Good for her!!! It is time for all consumers to stand up and say "I won't take it anymore"

I recently had a similar problem with Dell - what a joke!!!

Sounds like business as usual in America.

"Confidentiality agreement" my dupa! If you take your customers for granted, expect to be taken to the cleaners. I hope she kicks the snot out of them.

All I have to say is stick it to them. The days of true customer service have been lost and Best Buy is one of the biggest offenders.

I say go for it Raelyn and the public needs to know what kind of crap can happen to them when these things occur and they will.People make mistakes and accidents or theft happen. It's Best Buy's reaction to the problem that really sucks. I work for a large company in sales and I've seen our customer service in action. People get ran around and frustrated. People drop the ball and flat out lie when all it would've taken is some honesty and sincerity to handle the problem quickly and with customer satisfaction. Are there some people that can't be satisfied? Yes, absolutely and yes there are those that have nothing better to do than to play games and try to get more than they are entitled too, but they are the exception and not the norm. It's ashame to paint all consumers with a broad brush and treat them so arrogantly.

Seems to be a common problem at Best Buy. I took in an I POD for service and after much hemming and hawing they finally told me somone must have stolen it because it too never left the store. The did give me a new I pod but makes me wonder how many items are stolen by employees

A great reason to back up your personal data on other media (CD/DVD/External Hard Drive) and ANOTHER great reason not to get your computer fixed at a big box store. I always feel like those kids are going to ask "do you want fries with that?".

It's about time that these big corporations be held accountable for their actions. It seems that corporations have taken over everything, including our government, and it's time for it to stop. Thankfully people like Raelyn Campbell are speaking up and doing something about this. We all should!!!

Wow, this lady has lost her marbles. Apparently she has never worked retail before and has NO CLUE how things work. Stuff happens. It just so happened to her. Deal with it and accept their offer.

This is so typical of Best Buy. I know personally an ex employee who quit after one day because they tried to force him to lie to a customer that the computer they advertised was sold out because he would buy the extended warranty. They are horrible and I will NEVER buy anything there.

This is simply inexcusable. All those help line employees lied to her. They knowingly did so, trust me. They all had the exact same data in front of them and only one of them told her the truth.

I hope she gets a large settlement out of it. Unlike the lawsuit for the pants, we're talking irreplacable photos, lost work productivity, personal data that can lead to identity theft, and corporate bullying.

Good for you! It's about time we all step up to the plate and take a swing at poor customer service and companies that feel they are too big to have to care about the consumer. I hope you have a whole lot of people at Best Buy corporate scrambling their tails off to reply to your suit!

Wow. At first I rolled my eyes upon reading the title of this article. I thought, "Oh, here's another whiny, overzealous nutcase with an outrageous claim." However, upon considering the litany of indignities borne by the plaintiff, I have to say, "You go, girl!" It's not the money, of course, at this point -- it's the principle of the thing. Bad service from any business should be called out to the masses so that the worst offenders are forced to change their ways. If that's what comes out of this lawsuit, rather than one dime in compensation or damages, then let's call this a service for the greater good.

Go get 'em, Raelyn! Consumer power always wins.

Extended warranties are useless.
Best Buy will never admit to what happened, or alter operations or training due to this.
If they offered anything more than a few thousand, she should have taken it, because they have the bank to outlast any lawyer who might attempt to sue.

Meanwhile, whoever this lady works for has lost a decent employee, who now spends untold hours on the clock every day dealing with her personal problems.

If she gets a settlement, I wonder if she will reimburse her employer?

If they find the computer and it's full of pirated music and software, will she be prosecuted?

Bravo! I hope she cleans their clocks. Best Buy us legendary for their lack of business ethics. Screw 'em.

They probably put the laptop on the shelf and resold it. My family purchased a computer from Best buy and loaded all of our personal documents on it, after having it for a short time it broke. We took it in to be serviced, later found out that we were entitled to a new one. We were assured that the tech would erase all our personal information. They computer was already in their possession so we were ok with that. One day we received a call from a guy stating that he had all of our personal information on a brand new computer that he just purchased from Best Buy. A true gentleman had purchased the computer and if it wasn't for him our information could have been used in the wrong way. We advised him of the problem we had with the computer and surely the problem was still there, they had resold the broken computer. We contacted the store, wrote letters and all, they did not care.. They gave the other gentleman a new computer, we met up with him and personally deleted our files from the computer. So this is not shocking

This is actually tipical of Best Buy service with computers, I have seen this first hand as having worked behind the counter. Feet dragging tends to happen a lot and customers are brushed aside for more immediate paying customers. Once they got you with their service plan, by legalities in the service contract they can take all the time they want to fix any electronics in the store. I would like to see BB pay this to maybe force them into some better customer service on the back end of a customer purchase. Its the only way they will learn. This lawsuit will be forgotten in a week if it gets settled or dismissed.

Welcome to the world of "it's not my fault, my job, my responsibility (fill in the blank)." My only criticism would be that filing a $54 million claim will force the case into a full courtroom where a claim at the limit of small claims would keep the claimant's costs low while costing Best Buy a fortune and still result in a good settlement. I have no sympathy, however, for a computer user who doesn't back up her computer's hard drive or use data encryption on the fly (standard on Macs and probably there on Windows as well). This would be her "failure to mitigate" her damages.

Good for you in brining this issue to light and sticking with your record of correspondence. I'm an advocate for ensuring that businesses take responsibility for their actions when it comes to customer service. If only everyone would do the same, what a different phone and person to person experience it would be.

You GO girl! I have lost count of the number of times I have been shuffled from one moronic, twenty-something drone to the next in the service of a megalithic corporation, only to discover I am just being stonewalled. Stick it to them!!!

Good for her, I hope she wins at least 15 thousand! Best Buy sucks big time when it comes to their "Geek squad" and computer repair. They don’t care about their customers and as the manager said, they have hundreds of "satisfied" customers for every one unsatisfied customer. I've had a few run ins with Best Buy, nothing as serious as the lady has gone through, but I wont shop at Best Buy anymore. Not that Circuit City is a great alternative, but if I cant get it online or need it in a hurry, at least Best Buy isn’t getting my money!

