A lost laptop, a $54 million lawsuit

[neufuse Veteran]

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/02/a-lost-laptop-a.html#posts

Posted: Tuesday, February 12 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

How much compensation does a consumer deserve for the loss of a laptop computer loaded with personal information? Raelyn Campbell figures it?s $54 million -- if you throw in a little extra for lost time and frustration.

Six months after bringing a damaged laptop computer into a Best Buy electronics store for repairs, and three months after the firm admitted losing it, Campbell filed the whopper of a lawsuit recently in Washington, D.C., Superior Court.

Best Buy has told Campbell that her demands are unreasonable, and has tried to settle for far less. But Campbell said she didn?t start out making astronomical demands. Months of stalling and brush-offs by the company led her to the drastic measures, she said.

Best Buy spokeswoman Nissa French said the company couldn?t comment on Campbell?s story, citing the ongoing litigation. A lawyer for Best Buy did not return phone calls or e-mails.

When Campbell bought her new laptop in 2006 at a Best Buy store near her D.C. home, she said a clerk talked her into paying $300 for an extended warranty. She thought that was a fortunate choice when the computer's on/off switch broke about a year later.

In May, she brought the computer back to the store was told repairs would take two to six weeks. That wasn't terribly convenient for Campbell, who works for a nonprofit Asia research firm and travels frequently overseas.

But six weeks turned out to be a wildly optimistic estimate.

The run-around

By late August, when she returned from a trip to Asia, she still had heard nothing from the company and started to get anxious. Her Aug. 24 complaint letter to the firm was filled with exasperation.

?On July 11, I contacted the (store?s) helpline and was instructed by ?Agent David Goodfellow? that it would be ?ready within days,?? she wrote to the firm in a letter dated Aug. 24. ?I called the service line again on July 19, and was told by a female agent that the computer appeared to be at the ?Louisville Services Center since July 4.? On July 25, I called again and spoke to Brenda, who transferred me to Daniel. Daniel confirmed that a ?part had just been ordered. It should leave Louisville soon.? ?When I heard nothing further, I called yet again on Aug. 7 and spoke with Ashley. When she could not confirm any additional information, I asked to speak to a manager. I was told the manager, ?Marsha,? was in a meeting. I asked her to call ASAP. My call was not returned, so I called again on Aug. 9. I explained the whole situation yet again to ?Cicero,? who indicated that there seemed to be a problem.?

The problem was severe: ?It never appears to have left the store,? she recounted Cicero as telling her. A few days later, he called back and admitted that the computer had been lost. The way she sees it, the other company clerks had been lying to her all along.

Cicero was considerate, Campbell said, and told her she would be compensated. But two weeks passed, and she hadn?t heard anything from the company.

After several more weeks of fruitless phone calls, she received an offer she calls insulting: $900 for her trouble -- in the form of a store gift card. Her blood boiled. She had paid more than $1,100 for the computer and the warranty. And she?d also lost thousands dollars worth of music and thousands of irreplaceable photos.

"It wouldn't even cover the cost of replacing the computer, let alone the software, or my time,? she said of the gift card offer. ?And why would I want to go spend money at their store again after the way I was treated?"

Campbell rejected the offer, instead demanding $2,100 in cash. She said her request went unanswered. In October, she urged family and friends to write to the store saying they wouldn't shop there until the matter was resolved. To her surprise, the store's general manager, Robert Delissio, replied to two of them.

(continued...)

[leesmithg]

They should pay up (best buy) as thid will be a harsh lesson to them for not looking after other peoples property.

[MiG-]

I don't like the fact how she demands the software is lost... You have CD's for the software. Music? well if its CD's then re-rip. If not, iTunes will probably let you download again. Photos are understandable but really...

$54 Mil? Christ.

[Minimoose]

$54 million is unreasonable, but offering her $900 gift card was just asking for trouble really.

[tunafish]

external harddrive backups FTW

[+primortal Subscriber²]

$54 mil is to get best buys attention being they gave her the run around and didn't notify her that he pc was lost and that if any personal identity information (she said there were tax returns) was on the pc to watch her credit in case of identity theft. Best Buy should have pony up and pay for the year of credit watch.

Personally i don't know why they need the hd for repairing a broken power switch. They should have taken it out, put it in a static bag and give it back to the user. Also have the user sign a waiver that if hd is lost its the users problem and not best buy....

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

$54 mil is 100% unreasonable. But she doesn't expect to get it - she is using the figure to draw attention.

In fairness, BB took the **** a great many times and should be held openly accountable!

