Woman files $54m lawsuit against Best Buy for losing laptop
By Nilay Patel 
posted February 12th 2008 1:40PM
posted February 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]
OOps.
I should have used spell check too before I get a 100 responses for " dissin' poor PRON guy .
Good Luck with your suit Stick it to Best Buy where it Hurts Girl .In the wallett ~1 can you say " Cha - Ching " Best Buy .
Undoubtedly, the women is frustrated, not only by the loss, but by the apparent attitude by Best Buy and the customer "no" service arrogance. I have had 2 recent occaisions where I have been lied to by Best Buy staff and in talking with their customer service managers, was told the same thing...there's nothing we can do. The words are one thing but the looks on these 2 gentleman's faces was that of why are you even bothering me. I think the amount she is asking for is also to get Best Buy's attention that they are not the only electronic source in this world and they need to revamp their customer service attitudes starting with top management on down if they wish to continue in their business. I have decided to take my business elsewhere, even if I have to pay a higher price. Customer service is a vital part of keeping a healthy business and I have come across several other's who have shared similar experiences to my. Wake up Best Buy.
It's about time someone's getting the money out of BestBuy that they've been scraping from their customers, one at a time, bit by bit, one by one, over the years! It's been bloody pathetic! They've ripped us off so many times we've had to boycott them!!! Even letters to their head office haven't helped up. So much for the customer is always right. I say MORE POWER to this woman and I don't care if BestBuy goes out of business.... They've been unethical and shady in my book -- for YEARS!!
Best Buy blows. I would never purchase anything there after my first experience. Bought the husband a car stereo system for Christmas. He went to get it installed and they wouldn't do it without a receipt. Hello? It was a gift. Once they got the damn receipt they merely used it to look up the record...which they could have done with his name.
And their 'free' installation? Cost a little over $200.
go get 'em gal....good luck
YOU GO GIRL I completely agree my son in law tried to surprise my daughter for Christmas by buying her keyless remote with autostart and took it to have it installed and they screwed it up so bad that they had to have ehr car towed yo a Dodge dealer and have them fix it, the cost of the repairs were over $1000 and the cost of the rental car they had to have for the 19 days it took to fix the car was over $1000 and my son in law had to stand in the front of the store and warn people of the disaster until they finally agreed to pay for everything. DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR TO THE Best Buy on HWY 217 in Portland OR THEY SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The average consumer needs to get a grip on reality. It is just not feasible to get the cheapest price possible, combined with expert service and top-of-the-line warranties. If you get the cheapest price, you have to sacrifice quality. Vice versa, if you choose the highest quality, you must sacrifice slightly in the price department. I have witnessed it first hand, people in today's economy go into Best Buy and ask 3 hours worth of questions to a salesperson, then drive to a Wal-Mart a half hour away just to save $20 on a TV or computer. Actually, I live in Maryland where customers will drive 3 hours away to Delaware to save a few dollars in sales taxes. The point is, people that want the greatest service, expert salespeople, and top-of-the-line warranties are often not willing to pay the necessary costs for such priveleges. Consumers would rather go to Wal-mart or Sam's Club, where the "salesperson" doesn't know the difference between an LCD tv versus a DLP, just to save $20 or $30. As long as companies like Best Buy and Circuit City have to fight against the minimum-wage paying powerhouses like Wal-Mart and Target, they will never be able to adequately pay or train their staff to live up to the "expert" tag of which they are expected, and mistake are inevitably sure to occur.
Also I'd like to remind people, BEST BUY IS A RETAIL STORE. They only sell the products that companies make. Majority of the time, if you have a problem with a particular TV you bought.... IT'S SONY'S FAULT, NOT BEST BUY'S!!! I'd like to see people take a DVD player back to Wal-Mart 6 months after purchase and claim that it wasn't working properly. The minimum-wage "customer service representative" would probably laugh in your face and tell you to go buy a new one. But hey, I don't see anyone sueing them over a few mistakes.
I have had a laptop literally run over and crushed. It was replaced 100% just like it said in the INSURANCE contract. Had a TV fixed in home without question just like the INSURANCE contract said. I have had things happen and then fixed just like the person at the store said it would. I also like hearing about the people who DON'T buy the service plan and want to bitch about not being taken care of outside of the return policy or manufacturer warranty. Or don't buy a data back up because they think it is too expensive - yeah until something goes wrong then its "priceless". What do you expect? Have you tried finding someone who can even begin to explain what RAM is or how 1080p works at Target or Wal-mart? I have - they have no idea. My Best Buy is AWESOME and tell me things up front and have never lied to me about anything - they always encourage me to read over the information so I understand. Banks write credit terms and late fees etc, not retailers. Its very easy to bash the "big boxes" for not "taking care of things" but even when they try sometimes they can't satisfy. Like when they offered you the service plan and you said no and then you bitched at the counter a year later because they wouldn't take your product back. How dare they?! I agree with protecting peoples privacy but just like everything else in America it is ALWAYS someone else's fault. Much easier to point the finger at someone else... The wallet analogy is very good - think about it. I hope she gets the VALUE of her laptop and then they can charge her storage fees as well... Gosh I wonder why my taxes keep going up... Maybe its because of frivolous lawsuits like this because of ignorant people - trying to get attention or not, it is silly. "She's so strong" "Go get 'em girl", give me a break...
