Recover data from wiped hard drive?

Hi everyone.
I’ve searched through the discussions unable to make any concrete conclusions to resolve my dilemma so I hope someone here can help me out if possible.
My Macbook Pro 13 inch (late-2011) running Mavericks had its hard drive recently wiped by an Apple technician after I took it in following problems.
I stupidly didn’t back up any files onto an external hard drive or in TimeMachine when my hard drive was working before. However, from reading these discussions it appears other people with wiped hard drives have been able to recover data with some success. I’d like to know if this is at all possible in my situation?
To put my dilemma into some context, only days ago my Macbook began to freeze up. Eventually I had to force shut down with the power button as the computer became unresponsive.
Afterwards, when I turned on the computer the OS would not load past the grey screen with the apple logo. I attempted to perform a boot in Safe Mode but encountered the same problem. Then the computer would only shut down at this point each time I tried to turn the computer on again. Naturally I took it to my local Apple store and had a ‘Genius’ check it out.
After attempting to load the OS, I stupidly agreed with the Apple technician that the hard drive should be wiped (being less educated then about hard drives than I am now). I’ve been kicking myself ever since then thinking at the time a broken/corrupted hard drive meant that the data was already lost and that it was safe to wipe the hard drive in order to perform an ‘Internet Recovery’.
The Internet Recovery for Mavericks however failed and the Apple technician offered to replace the Hard Drive for a small ransom.
I’ve since tried to turn the Mac on at home and the grey screen still appears this time with a flashing folder with a question mark.
I know I have to go and buy a new hard drive and replace the existing one. But I still would like to know, is the data on the old hard drive able to be recovered or are my files lost forever since the Apple technician ‘wiped’ my hard drive?
I’m willing to download the software and get the hard drive in order to retrieve any data if it is at all possible.
Thank you for any help.
Hayden

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