Disposal of personal Belongings without consent

My hard drive crashed a little over 3 years ago, and being desperate to recover the data that had been lost on there I submitted my hard drive to numerous companies and specialist, without success. I planned on submitting the drive to what I have researched as one of the best companies out there for data recovery. I sent my drive to Pretoria via courier to ensure its safety. Once my hard drive was there for a little over 2 weeks, I received an email that the data recovery was unsuccessful. I responded sadly, and brought across what a great loss it has been for me. (sort of hoping they would attempt to receover the data once more, before demeaming it unsuccessful) I booked a flight to Cape Town to basically get over this huge loss and upon my return, I contacted Tecleo Lab to make arrangements to retrieve my drive, and I was informed, very bluntly that "Unfortunately the drive was disposed of". I was absolutely livid!!! Yet I enquired whether anything could be done to retrieve my device and I received a very casual "Unfortunately not" response! I am outraged that a "Reputable company" will dispose of a clients belongings without even the slightest remorse!! Whether the drive was successfully recovered, or not, it is still my property. I absolutely dislike writing bad reviews but the sheer lack of remorse or empathy on their end is just unexceptable!! I still feel bad to name and shame but the person I dealt with showed no sign of even trying to help recover my device! I cannot simply accept that my device was just thrown away! The only reason people even send in devices for recovery is because that data is of importance to them. The casual way this situation was handled, makes me wonder how many people has had to deal with this before me! I do not expect to receive anything in return, obviously apart from my device, but should that truly have been disposed of, I guess there is nothing I can do.