By the way, people like "Annette" at 2:06 AM are all the problem. She blames Best Buy for getting charged interest on her credit card, even though she was late on her payment. HELLO!!!! THAT IS YOUR FAULT!!!!! There was also a gentleman who was angry because Best Buy wouldn't accept his personal check, although he admitted he did not have proper ID (sorry buddy, your pilot's license without a picture on it does not count as ID, get your life together smart guy). However, he thought it should be okay because he was wearing a nice suit and the purchase was under $25. HELLO BUDDY!!!! I don't care how nice you are dressed, if you stole one of my checks and tried to buy a $1.19 soda at the counter, I am damn glad the cashier and manager refused your sale... get a life pal.
BY THE WAY, they have to be strict on their return policies and warranty policies because there are cheap-skates out there every day trying to rip them off left and right. It is a well known fact that before the Super Bowl every year, many customers all over the country buy a top of the line TV with the works at Best Buy, then return it all for full refund a week after the game (just inside the 30 day return policy). This isn't a joke, it happens prevalently every year at locations all over the country. How can you blame a business for setting strict policies when there are people in the world every day trying to exploit them???
Absolutely wonderful. I hope this woman finds out what happens. What a kick in the pants for best buy
That bytch a$s skank needs to be for reals.... A life that has been lost off some shyt is worth suing for.. not no damn computer data. I always lose all kinds of shyt on my computer from viruses atleast twice a year.. with job resumes, all kind of shyt but you don't see me going all crazy n shyt.. The 54 million would buy this hoe happiness basically, even if she was caught in identity theft. The idea that she has 54 million is going to substitute for that.. fxck that shady bytch and Best buy needs to give her $100,000 so she could shut her selfish a$s up :)
I think a lot of you people are missing the point. What they did by lying to her and not telling her that her personal information was compromised (not deleted or destroyed) is so illegal and WRONG. Have you ever had your identity stolen? (are you over 16?) It is like losing a BIG part of your life! You can't buy a house, get a credit card, anything without extra legal work, going to court, and tons of added frustration. Frankly I am surprised that there hasn't been another class action suit like the one the STATE of Ohio had and WON... if they were a reputable, decent company they wouldn't face all these law suites. Connecticut and Ohio have both sued.. Connecticut may actually still be suing. These are attorney generals suing them... So lyke I think it's for realz! Best Buyz are lyke the "shady" ones.
I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO READ ANY BLOGS HERE. EVEN THOUGH I NORMALLY DO. I HOPE BEST BUY (AND NO, I AM NOT A CUSTOMER OR EMPLOYEE OF THEM) WINS THIS CASE. IT IS A SAD NOTE THAT THE FIRST THING (OR LAST THING) WE AMERICANS DO IS TO RUN TO A LAWYER AND TRY TO FEED FROM THE "BIG PAYCHECK IN THE SKY"! AIN'T NO WAY ON GODS GREEN EARTH THAT THE INFO ON THIS PUTER IS WORTH 54 MILL! ALONG WITH HER GETTING THAT "BIG PAYCHECK", WE ALL "TAKE IT IN THE SHORTS"! PEOPLE, REMEMBER FROM SCHOOL, THE "TRICKLE DOWN THEORY"? YEP, SHE GETS BIG BUCKS, AND 15 SECONDS IN THE SPOTLIGHT, BUT WE, YOU AND I PAY FOR HER RIDE! I THINK THAT IF SHE WASN'T SMART ENOUGH TO DOWNLOAD HER INFO FIRST, THEN CRASH HER PUTER, IT IS HER FAULT. AND I AM TIRED OF PAYING FOR LAWYERS, AND STUPID PEOPLE LIKE HER, TO GET RICH! GET A LIFE! GET A JOB! GROW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been trying to figure out something to do for extra money being retired at 44 due to a back injury and I have figured it out. I am going to take computer repair classes, I`m serious. Even if I don`t get a bunch of customers I will at least be able to save money on my own repairs and build my own computer and have a nice hobby. I`m sure some of the stuff to test them out might be expensive but with so many people getting gouged by these stores I`d bet it would be a nice little business. I can`t say all the BB customer service is bad, there is alot of helpful people that work there. Also just took my laptop there Monday. It does say that they are not responsible for lost data and they tell you that it WILL PROBABLY HAPPEN.
