Colorado Springs family loses over 20 thousand family photos after taking computer in for repairs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- When Lee and Waleska Wilson sent their Apple desktop computer in for repairs, they never imagined they would get it back with more than 20,000 sentimental family photos missing.

On April 11, the Colorado Springs military family sent their computer to a uBreakIFix location off N Academy Blvd to determine why it was running slowly. They agreed to pay around $150 for "advanced non-mobile troubleshooting" and a "large data transfer," according to their contract signed with the company they provided to KRDO13 Investigates.

They were told by workers at the phone-repair chain that in order to determine why the computer was running slowly, UBreakIFix would take all the data from the computer, wipe the hard drive, and then put the data back on the computer in hopes that would alleviate the issue.

"I actually called UBreakIFix and talked to a Tara and relayed my wife's concerns that she was concerned about her photos and she said that she would pay extra attention to that and that it shouldn't be a problem," Lee Wilson said.

Even after expressing these worries about losing years of family photos, when the computer was returned, they were nowhere to be found.

When signing a contract with UBreakIFix, the Wilsons consented to have their computer analyzed and for the data transfer to take place. Additionally, their signed contract has a "limited liability" clause, which says UBreakIFix is not liable for any damage to devices, or any lost data from working on the computer.

The Wilsons say they knew this clause existed, but never thought any mistakes would happen during their visit.

"They were not sympathetic with the situation and they tried to wash their hands with it saying that they could give us a refund, but a refund is not going to give me my photos back," Waleska Wilson said.

The Wilson's concerns grew in recent days after they were contacted by a manager at UBreakIFix, who told them they were attempting to recover their lost data, including the lost photos. The couple was not under the impression the store was able to keep their data when they brought their computer in for repairs.

The couple says they did not find out the store was attempting to recover their data from UBreakIFix themselves. Instead, they claim they were contacted by a third-party data recovery company who spoke with the store and was told the Wilson's data was lost. The Wilsons believe the store themselves should have contacted them immediately.

"Were they only going to tell us if it was successful? And if it wasn't successful, would we have even found out about it," Lee Wilson questioned.

KRDO13 Investigates spoke with the store manager, Tyler, on Friday after the Wilsons brought us their concerns. The manager offered no comment, only stating that they are trying to do everything they can for these customers.

The Wilsons have been told to expect a phone call from the store on Monday with an update on if their data can be recovered. They are hoping to warn others about the dangers of using phone and computer repair shops, especially UBreakIFix locations after their experience.

"Part of this is our fault. The fact that we didn't back it up ourselves. I think that's probably our message, to anybody else who would ask us about this, I would say get the right equipment to back up your own information first, and don't put all your eggs in one basket and rely on somebody else to do it," Lee Wilson said.