Good for her, I hope she wins at least 15 thousand! Best Buy sucks big time when it comes to their "Geek squad" and computer repair. They don’t care about their customers and as the manager said, they have hundreds of "satisfied" customers for every one unsatisfied customer. I've had a few run ins with Best Buy, nothing as serious as the lady has gone through, but I wont shop at Best Buy anymore. Not that Circuit City is a great alternative, but if I cant get it online or need it in a hurry, at least Best Buy isn’t getting my money!

That is why you are supposed backup all your information on a DVD or CD. That would of saved all your information. Yes, Best Buy messed up and lost the laptop and lied to the customer, which is wrong. She should be compensated for the lying and the run around. What would of happened if the hard drive had gone and she lost all her information, would she of still sued Best Buy for lost information?

I had the unfortunate experience of working at a Best Buy store at the Geek Squad department. I didn't stay there long as I couldn't in good conscience work for a company that did things like the above mentioned story. Things like that went transpired on a daily basis. No one cared about the customer, their merchandise or their data. The management encourages this sort of behavior by replacing good, honest, knowledgable technicians with the people who can sell the most high margin, unneeded items to customer. DO NOT TRUST ANYONE AT THAT STORE.

She should shell out the bucks and hire an attorney and go forth with the $54M lawsuit. She deserves every penny.

anyone who has bought something from worst buy has learned to regret it....any attempt to get anything fixed correctly and in a reasonable time frame will be an exercise in frustration....it took 6 weeks to remove a virus from the hard drive from my sony laptop...a long chain of being handed off from one technician to another, none of which could tell me the current status of the repair...$300 later, they were so embarassed by their failure to solve the problem, they only charged me for a backup disk...think long and hard before buying from best buy.

For starters I absolutely can not believe that neither Ms. Campbell nor her Best Buy store thought to REMOVE her hard drive from her laptop!!!!! That is something that should have been done regardless - Best Buy had no need for her hard drive to have been left in her system while they "repaired" it. They should have "Test Hard Drives" that they use when repairing a system.

I know this as I have a laptop in which I accidentally spilled some lemonade onto the keyboard when I had only had it for about 6 weeks. I had to send it back to the manufacturer, Dell, who requested that I remove the hard drive as it was not necessary for them to have it in order to repair it. They had to replace several components including the keyboard, motherboard and other parts. I also sent it back minus it's battery, another part that was not required for them to fix it.

Go gettum girl. You have thousands cheering you on.

I had the same problem with Best Buy.I had to pay for my repairs up front. Then they lost my computer. They send me into collections to pay the $419.00 for i computer i do not have.They did sent a check for 419.00 a year later.And i had to pay hundreds in late fees and intrest.And they send $500 gift card witch didnt cover for a new computer.

i'm shredding my BB credit card as i write this. no more. it's unfortunate but we're in the big box era and gone are days of the small business owner who cared about reputation and would stand by their products.

bye bye best buy.

Best Buy rips everyone off. The only people that shop there are the ones that are yet to be ripped off.

I had the same problem with Best Buy.I had to pay for my repairs up front. Then they lost my computer. They send me into collections to pay the $419.00 for i computer i do not have.They did sent a check for 419.00 a year later.And i had to pay hundreds in late fees and intrest.And they send $500 gift card witch didnt cover for a new computer.

put me on the jury and we will bankrupt these corporate bums

I had the same problem with Best Buy.I had to pay for my repairs up front. Then they lost my computer. They send me into collections to pay the $419.00 for i computer i do not have.They did sent a check for 419.00 a year later.And i had to pay hundreds in late fees and intrest.And they send $500 gift card witch didnt cover for a new computer.

Unfortunately shoppers of Big Box Stores have brought this upon themselves. By ignoring the small retailer, and in an attempt to save a few dollars, the lack of quality service has been shoved aside.
Personally, I advocate to friends and other persons that ask, that they support their neighborhood business. Yes it cost me a few dollars more, but I have found that the local merchant when presented with an opportunity to meet a competitive price of the Big Box Store, that they will adjust their price to the best of their ability. This is the right of all shoppers to negotiate a better deal, and most downtown merchants are eager to participate in this American tradition.
It's truly sad that the lady has had to endure what she has, and hindsight will not make the problem go away. I don't believe in frivulous law suits, but I believe that shoppers should stand up and demand accountability, and be compensated at the cost of the Big Box Merchants.
I'm not a merchant of any kind, I just believe in shopping, and supporting my local, downtown business community.
I have no objections to my response being released further, I believe people should read and decide for their selfs.

Unfortunately shoppers of Big Box Stores have brought this upon themselves. By ignoring the small retailer, and in an attempt to save a few dollars, the lack of quality service has been shoved aside.
Personally, I advocate to friends and other persons that ask, that they support their neighborhood business. Yes it cost me a few dollars more, but I have found that the local merchant when presented with an opportunity to meet a competitive price of the Big Box Store, that they will adjust their price to the best of their ability. This is the right of all shoppers to negotiate a better deal, and most downtown merchants are eager to participate in this American tradition.
It's truly sad that the lady has had to endure what she has, and hindsight will not make the problem go away. I don't believe in frivulous law suits, but I believe that shoppers should stand up and demand accountability, and be compensated at the cost of the Big Box Merchants.
I'm not a merchant of any kind, I just believe in shopping, and supporting my local, downtown business community.
I have no objections to my response being released further, I believe people should read and decide for their selfs.

Good for her. It's about time someone turned the screws on companies that treat our identity like a dress shirt dropped off at the laundry. While I thought the "pants lawsuit" was outrageous, this is different. If her identity is stolen, it could affect her for years, and possibly, for life.

Having said that, anyone who takes a computer in to be repaired needs to make a backup image of the hard drive, with programs like Norton Ghost it isn't rocket science anymore, and wipe all your personal info from the computer before you drop it off. Even if the repair goes smoothly you have no way to know whether some dishonest tech copied your info to sell to an ID thief.

Hallelujah! Finally, somebody with enough chutzpah to fight against poor customer service. When is enough enough? Raelyn has every right to demand more than the monetary loss. It is time that corporations and businesses realize that OUR time is worth something and we should be compensated for the loss. I hope Raelyn gets more than just the cost of the computer. I will think twice before I buy anything from Best Buy.

