Woman files $54m lawsuit against Best Buy for losing laptop
By Nilay Patel 
posted Feb 12th 2008 1:40PM
posted Feb 12th 2008 1:40PM
We've definitely heard some horror stories about Best Buy, but it looks like a DC woman named Raelyn Campbell has had enough: she's opening up a big can of America Sauce on the retailer in the form of a $54m lawsuit after it lost her laptop during warranty service. Campbell says she bought a laptop and $300 extended warranty from Best Buy in 2006, and took the machine in for service when the power switch broke last May. Told repairs would take two to six weeks, she set off on a business trip, only to find that her laptop had gone missing when she returned in August. Fast forward through several more weeks of run-around and delays, and the best the Buy would offer for losing a $1,100 machine with all her data on it was a $900 gift card. After being informed of the potential for identity theft, Campbell filed the multimillion-dollar suit, which prompted Best Buy to up its offer to a whopping $2,100 plus a $500 gift card. Campbell says she's not dropping the case until she finds out what happened to her machine -- and she wants ol' Blue to train its employees on privacy issues and revamp its warranty policy. Honestly? We'd say she has a better chance of getting the $54 million.[Thanks, David]
Bestbuy is ASS
Agreed. Regardless if she's successful, that's the kind of women I'd want to marry. Someone who knows not to take shit from negligent companies.
Really 54 million dollars? Thats a little excessive. I mean for your inconvenience, loss of data and just plain difficulties with Best Buy I couldn't see the true amount going over $100,000 and that's being generous. I do feel like Best Buy should have offered her a lot more than she initially was but come on, 54 million dollars?
i hate frivolous (sp?) lawsuits, but i think i may hate best buy more. go woman!
She asked for 54 million dollars because that is the exact amount asked for by a local DC judge when his dry cleaner lost his favorite pair of pants. The judge had a convoluted algorithm for determining the figure. This woman simply decided to use the same figure in hopes of getting as much press as he did...using an ironic figure. She has stated that she has no illusions of getting any type of large judgment, but that she does want the press to expose Best Buy's (apparent) malfeasance, fraud, and outright lies.
Like most, I thought that this was another story of a greedy consumer looking to get rich because "coffee is hot"...but hunt down the real story and read about what this woman went through and how Best Buy treated her and I expect that you will soon be cheering her on.
$0.02
BTW, for those of you who have stated that she is at fault for not backing up, let me point out several items...since I took the time to actually read her story:
- The power button was broken so the thing would not turn on
- She wasn't primarily concerned about "lost data"...she was concerned about IDENTITY THEFT...given that the laptop hard disk contained significant volumes of personal data...including tax returns.
- Best Buy is required by federal law to inform a consumer if they leak their personal data...and Best Buy knew for weeks/months that her laptop had been stolen by someone in the store...yet they did not inform her (as required)...and actually lied to her and told her that the laptop was at their Kentucky service center and that the replacement switch had just been ordered.
I think this is a GREAT lawsuit. Companies negligent in protecting our privacy are acting in a way that is antisocial and illegal! Go lady!
Well done Scuba Steve...
also the amount she is asking for seems high but imagine the amount of time and money she can potentially loose if her identity is stolen from the laptop.
Its ridiculous that BestBuy and others have such lax rules when it comes to repairing computers, hopefully this forces them to take better care of the PCs people bring in.
@Andrew
Is your identity worth $54mm? I know mine sure isn't. Steal my identity, maybe you can get $20 or $30K worth. I highly doubt her identity is worth $54mm either.
Just because I almost got hit by a car on the street today doesn't mean I get to sue the driver of said car for the amount I would have been damaged had I actually been hit.
Yea, this sucks and Best Buy has very questionable if not downright illegal business practices, but $54mm is absurd.
Plus, it is unethical to file a lawsuit for a certain amount just to get publicity to shame a corporation.
Dan, who made you chair of the ethics committee? If a pair of pants is worth $54M, someone's future livelihood and sanity at the hands of an arrogant greedy retailer certainly is too. All's fair in love and war.
