Best Buy loses laptop, gets sued

[superdave1984]

For $54 MILLION. She won't get anywhere near that, but I hope she gets a big check.

Best Buy Loses Laptop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

Best Buy Loses Laptop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million
Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:33PM EST
See Comments (15)
Don't dismiss Raelyn Campbell as a crackpot. Not yet. Listen to her story, and then decide if she's doing the right thing by asking Best Buy to compensate her to the tune of $54 million for a laptop that went missing when she took it in to Best Buy for repair under the store's own extended warranty.

Like many people, Campbell bought an extended warranty for her laptop when she bought it from Best Buy, and she took advantage of that when the power button broke off after a year. Best Buy accepted the machine for repair and said it would be ready in two to six weeks. But six weeks passed and the computer wasn't ready. After three months of ruthlessly hounding the company, Best Buy finally admitted it couldn't find the machine.

Ultimately, Best Buy offered to pay her $900 for losing the machine... as a gift card. She countered that it had originally cost over $1,100, not to mention all her data that was now gone for good. She demanded $2,100, and Best Buy simply ignored her.

At this point, Campbell was made aware that all her personal data on the machine could lead to a major identity theft issue, though Best Buy never filed their legally required notice that she was at risk. That was the last straw, and she filed suit for $54 million, representing herself. Best Buy has since upped its offer to a total of $4,100 if she withdraws the case. She says she doesn't expect to win, but wants to go to court anyway to force Best Buy to explain how her laptop was lost.

I have to agree that $54 million seems wildly optimistic, but it's amazing to hear how smug Best Buy has been throughout this process. Lowball, "go-away" offers that don't even value property properly, much less the value of the data inside it, are frankly embarrassing, and good for Campbell for making an issue out of it... even if she doesn't ultimately prevail.

Another link here: A lost laptop, a $54 million lawsuit: part 2 - The Red Tape Chronicles - MSNBC.com

 

[Kharn]

I feel for this woman I reely do, Currys the UK's equivilant of best buy is pulling stunts like this all the time. As head of computer sales for my store I made sure I checked on the wareabouts of every laptop we had in for repair or service every day when i started my shift an again at the end of my shift. I also made copys of every bit of paper work todo with the laptops if they had to be sent away and I made sure there was 2 work number slips on the laptop or computer an any items logged in with the computer where identified to there owner.

Other shops like PC world down the road (also owned by DSGi) had a shocking loss rate one man was even given not only a laptop that didn't belong to him he was given a damaged laptop that was returned by another customer that had missing keys and a DVD drive that wouldn't eject a disk that was stuck in there.

 

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

Good for her. That is some really terrible service from Best Buy. It really depends on the managers and staff, but this particular guy didn't do a good job and just brought more trouble to himself.

I hope she gets compensated well.

 

[Metal Chaos]

Best Buy sucks like that. This women could end up in tremendous debt and/or in prison because of whoever got her laptop could assume her identity and it doesn't even bother them, shows how little they care about customers. I hope she gets a few mill out of it at least so if anyone racks up any debt it her name she can pay it off or something.

I bet some little punk from best buy took the laptop home with him/her or that the store sold it as a refurbished laptop to someone.

 

[mgcook]

They'll end up winning if she represents herself.

It's likely that the judge will find a flaw in the complaint and dismiss the case assuming she didn't have a lawyer draw it up.

Either way she'll never see more than $10,000 total, if that.

"Thousands of dollars of music"....yeah right, it was all probably torrented music.

 

[Ronnie]

^i think she will get atleast a million
and she deserves every penny

i know if my dads laptop im currently using was stolen, i would be in some serious trouble. theres is alot of personal data on there, not to mention all my files, which i admit are torrented but since they lost her latop they cant prove that she didnt pay for the songs lol

 

[Jorsoft]

She's dumb to be representing herself. She could easily find a good blood sucking lawyer to work on contingency for her. If she plays her cards right I'm sure she'll get a nice settlement out of the deal. She needs to do a true media blitz and really embarrass best buy to get that, though.

 

[Metal Chaos]

She's dumb to be representing herself. She could easily find a good blood sucking lawyer to work on contingency for her. If she plays her cards right I'm sure she'll get a nice settlement out of the deal. She needs to do a true media blitz and really embarrass best buy to get that, though.

Not hard to embarrass Best Buy, they do it themselves on a daily basis, Geek Squad = Fail, Best Buy prices = Fail and Best Buy Customer Service/Satisfaction = Fail. I'm sure she probably intends on them to settle out of court and if they decide to keep fighting she'll probably break down and get a lawyer.