And why are we hearing about this story? To glorify another self-entitled consumer who feels the world owes her? So, she gets a new laptop with the $1100 and restores everything from her backup. She does have a backup certainly, right? She then keeps her $10 a month monitoring service, and moves on with her life. Pathetic

If she had any of her health information on the lap top she also would be able to claim a HIPAA confidentiality breach. HIPAA is a federal privacy law. It seems that in today's market place service is a rare commodity. Good Luck

Here Here! Someone needs to hold these corporate bullies accountable. It is a shame that a company as large and profitable as Best Buy neither will take proper responsibility for its mistakes or provide quality customer support and service without being sued! And politicians decry frivolous lawsuits... Good luck and they should pay!

What happened to the Geek Squad? I thought they were the friendlies who were supposed to help in time of need? Unfortunately, I disagree with the managers comment that for every unhappy customer there are dozens of satisfied. I personally know of dozens of customers disatisfied with the customer service at Best Buy. People shop at Best Buy mainly for the econvenience and the prices not for the superior customer service. While I agree that $54 Million is excessive I hope she does get fair compensation for the incredible frustration of this kind of experience and I hope that Best Buy decides to put more into customer service.

This does not suprise me with Best Buy. This company has the worst customer service. The Geek Squad is a whole other story. I have never had a good experience at Best (Geek) Buy. I will never shop there again. Lousey people and lousy management. You get the feeling that the custormer is a necessary evil to them and nothing more.

Apparently Best Buy is in the habit of lying to customers who have a complaint. I have conversed with several in my area that will never enter Best Buy again because of the inconsiderate and dishonest practices by its representatives.

I think the dollar amount of the suit is outrageous, but I applaud Ms. Campbell's perseverance and wish her good luck in reaching a successful solution.

At the point where they lost her computer, Campbell became a problem rather than a customer. That is a problem for BB’s business model. There is a glaring hole in the system. Why does BB force the customer to have to file a lawsuit? In this case it seems the only way to get this mega corporation’s attention is with a lawsuit and a demand for compensation that commands respect. What the heck if Campbell is going to be forced to file suit she might as well answer the question: How many other people have you done this too? Without the lawsuit they weren’t taking her claim seriously. As a consumer her bargaining power with BB is zero. But-for the court system, consumers would be treated as if they were illegal aliens in a foreign country. Why would BB offer her such a paltry sum? It was shameful and insulting. Now the question is what did she sign when she brought it into the store for repair? What type of backup system did she employ? If she didn’t use a backup system then does comparative fault apply and how much will be applied to her? No matter what backup system she used or didn’t use the repair process is faulty. My guess is BB doesn’t even repair the computer in-house. They probably outsource the repair work and were arguing with the repair shop over who should be liable for the loss. If they had been straight forward about the situation Campbell may have reacted differently.

You should have got a Dell, dude.

Ms Campbell's experiance just confirms that the experiance I just had with a Best Buy store in Rhode Island is not isolated. The customer is not the most important part of Best Buy's business acumen. Profit and shady sales techniques are what it is all about. I went to the Best Buy store in Warwick RI the other day to purchase 3 televisions and numerous appliances in anticipation of moving into a newly constructed home. When I approached the Magnolia Theatre personnel with what was obviously a doctored price list on a Sony Television, the sales person did not even attempt to explain why the television had been wrongly marked up and then "discounted" for a sales price. I had already verified that this particular item had been used as a department demonstrator for months, and the sales person still did not acknowledge that fact or the fact that the price tag had been purposely altered to maximize the final sales price. I walked away, and Best Buy lost thousands of dollars in sales that day, and I will never, ever return to another one of their stores to purchase anything. I hope Ms. Campbell wins a large settlement against these dishonest and misleading sales practices.

I fervently hope you win and Best Buy feels the monetary brunt brought on by their stupidity and deceit. Go girl!

I'd love to see other people who have had their computers lost or stolen join Ms. Campbell in a class action law suit - $54 million wouldn't seem like such an unreasonable amount then!

I hope she wins the $54 million.

I have always thought Best Buy sucks. Their customer service is terrible, and they seem to take perverse pleasure in giving people the runaround. I hope this costs them big time.

Bravo! Its time to teach stores customer service!

Good for her! I can understand the laptop being lost. This is life and it happens. What I will never understand is the months of slagging off a customer like Best Buy did. Terrible customer service and all for what? A power switch. Remarkable

I have worked in management for large retailers and this is not out of the park for them. the service has gone out of customer service, once they have your money they do not like to loose it.

I doubt she'll win but not before BestBuy will have spent a lot of money. I think she should win all her money back, expenses, and 'little' extra for the lost music (come on now, really? thousands of dollars of music?), time and money it took to get this far. I also think there should be a way for the goverment or some other entity to then fine them $53.9 million for even acting this way in the first place. I don't think consumers should win absurd judgements like this but I still think the businesses should be fined extraordinary amounts (by some other entity that will use the money against other malpracticing businesses) to stop them from thinking of even acting this way.

Of course, we've really only heard her side of the story but I doubt BestBuy can shed any new light on this that will make them look good. Another reason why I don't buy from these places.

Best Buy provides great service to consumers looking to purchase products. That's where the service ends. If you're fotunate enough to buy something that works - great. If you purchased something that has a problem, it's only the beginning of your problems. Best Buy doesn't know the concept of "The customer is always right." Their concept seems something more like "We don't need repeat customers or referral business, so no service / no refunds." Sounds a little extreme? Have you ever tried to return something or have you ever had a problem with something? This woman's is obviously fed up and trying to make a point with $54 million. Yes, it's way too. Still, I hope she pops Best Buy for at least $1,000,000 - for all the rest of us and their future customers' sakes. Maybe Best Buy will learn a lesson and start making "service" a priority.

I'm not surprised. I was a retail manager for Best Buy and I assure everyone, this is not the first time, or will it be the last. The manager's letter in response to some written to the store are just as arrogant as they were ten years ago. It's a template all managers use. As a consumer it does not pertain to me how many good experiences other consumers have.
The issue with that manager, is he is less than qualified to be a store manager.
This type of situation is typical of Best Buy, and I am not at all surprised. Their consumer relations line or corporate number the store gives is another way to duck the consumer in the store.
It's a shame that Best Buy to this day has not changed the way it handles consumers. I would never work for them again, that I am certain of.