@fahnboi
The thing is that the court decided that the pants were not worth $54mm and repremaneded the plaintiff in that case.
Also, I'm not the chair of the ethics committe, but I do know that you have to have a good faith basis for your prayer for damages in court. There are also presumptive limits on non-economic damages. Believe it or not there are ethics rules that governm lawyers (I presume she hired a lawyer for this)...there's even a national exam for it! The ethics I mentioned are these ethics rules.
She can said she has a porno video of her and if released to public as DVD, she would have earned 54mil.
The last time I looked at the people who passed the MPRE, it was not exactly confidence inspiring.
Too many lawsuits are get rich quick schemes, and no doubt she'd love to collect 54mm. Whether her credit was harmed, and what the harm was worth, will be a factor in the damages actually awarded by the court. With her bringing the lawsuit, what mattered was the frustration, anger, feeling of helplessness, and violation. This did get her situation publicity.
No question 54mm is way too big, but she'll never get that amount so it's not to worry. Assuming she gets 1/10th of that: life in prison for an accounting fraud was a bit harsh - it was money, not life lost - but you can be sure financial restatings have increased over the years. This, similarly, would be for punitive effect.
Dan,
Question for you, what takes less time, arguing on ablog about legal ethics rules that only apply to attorneys, or RTFA? To wit:
"She also had reached the limit of her patience. In November, she filed her $54 million lawsuit against Best Buy -- by herself, without legal representation." (emphasis added)
I'm going with the latter, but maybe you're really quick at talking @#$% on the Internet.
Don't get me started on how one could have a good faith belief that the loss of a laptop resulted in $54 million in damages.
Scuba Steve,
Even with a broken power button a data backup is possible before shipping the laptop out for service. Most shops would simply pull the hard drive and back up the information to thier in-house data machine. If the customer was concerned about identity theft, the hard drive could have then been wiped before being reseated back into the unit.
Obviously I don't know if Best Buy offered the above (at an extra cost of course), but they should have seeing as they how much they push for the upsell. Much as I hate Best Buy, just wanted to point out that they may not be quite the bastards as the woman is making them out to be.
$54m is excessive but Best Buy was clearly very in the wrong here. Most importantly, why didn't Best Buy pull the HD before beginning work? Dell told me to remove my hard drive before I sent it into them. It seems like a generally good practice.
@Dan, thanks. Someone actually sees things the way I do. I never said that the woman shouldn't have been reimbursed for her inconvenience, her laptop, her data (which sometimes can be considered priceless if they were pictures, etc), however $54 million dollars is VERY excessive.
The article does also discuss that there was a possibility of identify theft however I doubt this information is worth $54 million. If one person's information was worth this much I think you would see a rise in identify theft (higher than it already is). It's very unfortunate that this happened to this women but $54 million dollars is absurd. I'd gladly have my laptop misplaced for $54 million dollars.
This again an example how sick the united states is , one stupid lawsuit over the other with not realistic amounts. 54 million is way over the top to ask.
But please us go on it won't take to much time to live under the chinese hahahahahah
She must have some good pron in there for an employee to steal her laptop.
@Bernie B
I do agree about how simple it is to back up data on a drive. However, going in for something as simple as replacing an on/off switch is never anything that should throw up a red flag and make you think you need to have them back up all the data on your machine. Maybe it would be a nice policy for Best Buy to take on for any machine that is being sent off for repairs. Even then, in this case (from what I read) it appears the machine was stolen in store; policy change wouldn't make a difference. Again, understand where you are coming from, but it's not something the customer would think about.
To anyone who thinks otherwise, your personal data is definitely worth $54 million.
Actually it's priceless, because in the end your personal identity is all you have, everything you own, have owned, will own in the future, is tied to this.
Whoever has this personal information can collect money through fraud, and leave you to sort out the details with the authorities for the rest of your life. There have been enough identity theft stories, and the processes involved in re-claiming your identity, sometimes repeatedly, that would go beyond the $54 million.
