What can I do?

Kindly advise if this is worth suing or taking up with the legal team.

I bought a phone at a dealership in May. 2 weeks ago, it showed that it couldn’t read the sim slot 2 and I took it back to them. They told me that they would be sending it to Gaborone and it should be back in 2 weeks. 2 days before the 2 weeks, I went there just to check if it was back yet and they didn’t have feedback for me and called the place to enquire but was told that the person fixing my phone is out of office.

On Thursday when I called to enquire, I was told the phone had arrived. The sim slot has been fixed but they have also flushed my phone. When asked why, they say the phone also had a software problem that needed to be updated hence they flushed it without my consent or at least backing up my information.

Richard, the information that they erased is worth more than millions in value, literally. Some is evidence that I am to use at court. A spreadsheet with loans. Screenshots of my loan agreements. Loans worth over 100k and convos between myself and the people who owe me. Conversations and proformas as well as proof of payments for stuff that I have ordered in China.

Kindly assist. I’m sorry but I don’t think I can offer you any assistance. Firstly, it was very unwise to hand over a phone that contained such important information without first taking a backup. Yes, the repairer should probably have asked you before wiping the phone but you should have been much more cautious. From what you told me, your business and much of your personal life depended on that information. You should have been backing this up on a daily basis. There are plenty of free backup services available these days. There no reason not to be using them.

Secondly, from what you said, and our later conversation, you were using that phone to operate a microlending business that hadn’t been registered with NBFIRA. The bad news is that if you had been registered with NBFIRA, they would likely have banned you because you failed to keep reliable records but as you weren’t registered, you face a different set of NBFIRA’S rules. Perhaps worst of all for you, you probably no longer have any way to enforce any of the loans you made. But, as you were making them illegally, can you really complain?