WOW!! Can you get any bigger of a legal claim. I understand the worries but what kind of repairs was she having done to this computer. Was the computer functioning? Best Buy has been good to me but I still think they have a responsibility to take care of merchandise given to them for repair.

The loss of thousands of photos alone is worth the fight. I hope she gets compensated well. We can't let the big corporations push us around. I will not shop at Best Buy again, there are plenty of alternatives. Also, this is a good time to back up your files!

Great idea to train employees on privacy issues. I just can't believe that that many people probably lied to her. Do companies have no sense of honesty and customer service? Just hide under the veil of more customers are happy than not? wow!

My friend just brought his laptop into Best Buy in Concord, NH for repair. When he left the store they had given him the wrong laptop...
what's up with Best Buy???

I hope she wins the full amount. For the rest of her life she will need to worry about the ID theft. If BestBuy would have used common sense they could have avoided most of these problems. To fix a power switch they did not need the hard drive that contained her data. They should have taken that out and let her take it home for safety reasons. I own a computer business and I never send the hard drive out if it is not needed to fix the problem. If the laptop needs to be sent I remove the drive and let the customer hold on to it.

Arrogance, contumelious disrespect, fraud, and stonewalling directed at a consumer have their direct and proximate costs. In addition to her material losses, loss of productivity, and emotional stress, she should be compensated additionally for her cumulative, per hourly rate of annual salary for the time spent dealing with this unethical company...all with triple damages and the company's payment for at least 10 years in a credit protection/reimbursement program for her. When a Best Buy turns into a "bust buy"...

Good for her. Best Buy should compensate her for all legal fees, the "lost" computer, ten years' worth of identity theft protection, the cost of her computer and whatever it takes to replace missing data and music, plus maybe $50K in damages. She'll never see the $54 million, of course, but it's sad when you have to file a lawsuit with those numbers to get someone to pay attention. What a case study (of what NOT to do) this could be.

excessive, yes... but I hope she takes them to the cleaners on this one. Her initial request for compensation was appropriate, but the company did nothing and compounded the problem. Best buy, and places like it, are notorious for stomping on customers when things don't go quite right. I hope this turns into a wake up call for the retail industry to treat their customers with respect

Way to go Raelyn. It is shocking to me how few people in any business these days really give a damn. Too many people seem only interested in doing the minimum necessary to collect a pay check. I blame corporate greed and the failure to look out for the interests of the common good. Corporate training programs try to make employees represent to the public that the company is a big cuddly teddy bear. Yet, they treat their employees like disposable commondities. Ciscero sounds like the only one who had personal values that prevailed. The same year you bought your laptop in D.C. I bought one from CompUSA in West Palm Beach. They sold me a used computer as new. It had someone else's personal information on it. When I returned it to the store I was treated like a scam artist who was trying to pull a fast one.

Unfortunately corporations seem only to respond when they hear "sue the bastards".

She should have backed up her hard drive before she sent it to the store.....I personaly would have replaced the hard drive with one I could afford to loose (one without tax records on it). Don't get me wrong, I would still sue if I got the above treatment. I hope she wins.

Good for her. The $54 M is a little crazy but these BestBuy type stores have got to be taught a leasson. They do this and get away with it entirely too much. And then offer an insulting compensation for their mistake. Give me a break. Where in the world has customer service gone in todays world. I can tell you. It got fluched right down the $%!t#r.

We still get a chuckle over Best Buy. We dropped off a computer for repair, they fixed it and we picked it up. About 6 months later, they started leaving messages saying we had never picked up our computer. We insisted it was not ours and they insisted it was ours. They then told us they were going to charge us a fee for storage. So, we went and picked up the computer. It turned out to be a really nice computer. Even better since it was free. We no longer buy from Best Buy because their service department has been a nightmare on anything we have ever tried to fix.

best of lucks to you. it's time the big guys listen to small people. disrespectful is unforgiven.

i hope she wins. i deal with these idiots at companies who lose things or don't show up for appointments all of the time. i almost had my gas shut off at my new home because the gas company lost the order. it didn't matter that i had a confirmation number, they just said "oh well, we can't find it". its nice to see someone with an opportunity to screw big business.

Hopefully she'll bring some attention to the lack of customer-oriented service that all of us put up with on a daily basis. When are corporate giants going to learn that they can't bully us around and still retain our business.

No sorrow for her or anyone who does not backup their data, life deal with it.

Go girl! I hope you win. I am so sick and tired of companies not respecting customers. Floor personel are too busy focusing on their next break, and managers/exec's are too busy drooling over their upcoming multimillion bonuses - that they get regardless the performance of their company. Employees/exec's need to be held responsible for their actions.

My experience with Best Buy / Geek Squad wasn't anywhere near that bad. I took my computer in for repair and they ran the same tests I had already run and told me that my hard drive was bad and they estimated that it would cost some $750 to have an outside expert recover the data. I took it elsewhere and they said that there was nothing wrong with my hard drive and it cost $50 to get back up and running.

Good for her!!! The 54 Mil is a little outhere but it sends a great message that, what's valuable to you doesnt have a price tag!

54 Million is a good place to start!! What is the value of photos, especially if the photos are of parents or grandparents that have since been deceased and are no longer available to re-photo? The amount of damage the loss of personal information may not be relaized until sometime much later in the future, long after the litigation has been settled. Certainly companies should be held accountable for their employees actions, as well as the companies cavalier attitude when it comes to consumers.

FANTASTIC! YOU GO GIRL, take them to the cleaners, they have treated people badly for too long!

You go girl! I am receiving the same treatment from customer service at Exxon-Mobil over my lost credit card and then receiving from else's Mobil-Exxon card in its place - but this is another story for another day.

Please, for the sake of thousands of other frustrated consumers, do not stop.Take them to the cleaners

I too had a bad experience with the scam that Bestbuy run in the name of exptended protection warranty. Similar thing happened to my digitial camera. After about 6 weeks of run around, and they still could not fix the problem. The manager was as rude as a person can be. I basically walked out of the store in disgust and never went back again (its been over 4 yrs now).

My feeling was, they sell you warranty with a smile,put a great positive spin but when you do go back with a problem, they are as evasive as water on duck's back!