Maybe this person is not a millionaire today, but she could be tomorrow, and her identity is right there for the taking, along with her belongings.
Sorry to burst bubbles, but I believe everyone's identity to be priceless.
What the hell does her laptop being lost have to do with stolen identity? As soon as her laptop left her hands, she could have been a victim of identity theft (and she would have been none the wiser 'til it was too late). She has no damages at this point, except the laptop itself.
You should always have an updated copy of your important data, so no compensation is deserved there. Maybe just the time required to restore it since the loss was due to faulty hardware.
all the people ripping on best buy are people are just plain ignorant, you have to start somewhere and for most its not a career job... you guys think its best buys fault, the kid is 23 years old. what do you people do that is a more interesting job that best buy, having to deal with people who arent knowledgeable in the topic at hand, trying to teach it too them. As for this lady, her computer came back, the paperwork probably wasnt correct(again, done by a 23 year old), but the comptuer was supposed to get picked up in 6 weeks at the latest... she was gone 20 weeks. so when you have something sitting around for 20 weeks.. chances are it could get miss placed, or could be mistaken for an open item product, which is probably what happened to it.and when stuff is open item, they format the entire lap top, so her stuff got erased.
sure the lady has a case, but its like every person who is frustrated, they want their case to be seen, the want to create a scene, as well she has a right she did loose her lap top, and frankly it shouldnt have happened, you do it, i do it at some time or place, but remember, people are human and do make mistakes, and when you people insist on laying into some kid, hes not going to appriciate that, and will probably quit his job, because outside of their place of employment, they are human. All of the "I hate best buy" people, why? because you came in on a saturday looking for the sale item(thats more than likley where your hate came from). of course its not going to be in moron, and sure, if we order it we need to fill out paperwork, a sale item like that is extremly popular so we need to have it shipped in when its made. if not feel free to comment back.
I'm glad she's doing this. I have had a similar problem with Circuit City (has been going on for 3-1/2 years now). I wonder if the C.C. people are reading this?????
I think she had something to do with the missing Lap top. She needs to get a damn job.
I used to work for Best Buy for over 7 years. How does a laptop go missing? Simple negligence on the part of someone not keeping appropriate paperwork attached to the laptop in question. I assure you, the laptop is floating around either at one of Best Buy's service warehouses or it was shipped direct to Sony, and the paperwork is no longer with the unit.
As for the woman's data, customers are told upfront and before they sign the work order agreement that it is the responsibility of the customer, NOT Best Buy, to back-up all important data, which makes sense. Once she signed that paperwork, and Best Buy will not take possession of any customer's property until it is signed, she lost all legal rights to any compensation for that data.
At any of the stores I personally worked at, we would have given her a new laptop, apologized profusely, and would have started a serious investigation as where in the hell the woman's property was at, and who in the hell was going to compensate us for our in-store loss.
The SAME EXACT THING happened to me last year...I purchased a laptop and $300 Service Plan from Best Buy and when I put it in to be serviced THEY LOST IT. It took several weeks before they would even admit that it was missing...several more weeks for them to give me a replacement laptop...and now I have had to deal with the horror of knowing that someone out there has my personal files. SICKENING!
Best Buy Jacked us around on a DEFINITE warranty issue... told to me by the MANAGER that EVERYTHING was covered... NO MATTER WHAT ! They fooled around with the camera until we had to buy another (from them) for a business event with the promise that they would credit us for the old one that they couldn't fix. (Or wouldn't)... I will NEVER buy another thing from these rip-off artists!
You go girl!! I hope she gets it!! I thought we were the only one with problems there.
ya but thats what applecare is for
Something similar to this happened to me this summer with Best Buy. The way I was treated almost made me postal. Oh yeah I was also pregnant during the 5months it took me to get my computer back. When I got it back it was blank and the back up disk that I requested had been erased. I lost my entire business account, and had no backup. After several complaints, I finally got an apology from the store manager. Gateway put the blame on Best Buy and Best Buy put the blame on Gateway. So what is the consumer to do. Leaves you feeling hopeless. So more power to her and I hope she wins!!!