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.
The 54 million is excessive but they have been ripping off consumers for years with there no interest for 3 years only to add it later for the entire balance of your purchase not the balance of your account. They can afford to loose a few million for there lack of concern for her loss of personal information and time. Imaginie how long she waited each time on the phone just to speak to a live person press 1 if you want English for example. Please hold for the next available representative...
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Best Buy is disgusting. My tiny little Sony was in the shop since last June. Received it back with no operating system on it. Took it back and they loaded it on the spot after they had it for 3 months. Then couldn't access the internet and no power. CD drive wouldn't open and tech told me to use a paper clip to open the drive and I said "No you replace the friggin driver for it now". Still to this day I can't access the internet through network. I paid $2600 for this puter and also the 3 year warranty plan.
As for her suit what it's worth. I will tell you mine is definitely worth that and more as I have $100+ m in real estate deals that are on my puter. However, I save everything on aol files, and flash drive as well. As for the personal information such as tax returns, financials, and etc, that is stolen identity., she deserves it and GODSPEED to her.
I think everyone should remember she left it in May 2-6 weeks from that would have been tops middle of July. She doesn't say when in August she decided she needed it. Everybody wants to bad mouth Best Buy but to tell the truth I LOVE Shopping at Best Buy and if you use your service protections right you never have any problem it covers manufacture defects and normal wear and tear not negligence which is what cracked screens on ipods come from on cameras and laptops they carry an accidental for a little more which do cover up to 2 cracked screens so there you go
I never buy at best buy,, circuit city hax been so good even with a crashed mother board. insurance is good, help for all my dumb questions setting up i have least 12 products mostly sony from them i cant say enough for them.
just another reason this country is going to hell, lawsuit happy people clogging up the court system over silly, non-issues like this. she should be glad they offered $2100
I have my own story. I sued Best Buy in small claims on Nov 1, 2007. It is still not settled after two court orders. The second, January 14, 2008 was to uphold the first court order. They now want me to sign a two page document with a confidentiality statement but will not give me a copy of it until I sign it. I have had the same witness since Nov 1, 2007 when in front of the Judge. It was about a an extended warranty of a >$5,000 plasma television. Best Buy argued that their extended warranty began before the date of manufacture in Korea. The story only gets better. Why would I want to sign any statement from them? I am wondering if the video cam recording of what they did to me would hold up in court. My witness was there too.
Hmmm... I don't think her identity was stolen. I think she gave it away the minute she left the computer with the hard disk at the store. I would never, ever under any circumstance give my computer to anyone for any kind of repair with the hard drive in the computer. If she was taking it in for a software problem, maybe, but to have a piece of the hardware (power button) replaced they wouldn't even need to have the hard drive. Take it out! That way when (if) you get the computer back you still have all of your data intact.
I've heard stories about people getting their computer back with the hard drive wiped, and now here's someone who says her identity was exposed because of the lost computer.
I don't know about Best Buy's service. I don't use them. But this woman gave her identity away.
So by your logic, anyone who takes their computer anywhere to get fixed is giving away their identity to whomever touches the computer, so long as the hard drive is in tact. What percent of the population do you think knows how to take their hard drive out of their computer? Hell, what percent of the population do you think knows what a hard drive is, or even more so, how to open up their computer?
LOL..DUNN worry guyz i'll be next in news, i dropped off my laptop in future shop at nov 15 for repairs...and havent' get back :(. they keep sayin..come back after 2 weeks,, 3 weeks, 6 weeks bla bla.. any lawyer out there... email me.. shrivasv@gmail.com
I can only PRAY they put me on the jury. I would give her every DIME she's asked for! Way to go lady. HOLD THIER FEET TO THE FIRE!
Please look at this case as beyond Best Buy. Company HR departments, financial institutions, government agencies, all of these have sensitive personal information of thousands, if not millions, of people, like yourselves, lost on laptops at an increasingly alarming rate. Given how easily a retail employee can steal a credit card slip, it's remarkable that identity theft isn't a routine occurrence. We really need serious attention to be paid to this problem and this lawsuit is just one way of doing it.
I had a very bad experience with Best Buy. I purchased a laptop with an extended warranty. I took the laptop to the store for service and they returned it without repairing it. I took it back again this went on for several months they never repaired it. The manager was not very helpful so I emailed and called their corporate offices and never received a response. I will not purchase from Best Buy again. They do not care about their customers. I was so frustrated that I gave up on the laptop and purchased another computer from Circuit City. Good luck with your lawsuit I hope this convinces Best Buy to work on their customer service or they will lose customers one by one.