This does not surprise me of Best Buy, Circuit City etc. They believe they can bully customers when they are called on their practices. I question any policy a store has because no matter what you think they are doing for you, it's only done for the bottom line, $$$! Always get names, dates, times, etc. It has bailed me out more than once with these companies that no longer care about the customer. They will just ignore you till you make it an issue.

Bravo to her! This is the right move to get those stores and companies scramble after ripping off Mr. Public! Ignoring consumers who have already spent and turned over their hard earned dollars to these companies. Frustration over being ignored, passed around, and finally get trashed. I back this consumer 200% to sue and get justice! Let this suit get those companies -- especially the airline industry, to be responsible and do their part, after draining up the consumers' dollars. Get them in order!

I put Best Buy on my black list years ago. I will never step into one of their stores again.

Unfrigginbelievable - this is another reason why if I go there, hubby or I make sure we KNOW more than the salespeople - they're friggin clueless. I'd NEVER leave any pc there. This is as bad as that one story shown here awhile back - the couple whose 'bad' hard drive(supposed to be taken care of by Best Buy too I thought) turned up somewhere else with THEIR data still on it.

She should have backed up her data; if she had done so, there would not have been a problem, except for replacing the computer. The negligence is shared in this instance.

Good for you Ms. Campbell. I hope more stand up for themselves. good luck

I love this post. It gets straight to the heart of big companies' apathy and ignorance around how to protect and grow a brand. Consumers make businesses like Best Buy successful and even though they can "get by" losing a few customers now and then, the company ultimately will lose much more than had they made a sincere and forthright effort in the first place. The other half of the equation is the corporate attitude and character. If just one employee is rude or dishonest, it reflects on the entire company. Take the Bob Nardelli example with Home Depot: There are thousands of workers at Home Depot stores across the country that worked hard to make a difference, but an apathetic display (or more like a pathetic display) by their CEO towards shareholders and clients created a taint that will take years to undo the damage. The same goes for Best Buy. If the attitude shown to this customer becomes pervasive, then I expect that over the long term....Best Buy will ultimately lose share and business. The old adage still serves business well...."the customer is always right." It is high time that American businesses get this part of customer satisfaction at the top of the priority list because in a recession it will make all the difference in the world. I won't be buying from Best Buy in the near future just based on this person's experience.

Best Buy should have to pay. Customer service is a thing of the past and it needs to be addressed.

It is sad to say, but sometimes it takes one person standing up in the midst of opposition to wake people up in regards to normal day routines. Sometimes people go from day to day doing what they think is normal or okay because it is excepted when it is ethically and morally offensive. I hope she wins because it will not be the first time a company has neglected someone because they felt they were bigger and stronger and the person was a little nobody who could not do anything.

I stopped shopping at Best Buy long ago because of the attitude towards customer service indicated in the comments of the Manager you quoted. You can put the epithet "Some Customers Cannot be Satisfied" on Best Buys tombstone.

I am deeply sympathetic with Ms. Campbell here. I have had the same issue with the service at Best Buy concerning a broken laptop, albeit not as severe as Ms. Campbell's. My laptop was returned weeks after I was originally quoted, there were still issues with it and parts missing. Mistakes happen, but the customer service and "Geek Squad" at Best Buy made this a truly horrible experience. When I could finally pick up the laptop after it had been "fixed", I had to sign a sheet of paper stating that everything had been fixed with the laptop. How could I know if it's been fixed if I can't even turn it on and check for myself? When asked if I didn't sign the form, the agent behind the counter stated that the security guard would stop me from walking out the store, and "do not test me". I am sick and tired of the arrogance and incompetence with this place and vow to never shop at Best Buy again.

Stupid is as stupid does. This silly woman - like her entire generation - blames the ills of the world on everybody else and refuses to take responsibility. In this Digital Age, giving your personal files to a stranger is the dumbest thing you could do. DUHHHHH! To make matters worst, this woman is empowered to vote in the upcoming election. God help us all.

And some people wonder why America is going down the tubes? Too many brain dead young (& old) people.

It is inexcusable that Best Buy lost
her laptop. Unfortunately, she should
have asked that the hard drive be taken
out and given to her before she left the
laptop with them. Only an experienced user
would know to make this request though.
I feel badly for this person.

Robert Delissio hopefully has been sacked along with several other inept workers. The problem with All big box stores is they expect large numbers of people and the law of averages to work in their favor. Corporate take note just think of how your profit margin could be improved if your employees went the distance and did more than just try to get by. To the contrary to Mr. Delissio for every unhappy customer there are many more disenfranchised who never say a thing and either shy away from future big ticket purchases or move on to the next store/competitor. Stock holders take note if they can't honestly and equitably resolve a small problem like this how do they handle their books and much larger ethical business matters?

I wish you the best with the lawsuit, I agree completely with what she’s doing. People/Business have to be held more accountable for their actions. Being as though I’m from the area this same problem could happen to me.

Atta girl, Raelyn! Best Buy is almost as bad as Circuit City. Only consumer activism and the attendant media attention will change anything.

That's a tremendous amount of irresponsibility. They had to come up with ever increasing lies to account for the original one. All of which could have been avoided by simply telling the truth initially. As often as I shop at Best Buy, I never buy their service plans, and NEVER EVER use their repair service. And here's a great example why I don't.

Raelyn Campbell's lawsuit against Best Buy demonstrates another problem with Apple's iTunes back-up system. Just like Best Buy's extended warranty, the iTunes back-up system is designed to fail and they know it so they hit you with that warning to back up on CD's because when it fails they intend to blame the consumer.

I had a similar problem with Toshiba. In the end, I just gave up and accepted the fact that once I buy something, I buy any and all problems that may occur in the future.

I don't suppose any business cares about the customer once they have the money and the product is out of the store.

Almost the exact same thing happened to me,only with a CD player. After six weeks to "getting fixed" at the Best Buy in Richfield (literally in the shadow of Best Buy's home office), and several calls, I found that it had never left the store. When I finally got it back 2 months later, it had not been touched or fixed. Repeated calls and emails to their customer service department resulted in absolutely nothing.

She hit the nail on the head, big companies think that they can get away with anything, this shows that they cannot and should own up to thier mistakes, If it was thier CEO, etc.. who had this happen to him/her do you not think that it would be handled in a different matter. Best Buy screwed up and now they have to admit it if they did that in the first place they would be where they are today with the headlines.