Well as long as she distributes the $54M to all that are involved in their information on her laptop.
More power to her. I love America!
@ jew balls
Trust me I know. I deal with Lawyers and accountants all day. She'll walk with an out-of court settlement for an undisclosed amount. But should give out all that is received, minus cost of fees and laptop (non of this pain and suffering crap) :)
I have had a couple bad experiences with best buy in the last couple years, the quality of their employees is so poor I wont shop there anymore except for dvds.
I don't like Best Buy either, but a deal's a deal, no matter where you spend your money. It's not like they're shills for BinLadin or clubbing baby seals or something.
Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better 'cause I just bought a lappy from them a couple of weeks ago... it was the best price I could find. All that said there is no way I'd buy a warranty or trust those dorks to fix anything.
I saw BB employee clubbing a baby walrus once, is that close enough?
I bought my daughter an IPOD for Christmas 12/05 with an extended warranty. The screen cracked and I took it back a year after purchase. I took it to the geek squad and was told everything was covered but the screen. I went back again and talked to the store manager and I was told the same thing. The store manager also said all that could be done was to be reimbursed a pro-rated amount on the extended warranty which was about $35.00 but I paid over $350.00. I have not bought anything else from best buy since, and I choose to take my busy else where because of the very rude and unprofessional staff associated with best buy.
well the thing is NO WARRANTY even manufacturers warranties cover broken screens. Normally when a screen breaks its because of the end user, not a factory issue.
I like this lawsuit (if she's to be believed). She said the only reason she sued for so much was to grab their attention and get the word out.
Seems to be working!
I think I will try the 54m. number. Yes, does seem to be working for her. Maybe it will work for me when I sue the American Skiing Company for the wrongful death of my son at Killington Mountain.Going into respiratory arrest due to heart arrythmia, my son(25 years) was unable to be shocked back into a stable heart rhythm.Why? No one on the ski patrol could find the Defibrillator.
Negligence that cost a Life; not a laptop...
Actually was trying to respond to the comment about the warranty on screens but there was no reply button. Sony offers a warranty on broken screens, so I bought that for my Vaio for three years. There is at least one other company that does as well. Hopefully I'll never have to use this warranty, but my last two laptops had to be junked after screen damage. Alternatively, there are some companies that can replace the LCDs, and you can sometimes find screens from junk parts companies.
Oh man, that'd suck hardcore. I can scarcely imagine the horror I'd feel if my computer went "missing" during a warranty repair. It may not be worth 54 mill, but there'd be a lot of anguish, I tell ya (though potentially, if someone were a novelist or something along those lines, the potential theft of their work would cause some serious issues).
Wonder what she had on her lappy...
wonder if this is the same woman from DC
http://www.nbr.org/about_nbr/staff/campbell.html
Holy crap, if it's the same person, I can sure as hell see why the information being stolen would be a problem...
Yeap that's her.
@Demaar,
hopefully, someone of her stature wouldn't have confidential, classified, or business-related documents on her home computer. if it was a work computer, she'd undoubtedly give it to corporate IT.
I would have to agree with Teej here. If the laptop was used for work, corporate IT would have procured it and secured it.
But $54M is a high ball figure. Even if they settled out of court for $1M, she paid half for lawyers, and another $200k for taxes, she'd still walk out with $300k.
The woman outright says in the article I read that she has no expectation of getting $54m.
According to the article, they originally offered her $900 (to replace her $1,100 laptop), after taking 3 months to even admit they'd lost it. When she asked for $2100 to actually be able to get a replacement and to cover time-and-trouble, Best Buy blew her off.
She was a pretty average user, and so not as immediately aware of the potential for identity theft. When she was advised about the identity theft angle since her tax returns were on the computer, she enrolled in a credit protection program and went back to Best Buy to ask why she hadn't been informed that they'd lost her personal data (as they are required by law to do), they stonewalled her again.