[obiwong]

Also have the user sign a waiver that if hd is lost its the users problem and not best buy....

when my girlfriend brought her laptop to get repaired they made her sign that waiver

she always backs up her data before taking her laptop in

[Mathachew Veteran]

BB definitely screwed this lady over. It's so frustrating getting the run around, having to make many phone calls over the course of a month just to be told that they were lying to you the whole time. That is simply horrible service, and then to top it off, they offer a whopping $900 for her trouble and missing laptop? That's ludicrous. I'm sure she doesn't really expect to get $54 million, but when you're not being heard when you're in the right, what else are you going to do? Talk is cheap and physical confrontations will only hurt her chances, so I think she did the best thing in getting their attention, and now they can't simply ignore her. Hopefully BB will own up to their mistake in this regard. Hopefully the lady will learn the beauty of backups.

[Knife Party]

this is just krazy :D

[bmdixon]

I don't think the $900 offer was that bad... The laptop was a year old so wouldn't be worth anything near what she paid for it...

Obviously BB have messed her around but asking for $54 million is just silly! A couple of grand (like she asked for in cash) would be fair.

Will be interesting to hear the result :D

[k311]

im just waiting for someone to take a look at the computer and go "oh.. it works fine, here you can have it back now..." :laugh:

[EcPercy]

I don't like the fact how she demands the software is lost... You have CD's for the software. Music? well if its CD's then re-rip. If not, iTunes will probably let you download again. Photos are understandable but really...

$54 Mil? Christ.

How much is your personal information worth to you? I think this is part of the reason she asked for so much. It's easy to say backup your data, but when a copy of it is stolen... what are you going to do? Someone is probably out there selling her information.

[gigapixels Veteran]

I'm still trying to understand how somebody's laptop would get lost. What do they do with them, shuffle them around the store? Isn't there some designated area in the back for all machines that are in for service? It just doesn't make sense.

[Vykranth]

Even if the amount of $54 million is completely ridiculous, I fully support that lady in her quest to get Best Buy to clean up their act.

There are way too many corporations who have turned their Customers Services in Customers Extortion and Disservice.

Best Buy deserves a good justice kick in the wallet.

[morphen]

Well, with 54 million dollars is enough for her to live the rest of her life without working...

I bet she wins this, if she can convince the jury that she had anything of REAL value on it.

Selfish and stuipid people.

Still, they should just have given her a new laptop + some accessories.

She still would have gotten more than she lost:p

[dreamz Veteran]

I'm still trying to understand how somebody's laptop would get lost. What do they do with them, shuffle them around the store? Isn't there some designated area in the back for all machines that are in for service? It just doesn't make sense.

lost during shipping to a service center? although that is also incredible, if there are several laptops that require repair.

and guys, if you read the article, you would've seen the reason behind the figure:

The amount intentionally echoes another lawsuit that made headlines last year -- a case involving a D.C. judge who sued a dry cleaner for $54 million over a lost pair of pants. That case was eventually dismissed. Campbell freely admits she picked the same amount in an effort to attract media attention.

it's not really about the money. it's about forcing a company to comply with protocol (e.g., notifying a customer about loss of data, etc.).

(neufuse, i know that you copied and pasted the title from the article. i just undid the caps lock formatting. :))

[+orgitnized Subscriber¹]

I'm still trying to understand how somebody's laptop would get lost. What do they do with them, shuffle them around the store? Isn't there some designated area in the back for all machines that are in for service? It just doesn't make sense.

We've shipped more than a few machines out and surprisingly, they do get lost. Hp was a prime example of a company that simply doesn't know where their stuff goes. We had a laptop that was "gone" and no one knew where it was. It finally turned up weeks later and they shipped it back repaired but it happens. Unreal though.

And the price, yeah - ok...she's got people's attention...but I'm sure there's going to be a BB employee (maybe bangbang023, unless I'm mistaken) that can vouch that you pretty much sign all your data over to them and they do with it what they please. They aren't responsible for your data and aren't responsible for making backups of it either. I don't like Geek Squad at all, but I can all but guarantee that this customer signed an agreement stating that they aren't going to be responsible for anything lost on her machine...if her data was that irreplaceable, she should have been backing it up.

It still amazes me how so many people fail to spend 60 dollars per year on a nice online backup solution that will back up your entire laptop with multiple copies. Why does this happen? If you want to sue for money, wouldn't it be more of a cost benefit to be proactive and spend 60 dollars to back it up to begin with? I can find fault on both parties but as much as I hate to say it...if I had to choose the person to blame, it's her, not Best Buy.