You go girl! Having had a very similar experience with Best Buy, I wish I had filed a lawsuit against them. Best of luck and I hope you win - at least more than they have offered you. This corporation is the most arrogant retailer out there - I have a nephew who works at BB and even he says he is embarrassed to tell people he works there because of their poor customer service and lies.

I applaud Ms. Campbell for her efforts. I had similar difficulties with CompUSA, from whom I'd bought a Compaq laptop and 5-year warranty. The laptop broke down repeatedly--approximately 10 times
--but they refused to replace the lemon because no single problem had re-occurred three times. (A contractual technicality). Each repair took around 3 weeks, which cost me dearly in the business I was running. Finally, I faxed a long letter to Hal Compton, the president of the company, and shockingly, a new Sony Viao was waiting for me at the Burbank store the next day--completely free.

Best Buy also has a record of not honoring extended warranties. When they repair any computers, usually it takes a lot longer than the estimated time. Customers have to be inconvenienced by repeatedly returning. Sometimes the problems are not repaired. I find Best Buy's customer service to be poor. The best thing for them to do is take your money for the merchandise and the extended warranty and leave. Don't bother them with any problems with the merchandise. I give kudos to Campbell for sticking to her gun until she gets their attention. Good for you, Campbell!! I hope you are justly compensated for all the trouble, frustration, and inconvenience, not to mention about being a possible victim of identity theft.

Look's like another customer has been "Geeked"! They do it to people all the time, and worse, are unapologetic and arrogant about it. Their Best Buy Geeks are a joke; understaffed, under paid, and with such a high turn over rate, their lucky if they find their way into work on a regular basis. Add to that exorbitant prices and long wait times, usually weeks, for minor services and you wonder how they stay in business. Management often is no where to be found.

I do however doubt the laptop was stolen, more likely it was just lost. The Geeks often return products to the manufacturer, some over seas third world sweatshop filled with slave labor, or at best, some US warehouse filled with non-English speaking, low cost temporary labor managed by one broken English speaking Asian immigrant.

This is the price we pay for cheap imports. Get used to it America. Shame on us for tolerating it.

I normally think lawsuits like this are stupid, frivolous, and a waste of time for the judicial system, I too am tired of being bullied around by retailers who think poor customer service is ok, yet complains because people are not buying. You can't have it both ways.

I am also curious to see how the courts handle the loss of personal information which was stored on the laptop. While my identity may not be worth much, for others it could be literally worth millions. Not to mention data that relates to ones business.

While I agree that the customer should be responsible for backing up everything they can before taking in their computer for service, however if you can't turn your computer on...that's a problem.

Good luck with the case. Hopefully Best Buy will train their "Geeks" a little better from now on.

I am also curious to see how the courts handle the loss of personal information which was stored on the laptop. While my identity may not be worth much, for others it could be literally worth millions. Not to mention data that relates to ones business.

While I agree that the customer should be responsible for backing up everything they can before taking in their computer for service, however if you can't turn your computer on...that's a problem.

Good luck with the case. Hopefully Best Buy will train their "Geeks" a little better from now on.

I normally think lawsuits like this are stupid, frivolous, and a waste of time for the judicial system, I too am tired of being bullied around by retailers who think poor customer service is ok, yet complains because people are not buying. You can't have it both ways.

I am also curious to see how the courts handle the loss of personal information which was stored on the laptop. While my identity may not be worth much, for others it could be literally worth millions. Not to mention data that relates to ones business.

While I agree that the customer should be responsible for backing up everything they can before taking in their computer for service, however if you can't turn your computer on...that's a problem.

Good luck with the case. Hopefully Best Buy will train their "Geeks" a little better from now on.

I am also curious to see how the courts handle the loss of personal information which was stored on the laptop. While my identity may not be worth much, for others it could be literally worth millions. Not to mention data that relates to ones business.

While I agree that the customer should be responsible for backing up everything they can before taking in their computer for service, however if you can't turn your computer on...that's a problem.

Good luck with the case. Hopefully Best Buy will train their "Geeks" a little better from now on.

At least she's realistic in her expectations for a judgment amount, unlike that grubby, greedy judge who actually thought his pants were worth $54 million (moron!).

But, I totally agree with the premise of her lawsuit. Best Buy is completely at fault, their compensation offers and their attitude have been insulting, and they clearly violated laws regarding lost information.

Then again, this is what we have come to expect from Worst Buy, and most other retailers.

I think that is great! Go after Best Buy for every penny you can get. As a former Best Buy employee, one of the main profit generators for the company are "warranties". This woman is correct that this has happened before and people are given low ball offers just to replace the value of the computer but not the cost of the warranty or personal information. In fact, if you have a problem with your machine, Best Buy, along with just about every other computer manufacturer will simply erase your hard drive and reload it with recovery disks instead of taking the time to actually fix the problem. You will lose your personal data along with music, movies, etc... The technicians cannot log into the computer to check that the computer is working so they reload it and verify that way. The company will throw in their standard policy "It's up to the consumer to backup their personal information" With most consumers the notion of backing up their computer is frightening. This is standard practice in the age of "book technicians", the ones who read a book, take a test and get a certification. They don't really know what they are doing but they have a piece of paper that says they do. Since the wages paid at Best Buy, (insert favorite electronics store here) are so low they only attract the lower skilled computer workers, the ones right out of highschool or the career changers, thus you get overcharged for poor service from inexperianced technicians. These companies have outright bullied the consumer for years and it's about time someone stepped up to make them pay. Don't get me wrong, you will find a few technicians here or there that know what they are doing but these technicians are few and far between. Working in the computer sales department I spent almost half my time on the tech bench (before Geek Squad) fixing computers the technicians couldn't figure out. The requirements to work there? A computer certification that you get from reading a book. I hope this woman gets a fat check but sadly I think the big company will get out of this rather easily.

How about demanding the company to teach their employees not to lie to customers and have each person involved recieve a repremand in their personnel file that they should not lie to customers. Also she should request/supena all records relating to her contacts with the company and related internal communications related to her contacts.