This is why she finally sued them for $54m; she said she has no expectation of getting even a fraction of that, but picked a deliberately insanely high number just so that Best Buy would pay attention, and so that media outlets would pick this story up to highlight Best Buy's poor customer service.
So far, it seems to have succeeded; clearly the case IS getting media coverage, and Best Buy offered her $2500 to replace the laptop (if she'd drop the case and sign a confidentiality agreement never to speak of this again, which she refused to do).
Hey Raelyn, ever heard of offloading your personal data before having your notebook serviced? It's been common sense for the last decade, but i guess you were away on business.
MARKUS,
Hey buddy, ever think of reading the ARTICLE before posting an ass of a comment? How "exactly" was she supposed to offload her data with a BROKEN POWER SWITCH....
la dee da
DUNCAN
Yea, i guess you're right...
But you should make sure you back up your data before you have that intermittent CAPSLOCK problem serviced.
blah blu blee
Markus, your attempt at comeback is sheer fail. Try a comedy workshop.
fahnboi
You posted five comments to this story alone, try getting a job.
Hi Markus, time to find some new insults, O Hypocritical One. Mmkay? Try makemefunny.com or something.
He got you there fahnboi! And you're now up to 9..
I agree with Homeboy. If you have data that is so secure and/or personal, do not ever, I repeat EVER trust a company with it. Remove the HDD first.
I'm not saying this lady doesn't deserve her 54 Million dollars for the sake of what she went through, but the data loss/identity theft part could have been prevented. Of course, that would've required she pay best buy ANOTHER $50 fee just to remove the HDD. Or, did they raise their prices... [BB rips people off for simple stuff like installing RAM, so I'm just venting here]
Guess this one's 10. Guess he's "got me" but at least I RTFA.
Come on guys... your totally heartless!
"After being informed of the potential for identity theft, Campbell filed the multimillion-dollar suit,"
So... How does backing up your data protect you from your laptop coming up missing = identity theft?
@Homeboy
"This is nothing but a stupid bitch who doesn't seem to understand that the retailers are not responsible for data loss with a warranty service."
Data loss, e.g. Best Buy employees were working on the laptop and data on the harddrive was lost in some way before the customer return for their laptop or; Best Buy employees were working on the laptop and then *POOF* both data and laptop got lost in some way before the customer return for their laptop?
Best Buy/the Retailers must be responsible in some way for this lost hardware and or lost data, or no?
What about $2300 and a $53,997,700 gift card?
I see what you did there.
hahahahahahaha
I bet if you spent 50,000,000 of that gift card they STILL wouldn't give the rest in cash!
So if she wins, and someone steals her identity to use her $54m with her stolen laptop data, can she sue again?
No, she cannot sue twice for the same thing.
Sure she could sue again. Double jeopardy only applies to a specific case. If you're hit by acar and you sue the driver for $54 mill and lose, if that same driver hits you again two weeks later you can sue him again. They are two separate cases.
@ Xee
No, that analogy is flawed.
It would only apply if Best Buy lost her laptop twice and put her through the same trauma again, thus making them actual separate cases.
She cannot sue Best Buy twice for having the same laptop stolen in the same exact case in which she has already sued, even if unpredicted scenarios occur after the case is closed.
One chance per charge per crime. If I get in to a car accident, I can sue the other person for damages not paid for fixing my car (i.e. damages more than their policy covers). If I later develop a neck injury from it (if she later develops stolen identity), I can go back and hit him again. If my neck hurts more later, well, that sucks.
She can sue Best Buy for negligence in losing her laptop. She can later sue Best Buy for contributory negligence leading to her financial damages of $xxxxx.
Not a lawyer, and I could be wrong, but that's how I think it works.
uhhhh what a stupid woman why not sue for 2,600-5,000 the actual cost of your lost items and thrown in pain and distress and attorany fees that's all u need 54 million doesn't even make any sense.
Because if you are actually trying to bring change to a large corporation, you need to get their attention.
