusions for all pre-approved data recoveries within South Africa.
- Please complete our online quote request or call us at 012-665-2945 to speak with one of our friendly and knowledgeable engineers if you still need to request a preliminary quotation.
- Please note:
- If you reject the quotation after the media has been shipped, you will be invoiced for the shipping costs.
- Allow two to three (2-3) working days for courier collections and deliveries.
- The free collection and delivery option is valid for one attempt only - Any subsequent collection or delivery attempts will be added to your invoice.
- The collection of additional drives or media is subject to additional charges.
5. Data Recovery: Free Evaluation and Quotation
- We offer a free initial evaluation and a fixed, upfront quotation for data recovery work.
- Servers (such as RAID, NAS, SAN, etc.), tapes, CCTV, fire and water damage, previously opened and encrypted devices, broken cell phones, and off-site data recoveries, for which a non-refundable fee is applicable, are excluded.
- We have four data recovery service options to suit your budget and circumstances.
- There is no quote rejection fee.
- Work will only be done with your written approval of the final quote.
6. Pricing and Payment
- All prices quoted exclude value-added tax (VAT).
- All prices quoted exclude bank costs, import and export taxes, freight, courier or other shipping charges, insurance, postage or any other charges.
- All quotations are valid for seven days unless stated otherwise.
- Cash on Delivery (COD) payments are due in full and reflected in our bank account before the work is released (shipped, collected, or downloaded).
- Make an instant payment should you require the work to be released urgently.
- This does not apply to accounts with approved terms.
- A data retention fee will be added to all unpaid jobs left for more than seven days after the invoice and will be accrued monthly.
- Pricing is subject to change without notice.
- We accept company checks and cash.
- We also accept PayPal (USD only, online and subject to a processing fee), VISA, and MasterCard (online and in-store).
7. Up-front, Non-Refundable Fees
- Up-front non-refundable fees will apply to all investigations and certain types of data recovery services, including:
- Priority and high-priority data recoveries.
- Server/NAS/RAID evaluations.
- Encrypted drive recoveries.
- Drives that have been opened (physically tampered with) before being sent to us.
- Hardware-related data recoveries (to offset the risks and costs involved in the recovery process).
- Drives where the operating system has been reinstalled (reloaded).
8. Data Privacy And Client Confidentiality
- All media and the data they contain, whether handed over, sent, investigated, or recovered by us, will be protected from unauthorised access or disclosure using the same level of care we use to protect our confidential information.
- Our staff members are professionals working in a secure environment and have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
- We can also enter into a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) upon request.
- Unless otherwise agreed in writing, we only keep a copy of the recovered data for fourteen (14) calendar days to protect against dead-on-arrival (DOA) instances.
- Any unclaimed ITEMS left for over ninety (90) days will be disposed of.
9. Data Recovery Guarantee
- "No-recovery, no-charge" policy:
- You will not be charged if we are unable to recover the data or if the recovered data is not usable.
- We conduct an integrity check on all recovered data.
- If we determine that data is missing, damaged, or corrupted, we will contact you before issuing an invoice to confirm the usability of the recovered data.
- If some of the recovered data is usable, we can negotiate a reduced price, and you will have the option to proceed.
- Please note that this policy does not apply if the wrong or incomplete media is sent to us for data recovery.
- Non-refundable fees may apply for priority, high-priority, spare and encryption services.
- These fees are payable regardless of the recovery results.
- We can only guarantee the success rate or amount of recovered data once the recovery process is completed (with your written approval).
- We will do everything possible to rectify the recovery or refund the recovery charges (or a portion thereof) if we are unable to solve any valid issues with the recovered data.
10. Destination Device Warranty
- A seven-day warranty from the date of shipment applies to all destination devices found to be Dead on Arrival (DOA).
- Any additional warranty claims must be submitted to the original manufacturer.
11. Data Sanitisation (Shredding And Destruction)
- We follow the standards set by the US Department of Defence (Dod) for sanitising data devices, media, and equipment. This includes:
- US Dod 5220.22-M Hardware Sanitise, which involves the physical destruction of the data devices and media.
- Software sanitization includes a single-pass overwrite of all hard disk drive sectors.
- The Dod no longer accepts software sanitisation. However, a single pass in most cases ensures that recovering any data on the drive is physically impossible once the sectors have been overwritten.
- We also reference the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines for media sanitization.
12. Personal Data
- You must provide true, accurate and complete information about yourself, including, without limitation, your name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number, as applicable (collectively, "Personal Data").
- You must maintain and promptly update your data.
- You acknowledge that we may send you information, notices, and promotional material via e-mail.
- We shall have no liability associated with or arising from your failure to maintain accurate Personal Data.
13. Applicable law
- Our terms and conditions will be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of the Republic of South Africa.
- All disputes, actions, and other matters relating thereto will be determined in accordance with such law.
14. General
- We do not perform data recovery for pornographic content.
- We do not provide fraudulent insurance reports or invoices.
- We will always include VAT in our prices and will not offer discounts for any payment received.
- If we suspect illegal activities such as possession of child pornography, we are legally obliged to report it.
- We do not return the original faulty drive for all electro-mechanical (physical, electrical, or mechanical) related recoveries.
- Unless otherwise agreed in writing, we only keep a copy of the recovered data for 14 calendar days to protect against dead-on-arrival (DOA) instances.
- Our terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.
