The $54 Million Laptop

Stanislav_J writes "It happens to the best of us: you drop off your laptop at the local branch of some Super Mega Electronics McStore, go to pick it up, and they can't find it. Lost, gone, kaput — probably sucked into a black hole and now breeding with lost airline luggage. It would make any of us mad, but Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C. isn't just mad — she's $54 million mad. That's how much she is asking from Best Buy in a lawsuit that seeks 'fair compensation for replacement of the $1,100 computer and extended warranty, plus expenses related to identity theft protection.' Best Buy claims that Ms. Campbell was offered and collected $1,110.35 as well as a $500 gift card for her inconvenience. (I guess that extra 35 cents wasn't enough to sway her.) Her blog claims that Geek Squad employees spent three months telling her different stories about where her laptop might be before finally acknowledging that it had been lost. For those who follow economic trends, this means that a laptop's worth is roughly equivalent to that of a pair of pants."

Comments

Similar Situation

[Zaphod The 42nd]

A friend of mine had a similar situation with Best Buy. He bought a computer from them, with warranty, and something (I can't recall what) went wrong, so he brought it in. He waited some two months and it never came back, with the geek squad continually telling him "this weekend we'll have it!" and each time he drove down there they'd go "nope, not yet, try next weekend." Finally, I went with him (knowing a thing or two about retail) and pulled aside the manager, and made it clear to him that we were extremely unhappy, and explaining that this simple maintainance had taken over two months. Finally, after hearing at least 10 different stories and being asked to call 5 different numbers for other people who were supposed to know where it was, we finally found out that it had been lost into the void. One would then think the problem would be resolved; but no! Apparently Best Buy and whoever shipped the laptop off to be fixed were arguing over who's fault it was and who should buy my friend a new laptop. Thats why when my stuff breaks, I fix it. Then I know where it is and how long it'll take, exactly.

Re:Similar Situation

[RingDev]

I've worked in a few different tech retail stores. And at each of them at least 1 person (usually middle management) is busted for walking off with repair units, RTVs, or stuff right off the truck.

Heck, the first CompUSA I worked at in high school, the front end manager was busted for skimming the drawers. The cage manager got busted with his van at the loading doc moving inventory out. The tech bench manager skipped town with thousands of dollars worth of memory and processors. The General Manager got busted on tax evasion. All within a year and a half time span.

I had a friend pick up a job there a year later while I was in the military, they had all new management, with new vices. Instead of ripping off the store/customers, the wound up with a bunch of small time pot dealers in supervisor/middle management positions. Not like they were doing business in the store, but their smoke breaks were a taken in back by the loading doc. On the bright side though, they got great customer reviews for their friendliness and chipper attitude.

-Rick

Re:Mod Parent Up

[provigilman]

True, not to mention the fact that she seems fully aware that $54 Million is an unreaslistic sum that she'll never get. Suing for that amount did get one thing though...media attention. Now Best Buy's practices are being aired out in front of everyone.

Even if she eventually settles for legal fees + 5-10K the damage to Best Buy's rep has already been done.

Incompetence ok, Lying Bad, Backups Priceless

[billstewart]

I don't fault the store for losing her laptop; it's incompetent and they should pay for it, but it happens on occasion, as do things like laptops falling off the workbench and smashing. You expect that to happen to every x% of the customers, and try to keep x small.

The local store lying about how they know where it is and they'll get it back to her Real Soon, on the other hand, and not taking responsibility for compensating her for losing it, is much closer to malice than incompetence, and they should get spanked for it. The traditional legal spanking is "triple damages".

On the other hand, she really _should_ have had backups of her data - not only do stores occasionally lose computers, but so do shipping companies, and computers break, disks crash, controllers scribble, etc., and external USB drives are cheap. The obvious first question from the store when she brought it in, after generally finding out what's wrong, should have been "Do you have backups? Let's burn you some DVDs now!"

Re:Incompetence ok, Lying Bad, Backups Priceless

[Anonymous Coward]

You have no idea how hard it is to find something once it's been sent to Geek Squad City. It's hell. You call them up, try to get someone on the phone, give them the case number, they check the system (same one you are looking at that says "in repair" and they tell you the same thing you already know. Then they say they will look around and call you back. They don't call you back, you call them, the person you talked to is not there now, you start over.