If she asked for what you said, that would be small claims court stuff. They would have finally given in and gave her what she wanted. The top management would have never heard about it and business would have gone on as usual.
By filing for such a large amount, there is no doubt the entire top management had a meeting to discuss just this one issue.
Believe it or not, a lot of the crappy service and policies you see at some of these places are not pu in place by the top management teams, but by regional and local management. And even if it was top management, they now have no choice but to change their policies to more "consumer friendly" because of the negative press of this lawsuit.
In the end, everybody wins. she knows she isn't going to get $54 million, but she will get a fair return for the laptop and hassle and every other Best Buy customer will now have life a little easier if something goes wrong for them.
am i the only one who finds it sad that they offered $900 for a $1100 machine?
They tried to pull he same stuff when i bought a laptop from them, a $2000 laptop (came out right before dual cores hit mobile machines, and the first week of ownership it stooped working (screen would turn on and off)... well long story short- after 8 months of straight back and forth returns to the shop, they offered me $700 for the laptop(the now current price of a single core laptop). (hell- i payed something like $400 for the three year warranty). In the end I complained to the higher ups and got a full refund. I just find it sad they try to rip off customers like that.
They started doing that after people started abusing the replacement program. I used to work for CompUSA back in the dot.bomb era.. it made ends meet.. and you know what, employees were the major offenders, but so were alot of customers. The original policy when you purchased said replacement plan, was that if the device is not repairable, you can get a replacement in the store, for the value that the original purchase was made. So you spend $2k in 2005 with a 3 year replacement plan.. mysteriously your laptop explodes in 2008.. you would get a laptop in 2008 for the same as it cost you in 2005.. which for 2k today.. is an amazingly better machine.
Well.. people would break things intentionally about 6 months before the expiration of the plan.... this got abused.. alot, especially for high end items (laptops, cell phones, not so much TV's at the time, but at BB it happened).
@Jason:
Well, that can hardly be our fault as the customers, now could it? I mean, Best Buy employees have used that /exact same reasoning/ to try to convince me I wanted a warranty each and every time I've bought something there.
I suppport this lawsuit because of the carelessness of the Best Buy Employee that is untilamtely responsible for this.
Or more likely than not, the laptop left in the backpack of one of the employees. Laptops don't just disappear into the ether. They get stolen.
Thats good that shes suing them. I hate the fact that these damn retailers don't give a crap about customers products even though they pay so much extra for a better warranty. A similar situation happened to me at Circuit City... Lets just say that I will never buy anything over $200 from them.
Why settle for anything over $200 from them? How about not shopping there, and going with better, cheaper [online] retailers instead?
I really don't understand why, of all people, computer-savvy people still shop at BestBuy/CircuitCity/CompUSA/etc instead of NewEgg/Amazon/(insert favorite e-tailer here). It boggles the mind.
Because sometimes you need something that hour. Even online retailers haven't started "Same Hour Shipping". :)
I'm guessing her Mo's $200 limit actually means "I won't buy anything that I actually have time to shop around for."
When you're going to file for a crazy amount, I've always wondered how you pick the number. Did she go "65M? that's just absurd. Let's throttle it back to something reasonable."
Well, more power to her. BestBuy has a lot of service issues, and I'm guessing that we'll find them the new place it's great to hate (with CompUSA gone), and plenty more issues surfacing about their questionable "service" contracts.
Maybe the $54 million is a DC thing?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/09/19/ST2007091902225.html?hpid=topnews
At least they didn't lose her pants!
About a year ago, some dumbass working for the University of Missouri system got their laptop stolen. Unfortunately, it had personal tidbits of info of every employee of the system for the previous five years (I was a grad student/TA a few years before), including my name and social security number. Right when I received the letter warning me about my data being comprimised, I immediately subscribed to a credit watch service. Sure enough, someone tried to register for a credit card in my name.
What bothered me is not just the fact that my identity was almost stolen, but why someone put it on a laptop, unencrypted, several years after being on the university's payroll.
