Best Buy loses laptop: Owner sues... for $54 Million

**celeb_2006** · February 18th, 2008, 01:32 PM

Best Buy Loses Laptop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

Don't dismiss Raelyn Campbell as a crackpot. Not yet. Listen to her story, and then decide if she's doing the right thing by asking Best Buy to compensate her to the tune of $54 million for a laptop that went missing when she took it in to Best Buy for repair under the store's own extended warranty.

Like many people, Campbell bought an extended warranty for her laptop when she bought it from Best Buy, and she took advantage of that when the power button broke off after a year. Best Buy accepted the machine for repair and said it would be ready in two to six weeks. But six weeks passed and the computer wasn't ready. After three months of ruthlessly hounding the company, Best Buy finally admitted it couldn't find the machine.

Ultimately, Best Buy offered to pay her $900 for losing the machine... as a gift card. She countered that it had originally cost over $1,100, not to mention all her data that was now gone for good. She demanded $2,100, and Best Buy simply ignored her.
At this point, Campbell was made aware that all her personal data on the machine could lead to a major identity theft issue, though Best Buy never filed their legally required notice that she was at risk. That was the last straw, and she filed suit for $54 million, representing herself. Best Buy has since upped its offer to a total of $4,100 if she withdraws the case. She says she doesn't expect to win, but wants to go to court anyway to force Best Buy to explain how her laptop was lost.

I have to agree that $54 million seems wildly optimistic, but it's amazing to hear how smug Best Buy has been throughout this process. Lowball, "go-away" offers that don't even value property properly, much less the value of the data inside it, are frankly embarrassing, and good for Campbell for making an issue out of it... even if she doesn't ultimately prevail.

**january** · February 18th, 2008, 01:36 PM

Thats what happened to my brother's computer!!! He turned it into Best Buy to be fixed, after THREE weeks of haggling, they finally told them they had lost it, and replaced it with the same exact model. But my brother was very understandably furious. He kept telling them that all of his personal information was in that computer, there was possible identity theft involved, and where was it lost? He lost so much that he was never able to regain, and knows that somewhere out there someone has his personal information at their fingertips. Even the mere mention of it now makes him break out into obscenities.

**burnt_toast** · February 18th, 2008, 01:42 PM

why would you leave ANYTHING on your hard drive ... it's a broken power button for fucks sake. You could remove the hard drive and still have them fix it ... no? I'm confused how this woman could be so stupid as to think that all that information could be guaranteed safe by anyone but herself.

I should sue her ass for being so dumb.

that being said, i despise best buy and struggle with who to root for in this endlessly irritating situation - corporate bile or idiocy gone wild.

*DIVA! · February 18th, 2008, 01:53 PM

Good for her. She has a right to know what happened to her property, and the fact that they tried to dismiss her on several occasions...makes them deserving of any hell that's coming to them! Identity theft isn't a joke, and can ruin someone for years!

**Dixie Normos** · February 18th, 2008, 01:57 PM

^ ITA, plus it was rediculous of them to offer her LESS than it's value. They should have offered her twice it's worth, to replace the device and as compensation to her for the amount of work needed to replace her files.

**burnt_toast** · February 18th, 2008, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by SSDiva

Good for her. She has a right to know what happened to her property, and the fact that they tried to dismiss her on several occasions...makes them deserving of any hell that's coming to them! Identity theft isn't a joke, and can ruin someone for years!

thus the reason she should take it as seriously as she is expecting them to. They owe her the value of the machine, not the contents that she irresponsibly left on the machine.

**tictac** · February 18th, 2008, 02:36 PM

I'll support just about any law suit against Best Buy. The bastards.

**Beeyotch** · February 18th, 2008, 02:53 PM

How do they just lose a laptop? Do they send it in to an off-site repair or did it just mysteriously disappear from the Best Buy store repair site? They really do need to be held accountable, esp. if this is happening often. It happened to january's brother too, it doesn't sound like just a fluke thing. There's a problem if they keep losing laptops.

*DIVA! · February 18th, 2008, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by cloud

thus the reason she should take it as seriously as she is expecting them to. They owe her the value of the machine, not the contents that she irresponsibly left on the machine.

Maybe she wasn't smart enough to take it out! However, they owe her for lying to her for that long period of time, they owe for brushing her off for so long...she might not get the 54 million, but she deserves to get compensated for more than just her machine. What happened to it, did one of the geek guys take it home?!?

**burnt_toast** · February 18th, 2008, 03:11 PM

If she's not smart enough to be responsible for her own technology then it's nobody's fault but her own. At some point the consumer has to take responsibility for their own interests ... They could give her a grand over the value for her trouble, sure.

I despise best buy - as I said above - but I despise this 'entitlement' culture even more. Granted, a suit of this nature brings to light the poor service of Best Buy - which is really the issue ... *shrug* I just can't fathom being so careless with my personal information.

**Dixie Normos** · February 18th, 2008, 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by cloud

thus the reason she should take it as seriously as she is expecting them to. They owe her the value of the machine, not the contents that she irresponsibly left on the machine.

What if the machine's malfunction made it impossible for her to retrieve and save her data? I do think the amount she is requesting is rediculous, 1 million would have sufficed, if not $50,000.00

**burnt_toast** · February 18th, 2008, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by Dixie Normos

What if the machine's malfunction made it impossible for her to retrieve and save her data? I do think the amount she is requesting is rediculous, 1 million would have sufficed, if not $50,000.00

unless the hard drive screws are melded into the casing, all she has to do in unscrew and pop the bastard out ... in her case it was a faulty power switch, which shouldn't preclude her ability to remove the hard drive.

**Dixie Normos** · February 18th, 2008, 03:16 PM

^^ah, I see. Not exactly a computer person. All I know how to do is use a functional machine...and distroy it. ALL HAIL FDISK!

**western** · February 18th, 2008, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by cloud

thus the reason she should take it as seriously as she is expecting them to. They owe her the value of the machine, not the contents that she irresponsibly left on the machine.

How many people would take out the contents? I've been a computer user for 20 years and still have no idea what goes on under the hood. I wouldn't know what part was the hard drive. Does that make me irresponsible when my computer requires repair? No, it doesn't. I'm paying for someone to take the responsibility to not only fix what's broken but to care for the machine while it's in their care. And that includes the hard drive.

**Ravenna** · February 18th, 2008, 04:15 PM

I hate Best Buy, but I hate people who sue for crazy sums even more. She should get the value of her laptop and even a few thousand extra for the aggravation, but suing for many millions is sick.

I do hope she gets something more than $2100 though, because that was a reasonable amount to request and they should have given it to her.