All you can get is a rough estimate of it's location and status. It gets much worse if the item has to be sent back to the manufacturer (case is common with cameras). Oh boy, does that take forever to get turned around and get frustrating to no end to try to locate. I highly doubt her laptop was stolen, that records were falsified, or that she was lied to. The laptop fell through the cracks, as sometimes happens. The CIA's tried to find where it was but couldn't. Sometimes these work orders get closed either by mistake or by a manager's attempt to make the numbers look better (the longer an item is in the system, the worse the turnaround is). I have had to re-open tickets so many times when I worked at Best Buy that it made my head spin. However, several times, re-opening the ticket actually gave me the information I needed to find the item and get it taken care of. I never lied to my customers, I told them that we didn't know exactly where it was because that information is not available to us, I would give my best guess that it's either at GSC or the manufacturer being processed. Sometimes I could find out that it was being shipped, and could tell them that it should be here within a day or so. I think the lady is over-reacting honestly. Now, mod me over-rated and flame-on!

FTA:

[BeeBeard]

[quote]Campbell said that she doesn't really expect to get $54 million, but chose the amount to attract attention to her case.[/quote]

When I saw the total in the summary, I immediately thought "What's the big deal, she's trying to get punatives." Then read the article and saw that it wasn't even that. As usual, if you read just a few more paragraphs beyond what is quoted in Slashdot's article summary, the whole story is skewed much differently differently.

However, there is still room for debate on the issue of whether she was treated fairly. FTA, "Best Buy spokeswoman Nissa French said in an e-mail that Campbell "was offered and collected $1,110.35" as well as "a $500 gift card for her inconvenience." The reasonable market value of the laptop that was stolen (in all likelihood by a Best Buy employee!) + $500 in merchandise? That seems like a reasonable way to try to dispose of any claim--especially since Ms. Campbell already accepted these items.

The "identity theft" argument is incredibly specious. Unless she has done something foolish that would contribute to the insecurity of the machine (credit card numbers as a text file on the laptop hard drive) or failed to backup any important data--itself a cardinal sin--then how is Raelyn Campbell's situation any different from anyone else's who has had a computer stolen from them? You know, except for the crazy, welcome-to-the-land-of-summary-judgment lawsuit that she's filed after accepting fair compensation for her loss?

Re:What the summary didn't include

[whoever57]

Best Buy fucking lost this lady's personal machine, and they are not responsible that way for whatever personal data (and illegal porn) she might have had one it.

Had Best Buy notified her immediately about the loss, I could agree with you, but instead, they lied about it -- to the extent of an employee creating a fabricated entry in their systems. It's the delay and lying that makes them responsible IMHO.

Re:You pretty much deserve all you get.

[Grygus]

So crime is okay because victims should protect themselves? It is the duty of the weak and/or ignorant to bear aggression from those stronger or more informed? What a nice lawless society we should have! I don't know why I didn't see this before. Clint Eastwood's westerns taught us all we need to know about civilization.

Let's sell you a backup now

[davidwr]

"Do you have backups? Let's burn you some DVDs now!" At these types of stores it's usually like this:

The guys at [headquarters|vendor] like to erase hard drives. I'm sure you don't want anything to happen to your disk. For only $99.95 plus $49.95/DVD we can back your data up before we send your computer out for repair. Just sign here.

I made the $-figures up but I'm probably not far off.

Managers tell you to lie

[Anonymous Coward]

I work part-time as a Geek Squad Agent within a Best Buy location (posting anonymously for obvious reasons). I have been told first-hand by more than one manager on more than one occasion to lie to a customer when it comes to damage and/or loss to their products that is the fault of Best Buy. On the numerous occasions I have protested this type of "customer service" I have been told that to admit anything is to open the company up to liability.

I roll my eyes at a lot of the complaints leveled at the company b/c I stand on the other side of the counter. However, this one is completely true and happens frequently on a wide-spread basis. I hope she wins this case and forces corporate to change a blatantly anti-customer policy.

Re:Managers tell you to lie

[Anonymous Coward]

So says the "Anonymous Coward". Okay, I'll bite. I've worked for Best Buy for almost 6 years, as a Computer Tech, Double Agent, and Counter Intelligence Agent at a three different stores. I've gone through 10 service managers (of differing titles) and twice as many Sales and Operations/Customer Service managers in that time. I have seen computers damaged by in-store employees, incompetent techs at the Service Center/Geek Squad City, and numerous items shipped into the ether, never to return. The store management response has always been, "Deny, Deny, Deny" and then offer a refund/gift card. This behavior sucks and if I can lend any legitimacy to this woman's claims, which I have witnessed FIRST-HAND, then I will.

That said, I am currently employed and don't want to burn bridges with the many friends I have in the company. Hence, I am posting anonymously. So take it for what it's worth shithead.

Honesty and responsibility

[fermion]

Even without any mitigating circumstances, awards such as these serve the purpose of encouraging honesty and responsibility. Even from the skewed summary, one thing that stands out was it took three months for best buy to take responsibility. Just think of how it might have turned out if Best Buy has taken this tact. After a week admit that the laptop might be lost. Offer to replace the laptop, along with a gift card, no strings attached. if the laptop is found, the customer gets that one as well.