There's no excuse. This woman and BestBuy should both be held liable if anyone exploits the data. Why anyone should be allowed to store others' personal information in a way that could easily be compromised is beyond me.
Oops, I misread the article. It was just her own personal info at stake. Still, it's pretty naive to trust total strangers not to snoop around on your computer after they fix it. Remember all the cases where Geek squad/BestBuy techs "accidentally" discovered child porn on some customers' laptops? It's really no accident.
Any laptop warrany work I've done, you always pull the hard drive and keep it. You just send the shell and then put the HD back in when it comes back.
I hope the judge settles it for $10,000 (Lawyer takes half). This is FRIVELOUS to the point of absurdity.
Noone's identity is worth 54 Million. In fact, I hope the courts set a maximum lawsuit amount for less than $100,000
"she's opening up a big can of America Sauce on the retailer...."
hahah america sauce...thats great lol
The reason for large damage amounts (54Mil) is to force companies to correct the problem. I am sure that this woman is fully aware of the near impossibility to get that settlement. However, if she just sued for damages to her Best Buy would eat the cost and continue to risk other people's data and property. Corporate America needs a balancing force and while i hate frivolous lawsuits, i hate to imagine what would happen if large settlement amounts stopped (were banned or whatever). These companies with near endless resources would run rough-shod over so many consumers. One consumer lost is nothing to a large corporation so the idea that "just don't shop there" would really have an effect is crazy. That would only work if all consumers were fully aware of the rist. Which this type of lawsuit ensures with its new coverate.
*rant over*
-sun
I worked at Best Buy while in college at I have to agree with most of the detrimental comments about them. The managers can tell good business skills from a ham sandwich. I would get so frustrated by the fact of having to deal with angry customers who were completely justified in being fed up with the crappy customer service or lack or having product (especially advertised) in stock. I basically got to feel like a jerk for crap I had zero control over.
CB, I just quit my job at Circuit City/Firedog and I can attest that it has not gotten any better since you were in college.
@Cornelius: From what I've heard, Geek Squad has some very stringent rules in place to safeguard customer data privacy. Hearsay of course, but it wouldn't surprise me.
On the other side of the argument, as a Technician, you can't always ignore the data you're backing up. If someone keeps nekkid(sic).jpg on their desktop and it loads a thumbnail automatically, you can't really avoid that. Also, as another example, some people (especially those with infected computers) have desktop backgrounds that are of questionable nature and must be changed. Of course you won't know that until you start the computer up. Since the advent of vista, doing data migrations can bugger up the permissions of files and directories, so now technicians have to dive through the tree to make sure there aren't any permission conflicts. Sometimes this leads to accidental discoveries.
Most technicians aren't looking for "teh boobiez," they don't have time. It's more along the lines of "does the user have access to this? Yes. Ok, move on."
@...whoever was talking about the warranty replacement including depreciation. That is pretty standard now. One for the reasons stated in the original reply (abuse) and also because of how costs have changed recently. A $2100 computer in 2003 will buy a $4100 computer now.
I used to work there when I was 16 right around when Geek Squad was formed (before we had to wear the clip-on ties). We did all the warranty shipping...most of the time we'd send it out, and it was about a 50/50 chance of it getting back to the store or to the customer within the ridiculously long 6 to 8 weeks for bad RAM or something. And as for privacy...well, it was store policy to copy all of your pictures, music, and documents to a company hard drive before it was shipped out to what ever repair depot, well at least my manager's policy at the time...my manager who was later fired for using AIM all day during work hours. Oh, and we caught him because the guy above him told us underlings to install a keylogger on the all the computers used on the tech-bench...wait -used
Maybe you wouldn't want to marry her. When you don't live up to your marital duties of pleasuring her at every opportunity, she'd sue your ass, too. Those sort of people can't be trusted. She should just take the highest Best Buy offer and get on with her life.
