Community › Forums › Legal Advice India › Mi Service Center Erased 90GB+ of My Data Without Warning – What Should I Do?
- This topic has 31 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 2 months ago by
Brightnamrata969.
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BBrightnamrata969
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 9:53 amI went to a Mi service center because my headphone jack wasn’t getting detected. They took my phone for inspection, and after about half an hour, an employee came and asked, “Sir, was your data backed up?” I said no. She then told me, “Sir, because the headphone jack is close to the motherboard, while performing some checks, all your data got erased.”I had over 90GB of data, and it wasn’t synced with Google since it only provides 15GB of free storage. After that, the technician who caused this mess came and said, “You should have told us that your data was important; we would have taken precautions. Now, what can we do?”
I was in shock and didn’t know what to do. I got emotional, just took the bill, left my phone there, and came back home.
What should I do now? Should I file a complaint or ask for compensation, or is it better to just let it go? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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QQuickfalcon1344
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 10:22 amSend a legal notice asking for compensation then only it will be effective otherwise demands will fall flat-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 10:30 amHow should I decide the compensation amount, and should I take my mobile phone from there?-
QQuickfalcon1344
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 11:59 amWhat was the amount they were charging for the actual procedure you asked them to do. That plus additional reasonable amount of money say 5-10k for the loss that you have suffered.Also let them keep the phone for now, and also let me know if you signed any documents prior to handing over the device
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BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 5:55 pmI don’t think they were charging any amount; it seemed like they were doing it as part of their service. However, I signed a document, and its terms and conditions might create legal issues for me if I decide to take legal action. The terms include:1. **Before submitting any unit for service, the customer should back up their data and remove any confidential, proprietary, or personal information from the product. Xiaomi and its Service Center are not responsible for any damage, loss, or disclosure of any programs, data, or removable storage media if the customer has not backed up their data.**
2. **”Xiaomi” and the “Service Center” shall take no responsibility for any loss or damages, directly or indirectly, to the customer or any person, firm, company, or corporation due to any delay in repair and maintenance or any failure of the repaired “product,” whether such delay or failure arises from negligence, omission, default, or any other act of an employee of the “Service Center,” or from any other cause whatsoever.**
3. **In the event of any dispute arising from these terms and conditions, the matter shall be submitted to a single arbitrator appointed by Xiaomi, and the award/decision of such arbitrator shall be final and binding on both parties. The venue for such arbitration proceedings shall be in Bangalore.**-
QQuickfalcon1344
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 5:58 pmLet it be then you have already waived your rights plus in case of disputes you might have to bear more legal costs than the cost you would’ve paid for your repairs.-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 4, 2025 at 4:33 amIf I can get my paper from them by any chance then is there any way?-
QQuickfalcon1344
PARTICIPANT
April 4, 2025 at 4:47 amNope we are talking about a corporate entity and a single individual they are well equipped-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 4, 2025 at 5:10 amokay tysm for your time!
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CCalmeagle9213
PARTICIPANT
April 4, 2025 at 2:38 amHaving signed this, you can’t do anything now. This will be thrown in your face if you go legal. Find some data retrieving services to check if any data can be recovered. They can be expensive though.-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 4, 2025 at 5:11 amyes I taught I’m just giving permission to service the mobile but I too wasn’t aware of all of these….
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SSilentreshma6169
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 11:15 amBeing a fellow Xiaomi user, reading your post scares me.How careless the service center people are…
I too have data on my phone. I never opted for the sync option.
I think i should keep backing up from time to time to my laptop.
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BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 6:03 pmyeah I mean its too emotional for me like I had many years of photos, videos and my study notes and they didn’t even bother to ask for a permission
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BBraveninja1446
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 11:37 amDid you sign any physical document prior to the incident? if yes then they might have mentioned some terms and conditions with * if no then file complain with company as well as consumer court-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 5:57 pmActually I had signed a paper which includes some clauses which Tries to shift blame for data loss onto the customer, Attempts to remove responsibility for their employees’ negligence**,** Forces arbitration in Bangalore.