I had the same problem with Best Buy. I purchased a 55 inch Wide Screen High Definition TV. The sales person talked me into the Extended Warranty. I asked him what it covered and he went thru a list which included Burn In on the TV. Ihad the TV less then a year and got Burn IN on it. I called the Extended Warranty and was told that I needed to go back to the store and talk to the salesman because they misinformed me about what the policy covered. This person was supposedly a poor excuse of a manager at their Warranty service. I was fuming. I went to the store the next morning with the paperwork in my hand to file a claim with the State District Attorneys office and I confronted the store manager in the front door so customers could hear me as they went in and out of the store. Needless to say after I threatened legal action against them, they decided to fix the problem. It is a shame that you have to go that far to get service you paid for and trusted them to provide. I have never bought anything from BEst Buy since.Circuit City can have my business.

Go get 'em Girl!

I too had a similar experience but with Circuit City's 'Firedog' technicians... I was FORCED TO STAND AT THE SERVICE COUNTER A TOTAL OF 17 HOURS OVER A TWO DAY PERIOD while they 'fixed' my Toshiba computer.

Fortunately I have a fair amount of computer knowledge and knew what was going on, but it was like watching the 'Keystone Cops'. If I hadn't stayed at the service counter I'm sure the 'Firedogs' would have attempted to charge me hundreds of dollars for their incompetency and probably would have lost all my valuable data - instead I only had to pay a $60.00 service fee.

Note: I also got to watch other customers complaining about how long it took the 'Firedogs' to fix their computer or in a couple of cases 'losing' their computer.

Small Claims Court is a good way to go when dealing with big companies - and I have been successful in every case. Companies only understand $$$ signs. When lawyers become involved, people get 'called on the carpet' by upper management looking to control legal fees and reduce risk - and matters get resolved.

Richard Wanick,
Tucson, Arizona

To hear that a large electronics store specializing in tech gear could loose something so precious is frightening. I hope all electronics retailers take this as a wake up call to honor their responsibilities, especially when we've paid extra for their warrantees that often seem meaningless.

The most offensive thng in this entire incident is the calculated response from the Best Buy Manager - telling her that "we strive to deliver the experience that every customer deserves to recieve."

Apparently, they teach this sort of nonsense in Best Buy management trainee classes. Let me share my own experience with you to demonstrate.

I was in a Best Buy in Palisades, NY last December and found a paper shredder that would be perfect for what I needed. When I went to check out, the price came up $25 higher than the price marked on the shelf.

When I told the checkout person, he called for a price check. After at least 10 minutes of waiting and several calls, the answer came back - the price was for a different model and was even higher than what they had charged me at the register.

I told the checkout person that I would go back myself and find the price. When I got back to the area where the shredders were, the manager was there to greet me. I showed him where the item was and the tag with the price I expected on it. He looked at it and said "Well, this tag is under a different item." Exasperated, I pointed out that the products were stacked all over. But that this tag was clearly for my shredder - just check the brand name and SKU. He did so and admitted that it did match my product, but told me that it must be a mistake, since their registers reflect the actual price. Then he ripped the tag off the shelf, put it in his pocket and told me that I would have to pay the higher price.

I was kind of stunned at this and asked him point blank if it was Best Buy's policy to ignore prices as marked and charge "what the computer says." He told me "We reserve the right to charge any price we see fit, no matter what price is marked." At which point, the filter between my brain and my mouth went temporarily inactive and I sad the first thing that entered my mind. "That's a crock of sh*t."

At this point, the manager took my bags from me and started yelling loudly that I was not welcome in Best Buy. He physically detained me and called security to escort me out of the store while people stared at me. All because I wouldn't accept his right to ignore the prices he had marked on the product.

Apparently, this is another example of customers getting the service they deserve.....

Best Buy's Customer service is atrocious. I purchased a warranty through them for a recieved I bought there and they manufactured a way to deny fixing the item. The reciever was stored in a glass enclosed entertainement center with some ability to vent on the back, and they claim there was water damage in the unit. This was not possible, but I had no recourse. I WILL NEVER SHOP AT THAT STORE EVER AGAIN! THEY ARE CROOKS!

Do not buy the Best Buy service plans. They offer no coverage at all. I recently had a laser printer's imaging sensor fail. I thought that this would be no problem for me as I had purchased the Best Buy service plan. However, after 6 weeks in service, it was returned to me without the imaging sensor fixed. Best Buy says that it is a "consumable" part and consumables are not covered. The imaging unit has no fluid, powder, etc. that is consumable - it just wears over time. It and the drum are the core of the printer's function and not covering it is like not covering a car's engine under a warranty.

In the service plan agreement the imaging unit was not under the "Exclusions" and basically I was told by Best Buy employees that the only items covered by my service plan was the plastics ( unless I had broken them through use ), the LCD, the circuit board, and the power supply - but none of the actual printer internals.

It took me three hours of phone and counter help run around to get my printer back. They make you sign a form that the repair was performed properly to get your item back - no form signed and they keep your product. It is absolutely the worse example of customer service.

She'll never get that amount and she knows it too, but she got Best Buy's attention, now didn't she. If that's what it takes for them to come clean then so be it. In the meantime, I would suggest to Ms. Campbell she not leave any tax information or photos on any computer. That she should make backups and store them in another location. She is partly to blame for her situation in that regard.

Best Buy sucks!!! Their teenage employees are useless and need more training. But ultimately it's the manager fault.

Unfortunately no one does anything for us the customers with a low salary and that sacrifice to pay for the things. I've been on the same boat with Planet Dodge and no one does anything they are a millionaire company and I am a low middle class person."you loose"

Do not buy the Best Buy service plans. They offer no coverage at all. I recently had a laser printer's imaging sensor fail. I thought that this would be no problem for me as I had purchased the Best Buy service plan. However, after 6 weeks in service, it was returned to me without the imaging sensor fixed. Best Buy says that it is a "consumable" part and consumables are not covered. The imaging unit has no fluid, powder, etc. that is consumable - it just wears over time. It and the drum are the core of the printer's function and not covering it is like not covering a car's engine under a warranty.

In the service plan agreement the imaging unit was not under the "Exclusions" and basically I was told by Best Buy employees that the only items covered by my service plan was the plastics ( unless I had broken them through use ), the LCD, the circuit board, and the power supply - but none of the actual printer internals.

