The $54 Million Laptop 502
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."
Similar Situation (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Mod Parent Up (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:3, Interesting)
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!"
FTA: (Score:3, Interesting)
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:Similar Situation (Score:5, Interesting)
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:What the summary didn't include (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You pretty much deserve all you get. (Score:3, Interesting)
Let's sell you a backup now (Score:2, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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:Incompetence ok, Lying Bad, Backups Priceless (Score:2, Interesting)
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!
Honesty and responsibility (Score:4, Interesting)
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? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Somewhat justifiable (Score:2, Interesting)
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 [arstechnica.com] does a better job of describing the case.
Re:Managers tell you to lie (Score:1, Interesting)
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.
Re:I didn't miss anything. Read the law. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Again, no... YOU RTFA and RTFL. (Score:3, Interesting)
And they were maintaining it. That's implicit in the contract to repair it.
Re:Read what she's gone through? (Score:3, Interesting)
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! (Score:4, Interesting)
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. (Score:3, Interesting)
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. (Score:3, Interesting)