[dreamz Veteran]

It still amazes me how so many people fail to spend 60 dollars per year on a nice online backup solution that will back up your entire laptop with multiple copies. Why does this happen? If you want to sue for money, wouldn't it be more of a cost benefit to be proactive and spend 60 dollars to back it up to begin with? I can find fault on both parties but as much as I hate to say it...if I had to choose the person to blame, it's her, not Best Buy.

according to the article, the problem isn't the loss of private data, but the potential for identity theft.

A bigger problem: ID theft

At the same time, she visited a legal aid office and was asked by a lawyer there whether she had any personal information on the computer?

"Of course I did," she replied. "My tax returns were on there."

Campbell was informed that she had a bigger problem than a lost computer ? the potential for identity theft. She also learned that Best Buy was in violation of the district's security breach notification law, which requires companies that have lost a consumer's data to tell them. To date, she has not received that notification.

Campbell immediately enrolled in a $10-a-month identity theft monitoring service.

[+orgitnized Subscriber¹]

Good catch - I missed that.

I guess she may have a bit more to go on then hey? BB should be picking up the charges on that for sure, but I guess this is where the court battles begin, so it can all be logged. A lawyer would have a good case with something like this, especially for people willing to do it to expose companies that might be doing a poor job of protecting the data of private citizens. Not like BB hasn't been under fire a million times already...wonder what happens in the end?

[Veedems Veteran]

I work for the company, so remember that as I post.

It's really inexcusable for Best Buy to lose the laptop like this. I don't blame the woman for going after them as much as possible. My friend had a much less extreme issue, though an issue nonetheless. Three times she had to have her laptop sent out for repair and all three times they lost the damn power cord on her. They wouldn't replace it after the first time. It was unbelievable that she had to be out more money just to replace a power cord that they lost. Simply put, the warranty centers are way too careless and something needs to be done to correct the problems and ensure that customers are getting their stuff back.

[gigapixels Veteran]

I know there are times when it may get lost during shipment or at the actual service center, but one associate said that it never left the store and was lost from the store. That to me is absolutely ridiculous, unless perhaps an employee made off with it and it wasn't actually "lost." I'm a Firedog tech at Circuit City and the only way a computer would be lost from our store is by theft as there's really no way to just lose track of a computer sitting in a back room being serviced or waiting to be sent out.

[tiagosilva29]

external harddrive backups FTW

Hopefully the lady will learn the beauty of backups.

I want you to tell me how you access an hard drive without electricity.

[spedanden]

She signed a sheet saying (3 times) that Best Buy and it's employee's are not responsible for lost data. She also declined $99 data backup at time of check in. She also decided to not back up her data when the computer was working.

Media attention that will dissapear in a month after the out of court settlement.

My SMALL store ships out 30+ items a week. We have 1-2 cases of this a YEAR in our store.... out of 1400+ service items. The customer is given a new item, and has to deal. (Usually happy)

Under warranty if she sent that laptop out and declined Backup.... and If that hard drive fails a drive test, we replace it and discard of it. She is SOL. Because she signed the paper. Read before you sign...

Or wait... take the HD out of the machine before you have it sent out.

But apparently the data wasnt worth $99 from the start.

Yawn. I see out of court settlement, and everyone will forget she existed, and nowhere on her tombstone will it say "She stuck it to Best Buy".

[Fresh]

Lost laptop? Sue for millions!

Is your laptop worth $54 million? Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C., is suing Richfield-based Best Buy for that amount after it lost her laptop computer while it was in for repairs.

Is your laptop worth $54 million?

Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C., is suing Richfield-based Best Buy for that amount after it lost her laptop computer while it was in for repairs.

Campbell, who could not be reached Tuesday, filed a negligence lawsuit suit against the company in Washington Superior Court on Nov. 16, seeking fair compensation for replacement of the $1,100 computer and extended warranty, plus expenses related to identity theft protection.

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."

According to Campbell's blog at bestbuybadbuyboycott.blogspot.com, Geek Squad employees spent three months telling her different stories about where her laptop might be before finally acknowledging that it had been lost.

Campbell said that she doesn?t really expect to get $54 million, but chose the amount to attract attention to her case. It?s the same amount a D.C. judge sought against a dry cleaner last year that lost a pair of his pants.

Melissa Ngo , senior counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., wasn?t familiar with Campbell?s case but said consumers need to get smart about protecting their data to avoid such situations.

?As more of our lives get put into electronics, these issues of privacy and security are going to become more common,? said Ngo. ?People don?t want to take the few extra minutes of inconvenience, but they need to encrypt their data and back it up.

Source