Worst Buy strikes again. Raelyn FTW
Same thing happened to me with circuit city. I took in my laptop in for a screen malfunction and they trashed the whole thing without letting me know. I was on the verge of suing until they gave me a new and much better computer... Lucky for them the computer they trashed was only a few months old and had no significant data on it or else all hell would have broken loose. It took a lot of fighting and threatening to get even that though.
They've got some balls to be doing that to customers and thinking they can fix it with barely meeting the original cost of the item. hope she wins.
You guys epically fail. Have you ever had your stuff serviced at Best Buy? How many of you ever took the time to read the service order? The service order says that BBY is not at loss for data. PERIOD, even if you pay for a data backup. Why? Because someone will always say "you didn't back this or this or this up!" As me how I know. ALSO - those of you who complain about not getting the full amount for your laptop back. Did you ever take the time to read the service plan you purchase? 99% of the time, the salesman tells you that Best Buy will be able to fix the hardware problems with your PC. The exchange clause is typically a State NO-LEMON law that says that they exchange your computer for comparable technology. Now if your three year old HP laptop breaks that you spent $2000 on, but it's only got a single core Athlon 64, but BBY exchanges it for a machine that costs maybe $700, you're still ahead. OR you could just have your computer fixed instead of saying "My modem haz virusez and now i cant download my pr0n and the CIA is trying to steal my Limewire and I want a new one!" It doesn't work that way.
The reason BBY tries not to make exceptions, and if they do, it's usually in the upper echelon is simply because that's not the way things work. If everyone got an exception because their three year old laptop died and they want $2000 for something worth $300 (if it were working that is), then no one would make any money. And you can always take the credit to purchase something nicer too. BBY is not that evil, you should read service orders before you sign, read Performance Service Plans before you purchase, and ASK QUESTIONS! The agents at Geek Squad are usually pretty competent and good at what they do (ask me how I know). IF it's getting sent out to service and it doesn't boot, we will back up your data. And yes, Geek Squad will charge you for it even if it's under warranty. Why? Because people should be smart enough to maintain copies of their "life and death" information.
How was it stolen from a secure area you ask? Well add in an unscrupulous employee and a key, and you're in laptop heaven. Most theft comes from employees. But the agents that work at Geek Squad typically take their jobs very seriously, and I very much so doubt any of them would be involved in stealing a customer's product. It is above the quality of technician that is hired. I'm tired of writing, so people stop bitching because you couldn't get your 3 year old laptop fixed for free without a service plan when it has viruses and stuff. I know this isn't the case but BBY attempted to square up with the customer for what the laptop was worth. The initial offer was a lowball, but when's the last time an insurance company didn't try to do it to you? Companies have to make money somehow. Take this as you will.
jeez Tony, calma-te on your hardcore capitalist rant there. Standard Oil had to make money too somehow.
Dude...your a geek squad employee. Your like at the bottom of the totem pole of geeks, stop protecting the white shirted black tied idiots and get a real I.T. job. Jesus.
yeah, and who the **** reads service plans?
Best Buy is one of the most rip-off stores ever. If you look at any video card there, it's going to cost at least twice as much as it does on Newegg. Best Buy = Best Fail.
lol@best fail
Seriously, if you are going to make a comparison, do it correctly, you cannot compare a Brick and Mortar store (even though they sell online) to an Online only store (which I believe has 1 actual physical store)...
The over heads are completely different, and so are the profit margins.
A better comparison would be BB, Circuit City and Compusa (whats left of them anyways)... Some things BB has cheaper, some things Compusa has cheaper, and some things Circuit city has cheaper.. it just depends.
If you want to compare online, fine, I have found plenty of things cheaper at B&H Photo, then at Newegg.. I have bought items from a site I cannot remember (was for an SLI'd machine), the PSU was $100 cheaper then NewEgg...
ps, I am no fan of their customer service, but for generic quick purchases, they are convenient, and I have never had a problem returning and swapping things out, so far they have not even charged me a restocking fee.
All of the sudden I don't feel so bad about screwing BB out of a $1700 TV for only $400.
I'm glad this article about this woman's struggle makes you more comfortable with your fraud.