Assuming that Best buy only loses 1 laptop per hour, that is less than 2 million dollars a year, probably mostly tax deductible. Such a policy may even provide a competitive advantage as it will clearly indicate that Best Buy is dedicated to customer service and will not jerk their customers around. We know that the opposite is true, but such a gimmick could change this.

In the end best buy will prefer to spend 2 millions dollars on lawyers rather than establish protocols to increase customer value.

Re:Read what she's gone through?

[Kjella]

While true, I'm inclined to believe pretty much anything when a big corporation actually has made some sort of mistake. You'd be amazed how extremely few can afford to say "we haven't got a clue where your machine is, but we're trying to locate it". Most likely they think it's misregistered, misplaced or misshipped somewhere and make up some phoney answer that a lot of the time will work out. By the time it's clear something's wrong, it's pass the blame time where you try to avoid being either the scapegoat or the one to tell the customer. With luck it'll go to another support rep or clerk in the store, right? Same with those cold attempts at compensation, noone wants to take responsibility and make any sort of personal interest, it's left to a bean counter that hands you a check. It's like when you get assigned something for opening your mouth, say as little as possible and hope to pass the buck.

Re:Somewhat justifiable

[irenaeous]

If the only factor in the case was the theft of the laptop, you would be correct. However, there is more involved in this case. IANAL, but it apppears that Best Buy broke a number of laws -- sometype of Fraud for repeatedly lying about the theft of the laptop, more fraud by crediting her credit card and sending her a gift card on the pretense that she had agreed to that as a settlement, plus violating Washington, DC's security breach notification laws by not telling her about the potential data loss. It seems to me to make Best Buy criminally negligent and liable for more that simple damages for the loss of the laptop.

It seems to me that she has very legitimate concerns. She admits that the $54 million dollar claim is a publicity stunt of sorts. It appears to be working. I think that this ars technica article does a better job of describing the case.

Re:I didn't miss anything. Read the law.

[cching]

Sorry, just because the loon wants the law to cover what happened doesn't mean it actually does. Her blog indicates that the DC Attorney General seems to think that she has a case. So I guess you think she's out and out lying? Reading her blog, she seems to have done her best to *not* take this to court. Indeed, she doesn't even think $54M is reasonable, she's doing it to get BB's attention. But I guess it's too much to ask that you RTFA before you post.

The law only covers data and systems maintained by Best Buy, it does NOT cover data and systems maintained by the customer. I don't even think you know which law she is claiming was violated, because you seem to be implying that she's complaining about the lost data on her HD. That is *not* the base of what she's claiming. If you take the time to read the article, you'll know that the law she's invoking is one where BB is required to notify her that her computer was stolen because of privacy and possible identity theft resulting from the theft of her laptop. She does make claims about the lost data, but that is not the base of her case.

Re:Again, no... YOU RTFA and RTFL.

[crashfrog]

Under the law they don't have to maintain the data to be liable; they simply have to maintain the machine.

And they were maintaining it. That's implicit in the contract to repair it.

Re:Read what she's gone through?

[flappinbooger]

I read (most of) her blog. It is very informative regarding the grounds for her case. It's mostly letters and correspondence, not very much "creative" unless it's all fake. I didn't notice on there exactly what she does for a living, she isn't a lawyer, but regardless BBuy picked the wrong person to screw over. (well, if they screw over everyone, then.....)

BBuy is great for small things like blank CD's or DVD's or USB sticks or whatever. I'm VERY hesitant to spend over $100 there or get something large like a computer or a TV. It's an average source for disposable or consumable tech. I'd be more inclined to buy a TV or computer from Wal-Mart than BBuy. I'd probably get the same or better price, and have an easier time returning it or whatever if I needed to.

Re:Tenleytown Best Buy!

[RobNich]

And apparently the reason McDonalds keeps their coffee hotter that other restaurants is that the hotter it is, the longer it can sit on the burner after being brewed without the flavor degrading.

So they saved money by keeping it that hot. And it was probably a LOT more than the reward in the lawsuit.

Re:She's a loon.

[GaryPatterson]

How could she remove the data from the laptop when it wouldn't power on?

Not everyone is technical enough to crack a laptop open and yank the drive, and not every laptop facilitates that sort of thing with easy-to-access drives. When there's a fault, many people don't want to do this sort of thing anyway.

Re:She's a loon.

[Gideon Fubar]

besides, wouldn't breaking the seals to remove the hdd void the warranty by default? I know this isn't the case with some laptops, but most i've worked on have required the equivalent of a voiding before you can change anything at all.