Best Buy Loses Laptop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million

I usually abhor useless lawsuits but I feel for the woman here.  Echoing Cored, no one should have to legally threaten a company to be treated fairly.  Especially a company as huge as Best Buy.

They have more than enough resources to properly deal with this situation and had the opportunity many times.... too bad kharma\'s a bitch.

[GmanJoe]

From April 2002

http://www.psx2central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20470

On Wednesday, April 3rd, my girlfriend bought a Nokia phone from Best Buy as a birthday gift for her aunt. She wrapped it up and gave it to her that night but when her aunt opened it, there were items for the phone missing: the battery and the back plate to the brand new Nokia phone. My girlfriend promised she’d go back to Best Buy to get an exchange as soon as she had the free time to do it. Because the next day was my birthday and she spent her free time with me.

It wasn’t until Friday, April 5th that she was able to go back to Best Buy to get an exchange. She and I spoke to the manager there and she told us that there was nothing they could do! We were stunned! We bought the phone from them and it had missing pieces and they wouldn’t allow an exchange? It didn’t make sense to us.

Now, mind you, we went there on good faith that they would trust us as honest people and it never occurred to us that they thought we were there trying to get an extra battery and back plate for free. But they didn’t out right accuse us of this but they just said, “There’s nothing we can do.” So they gave her the 1800 number to their corporate office she could explain to them and hope that the upper management could straighten things out for us. While my girlfriend spoke on the phone, I went to the shelf that had the same phone as the one my girlfriend had purchased. I opened one box up and noticed there was no phone there. I thought that it wasn’t there for security reasons, since the box had no plastic or seal. I went back to my girlfriend and listened to her conversation and they too said that there was nothing they could do!

So my girlfriend was out $75 for an incomplete phone.

Frustrated, I decided to get the box from the shelf to show the employees that they should seal their boxes so this wouldn’t happen to other customers. When I picked up a different box, this one was noticeably heavier. Suspicious, I opened it up and this box had a complete set! At first, I thought they pulled the phones out to avoid theft (like how some video game stores have the jewel cases of the games but without the CD in it). But this was not the case. I opened another box and that too was complete! So I took the box with the missing phone and showed it to the employees.

Eventually, they found that there were two more boxes with missing items. We spoke to other managers at the Best Buy and they kept saying that since the corporate office said there was nothing they could do, they could not give us the missing pieces. While I was speaking with the managers, one of the employees named Ahmed told my girlfriend that if we weren’t going to buy anything, that we should leave! What an ass hole!

Anyway, to make a long frustrated story short, one of the managers decided to relent and give us a replacement for the missing back plate and battery. It wasn’t until I got home I realized that they thought we were there to try and scam them for a free battery and back plate and that’s why they did not want to help us.

I wish there was more I could do coz I feel so disrespected.

You guys are missing my point....


She WON by getting the 4 grand. congrats.


NOW she is an attention whore.



"wait, you mean if best buy loses my laptop I can sue them and they will give me 4 times what my laptop was worth? OK, NOW I AM SUING FOR 467 BAZILLION DOLLARS!"


P.S. Anyone who buys a computer from best buy is a moron anyway.

[Paul2]

Luke,

you do realize that she was insulted when best buy try to offer her $900 in gift cards.  Hell, she spent over $1,100 for the laptop, not to mention another $300 on the warranty and all best buy can do is only pay her back $900?  Its not like Best Buy is a small poor company or something.  She suggested $2,100.  But Best buy refused and had she not file a lawsuit, best buy wouldn\'t offer her $4,100.

Sure, she wants media attention.  But so what?

Here is a link that get more in depth about what happened.
Link

it also appears best buy had lied about sending the laptop for repair when is still in the store.

here is her reasons for suing:

Wants an explanation

While Campbell has no expectation she will win a multimillion-dollar judgment, she feels she is entitled to damages related to store negligence and an "explanation as to how my computer could have been stolen from a secure area" of the store.

She also wants 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.

You guys are missing my point....


She WON by getting the 4 grand. congrats.


NOW she is an attention whore.


"wait, you mean if best buy loses my laptop I can sue them and they will give me 4 times what my laptop was worth? OK, NOW I AM SUING FOR 467 BAZILLION DOLLARS!"
anyway.

No, I got your point.  I just thought it was idiotic.  

"Boy Best Buy can repeatedly insult me but once they offer me an ok amount of money I better take it!" :rolleyes:

Look, you can do what you want.... If you were in her situation and decided to spend all this time to "prove a point" then more power to you.


This kinda shit is going to happen to everyone at some point in thier life. When it happens to you by all means make a huge stink, file lawsuits, prove all the points you want.


If this were me, I would take the 4 grand and move on with my life.



Seriosly dude, when this kinda thing happens to you, AND IT WILL SOMEDAY, and your going to take this kinda thing as a "personal insult" then your going to spend your entire life being insulted by companies.

Wait untill you have insurance to manage, different student loans to take care, 3 different banks for loans... car payments, house payments. Kids daycare payments.

At some point they ALL are gonna fuck something up, and youll have to take action.


But by all means, sue them all for billions of dollars. Because you were "insulted".

I\'m not saying I would go the same route but to frown upon her doing it is stupid.

I do frown upon it.

The judicial system is fucked up enough in this country without people abusing it like this.

Point is, not only did they fuck up, but they low-balled the fuck up to try to get her to go away.  Not everyone is going to have the time, money, or patience to give a company a wake-up call, but more power to them when they come along.

Its not a wake up call though. I garantee she is going to lose this lawsuit, and Best Buy is going to go back to buisiness as usual.


Also, I just want to add that I\'m not defending Best Buy here, in fact I hate Best Buy with all my heart.

Yes or No, she\'ll be compensated, and Best Buy is going to be cast in a negative light. The optimist in me says that they\'ll change some sort of business ethic so they don\'t end up in the same situation.

And as far as abusing the judicial system, have you ever been to court?  They really have nothing else better to do.

[Paul2]

Its not a wake up call though. I garantee she is going to lose this lawsuit, and Best Buy is going to go back to buisiness as usual.


Also, I just want to add that I\'m not defending Best Buy here, in fact I hate Best Buy with all my heart.

she said she doesn\'t care if she loses, because at this point, money is not important to her anymore.  Even if she loses the court, she had won what she really wanted is to get best buy in court to explain itself on work ethic and that is what really gives her the closure.  She also get media attention on this and the media attention is enough to make best buy looks bad.

If that\'s what is really important to her, then let she have it.

Also, she be doing consumers a favor that chances of this happening again would be less likely.

Maybe less likely at that exact store with those exact people, but on the whole? no way jose.

[Paul2]

but we don\'t know the result of the court hearing.

either way, it does makes consumers think twice about purchasing the "extended warranty" especially from Best Buy...

I would never buy and extended warranty that didnt come from the OEM anyway.


Anyone who buys anything extra from best buy is a sucker.