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HHappyshark11
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 12:34 pmSend a legal notice and file a consumer complaint for deficiency in service.-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 6:00 pmyeah i will file any consumer complaint but it seems difficult to make them pay back for there negligence
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SSupervidhi6604
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 12:58 pmTell them it contained seed phrase to a wallet worth 10000 dollars. And now it’s lost due to their negligence. Sue their ass to the ground. Also, get in writing or any other form that they never informed you that data is perishable under such procedures and it should be backed up.Ask something like, “why they didn’t tell you backup the data first.” And keep record of their reply.
Good luck.-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 6:05 pmyes I am trying same thing to get it in writing or video format. I don’t know how can I use these if you can elaborate it would be really appreciated
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RRitikdude67
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 3:14 pmI had the same experience work F1 Info tech for Google pixel service. 🥲-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 5:59 pmWhat did you do then?
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PPrimedude9581
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 3:35 pmDid u sign any paper while giving it to service center? Read that, it will state company is not responsible for data loss. If u didn’t sign anything you might have a case.-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 5:59 pmI had signed a paper which includes many terms and conditions, is there any way to go ahead to sue them if any please help me-
PPrimedude9581
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 6:00 pmNo. It’s in term and conditions you are responsible for backing up your data. And any data loss is not their responsibility. Thats why they get that paper signed .-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 4, 2025 at 4:33 amwhat if I get my signed paper from them, then it there any way like?
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HHiteshmaster783
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 4:55 pmHappened to me once on an office laptop, that too for a very minor issue like printer not connecting or something-
BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 6:01 pmDid you do anything then?-
HHiteshmaster783
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 9:01 pmMy office IT team did it, what can I do except bitch to manager
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BBrightnamrata969
OP
April 3, 2025 at 5:48 pmPart-2:I went there in the evening with 3-4 people as support in case he misbehaved so that we could handle him. But when I reached there, I spoke to an employee and told them to give me a written statement of the whole incident, saying that I would handle the rest and take my phone. However, they refused to do so.
I then asked them to call the center manager, who was the same guy I had previously mistaken for a technician. They told me that he had gone to the airport and that he wouldn’t be available for the entire week. After some time, I was able to talk to him over the phone. I told him the same thing—that I wanted a written statement about the incident and that I would take care of things legally. He refused as well.
I then asked him, “You’re not here, so whom should I talk to? Give me your senior’s number.” He responded by saying, “Let us try and see if there’s any chance of recovering the data. Come on Monday; I’ll be there too, and you can also meet my senior.”
We had a long argument about their overall service. I told him that I could post everything on social media, but I didn’t want to handle it that way. Finally, I told him, “Try to get the backup by 12 tomorrow (which most likely won’t happen), and after that, either give me the written statement or let me talk to your senior. Then I’ll take my phone. A mistake was made, and on top of that, I can’t be without my phone for so many days.”
Please suggest what else I should do or if I am doing something wrong!?
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CCoolhawk8964
PARTICIPANT
April 3, 2025 at 7:45 pmBro I am scared to give my phone to any service centre now.. will always backup my phone every few months after I get a laptop.. -
EExpertguru9182
PARTICIPANT
April 4, 2025 at 12:10 amUsually in the ToS, there is a clause that states, as others have mentioned, that you should back up your data before submitting any device for repair. Although I’m not sure of the situation in India but some courts elsewhere have held that no reasonable person is going to read through a giant tome of legalese just for some service. Reading time for an average ToS document is over an hour (77 minutes). And in this instance, the device was not even submitted for repair, just for diagnostics. You could go somewhere with that. But I don’t think it’s worth the hassle, or the money.Someone more knowledgeable in BNS/IPC should chime in with corrections.
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GGauravtiger377
PARTICIPANT
April 8, 2025 at 5:17 amSad that you lost your valuable data,butNothing can be done.
As u you pointed in one of the comments, you sign an application form before giving mobile to service.
In that you agree that you backup your data and MI is no way responsible for that.
So you can’t do anything.
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