Best Buy is a joke. I live an hour away from the nearest Best Buy. I wasted an entire day just trying to purchase a laptop from them. If you count the drive there and back a total of 7 hrs, just for them to burn a recovery disc and turn the thing on and make sure it ran. Then when I got it home there was a defect on the screen, it froze up the first game (game already on the computer)that I tried, and the alt button broke. So, obviously they really checked the laptop out like they claimed they would. Not to mention everytime I try to call the store about a return, no one answers the damn phone. I have to call the 1888bestbuy number and have them patch me through just to get some one to pick up. I had to miss two days work just to try and get the whole thing straightened out!
I totally understand why this woman is suing for 54 mill. I say Bravo... go for it!
I'am somewhat new to the site.And not much about posting things. So just wanted to share this. So you can look at this in several ways. Both my wife and I recently recieved letters from our health care provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield. Stateing that recently a employee had their laptop stolen. And that both of our names,adress, and ss#'s were on the machine. Now I know we were'nt the only ones on that machine.
So what if this machine was the one lost by Buy? How much is that worth to all peeps involved?
Duncan,
She should have taken her hard drive out if she is worth 45 mil. She needs a life, instead of suing companies. She deserves to have her laptop stolen since she didn't even think about any safety measures.
Even if she did backup her files (of course that was not possible with no power, or perhaps she did not know how to remove the drive), the thing is, even if she did back the drive up, her info on that drive is floating around someplace out there, and they did lose it.( they are not responsible for losing your data in the course of repairing the machine, losing the whole machine is another matter entirely, and she has a damn valid point.)
I am sure she would fell better knowing that perhaps the machine made it to be repaired and they ghosted the drive before losing it. (sadly not the case however)
They should have kept better track of the machine. Thats really all there is to it.
I wish her luck.
That some stupid ass shit man. That crazy ass woman isn't getting nothing from Best Buy. Go Best Buy.
you people are flippin out of your damn minds, the machine was only $1,100 dollars, and the freakin woman is suing for $54 million. Give me a break.
I dislike BestBuy. There's no surprise with this story, I thought I was the only one who got the run around from Best Buy, the customer service is horrible. I had to come in to have my previous laptop looked over several times before they would send it out for service,just to have it replaced with cheap parts. When the lemon law came into effect, they did not give me back all my money for what I paid for it, they gave me store credit for the lowered selling price. I got an apple and when it was having problems the Geek Squad brushed me off and said that they were "PC kind of people".
I hope she continues to blow them off. The media coverage is much better compensation. BEST BUY has the worst customer service relations of any place I have ever shopped. PS don't buy the extended warrenty, as soon as you take it in and they work on it, it voids the manufacture's warranty. They don't tell you this when they sell it.
I had a similar thing happen to me, with a 2 1/2 year old 60GB iPod. The battery was not holding a charge, and I had their extended service plan. They "lost it" at the service facility. I paid $399 originally-they replaced it with a 80GB iPod Classic, now retailing for $249. All of my songs (5000 of them) and photos (14,000, mostly of my son) are backed up on the computer, through iTunes. But still, some knucklehead must have liked the music on my iPod. And, talk about careless-does anyone feel safe knowing that pictures of his 4 year old son may show up somewhere unexpectedly?
How about these apples.
I just bought a laptop 3 weeks ago as a display model from Compusa before they closed a crapton of thier stores. Found that it wasnt working right and sent it in to HP. Get it back today and lo and behold!! Its full of information for the DHS of my state.. so... Lawsuit perhaps?
This is a great example of stupidity of these Companies.
Mike
It's $54 million dollars because a $100k is not punishment to a company that big. The fine has to be big enough that they will feel it and make sure policies are changed for the future.
Campbell has freely admitted that she made up the $54 million price off the top of her head, and the reason that she refused the $2,100 compensation (along with the insistence she sign a confidentiality agreement about the whole affair) that BestBuy responded with is because her expenses had already exceeded that.
It may be somewhat stupid to claim $54 million when you openly agree you're never going to get it, but she did it purposefully in order to shake up BestBuy and bring attention to the case.
As she points out; it shouldn't take a $54 million lawsuit to make a company abide by the law and treat its customers fairly. All she wants now, by way of compensation, is an explanation to what happened to her Laptop (and how it was stolen from a secure area within the company) and a promise from the company that it will train employees on privacy issues and on procedures for preventing loss or theft of returned items.
“I can't help but wonder how many other people have had their computer stolen (or) lost by Best Buy and then been bullied into accepting lowball compensation offers for replacement expenses and no compensation for identity theft protection expenses,” she said.