It took me three hours of phone and counter help run around to get my printer back. They make you sign a form that the repair was performed properly to get your item back - no form signed and they keep your product. It is absolutely the worse example of customer service.

Unfortunately no one does anything for us the customers with a low salary and that sacrifice to pay for the things. I've been on the same boat with Planet Dodge and no one does anything they are a millionaire company and I am a low middle class person."you loose"

Ever hear of backups? But she has now.

Ms Campbell has every right and I commend her for her actions. Nothing is more frustrating than to obviously be ignored with your problems. I do not like having to follow up, and continue to follow up, just to make sure others perform their job. The statement about the hundres of satisfied customers vs. one dissatisfied customer is an example of their lack of concern. I will not shop at Best Buy again based on her experience.

This woman whines that her paid-for music was lost. She whines that her photos were lost. She whines that her tax returns were on the laptop. But it was HER responsibility to back up her data, and to ensure her laptop didn't go to ANY service center loaded with irreplaceable and/or sensitive data. Of course Best Buy was wrong to "lose" the laptop and give her the runaround. But only she's responsible for caretaking her own important data. She's certainly entitled to the cost of the laptop, the service plan, and some money for her troubles -- but $54 million is just plain silly. It never ceases to amaze me how people never have the common sense to do that. And having been in the computer-fixit business for a long time, I can tell you nobody I know who does that EVER guarantees a customer's data; the data is the customer's responsibility... as well it should be!

Take 'em down Raelyn!!!

i think she deserves the $. These corporate retailers are scam artists. They are unprofessional and do shotty buisness practices.

I love when stories like these are published. It helps alleviate the helplessness consumers feel when taking on giants.

Good for her. After years of poor service from them, I don't shop there anymore and neither does anyone in my family or my close friends. We had a similar situation with a desktop computer. We took the tower in for them to look at and they told us we needed to bring in the monitor. We explained that the problem was not with the monitor, but they told us to bring it in anyway. So, we did. We never got a response from them. After a month we went there in person and they said they sent it out to be repaired. When we said no one contacted us to tell us it what was wrong with it in the first place, they told us our monitor wasn't working. When we asked about the tower, they said they kept the two together and sent them out. Again, we never heard from them so we called and were told that the tower was repaired and was on it's way back to the store. When we said that it wasn't the tower that was being repaired, it was the monitor, they said there was no monitor with it. We went to the store a few days later and they did have the tower. They wanted to charge us $250 for repairing the tower, but when we asked what was wrong with it, they said they didn't know, but whatever we had agreed to be fixed on it was fixed. I told the clerk that we were never told anything was wrong with the tower, just the monitor. She asked us why we had them send the tower with it. I wanted to scream. It went on and on and we gave up. We paid the $250 so we could at least get the tower back (which after 2 weeks had the same problem again - found out it was just the power button all this time) Never got our monitor back because they said we had to prove we brought it in with the computer. Okay, stupid us, we should have double checked that they wrote the information onto the paperwork when we brought it in. We had purchased a television the same day we had originally dropped off our computer. It didn't work properly from day one, so part of our insurance agreement was that they would come to our house and replace it for us. We were given several different dates of when they would replace it, but the TV was always on back order or something according to them(although you could order it online with no wait and when we went to the store we saw others just sitting there). Finally they suggested we bring it in and exchange it at the store. When we got there they said that they can only take repairs at the store, not exchanges for that item. Exchanges must be done at our residence (a friend of ours told us they'd never heard of that and the clerk was either lying or didn't know what he was talking about - which I began to believe about most of the people who work there). He guaranteed us that someone would be there the next day. They actually did show up, but when we opened the new TV, it had a huge scratch on the flat panel right in the middle of the screen. At this point, we just wanted our money back to go somewhere else. Of course they only give you credit and since we had no idea of the nightmare we would be dealing with for our computer, we just took the credit. These were just 2 incidences within a year's time (and the major ones out of several complaints we've had) and nothing compared to other people's experiences I've heard about. Big chains like this need to be held responsible and customer service needs to be a top priority. I think that stopped 20 years ago.

Kudos to Campbell for taking the bull by the horns! I agree 100% with her tactics to gain the attention she deserves! She has been grossly mistreated and should be compensated accordingly. I won't be giving Best Buy my business any time soon! This sale was not a "best buy" after all was it?

Rake 'em over the coals! Take every penny you can get, and feel absolutely no remorse whatsoever!!!
It is obvious they tried to get you to spend every penny they could get from you, so do exactly the same to them, and don't take "No" for an answer. This is a case of pure negligence, obfuscation, and malfeasance. Get a good lawyer, and become a MAJOR pain-in-the-*ss to Best Buy. Hit them in the wallet, hard, because that is the ONLY thing that will get their attention.
Best of luck! If I was on a jury listening to this story, you can bet that I would be asking about the maximum amount that could be awarded in a case like this.......

You go girl! It is about time that somebody stands up for incompetent customer support. Unfortunately, it is the status quo in the industry - not just with Best Buy.

Good for her. Too many big box retailers get away with sweeping the problems of their policies under the rug at the expense of end customers.

If you want our money, you should be held accountable that our lives will not suffer a loss of finance or time due to their negligence as guarantors of product reliability.

I had a similar problem with a DLP television that sat waiting for a part for four months that was on backorder. This was two years ago when DLP was still quite expensive and my two month old television had spent more time in the back of a store than it did in my home before they finally agreed to give me the same model television so I could move on. I don't know if I could have been as patient if my personal information was at stake. I won't mention the retailer because although it was excessive they made it right in the end.

Although the changes are slim...I sincerely hope that Best Buy is forced to give her a massive amount of money.

Ms. Campbell...Good for you, it's about time someone has spoken up for the little person against a large company whose big picture is to make money without taking care of it's customers.

It's unfortunate that it takes this kind of a lawsuit to bring public attention to a problem that exists on a daily basis with other companies throughout America with similar situations (IE: Cell phone carriers, Insurance companies, etc) Once the lawsuit is filed, the company goes into a "damage control" mode to stop the bleeding and pay "hush money" to limit the negative publicity instead of just doing what's right from the beginning and correcting the problem with an apology, explanation and fair compensation. If in Cambell's case all the facts she stated are true, the damage award should be a minimum of a "7 figure judgement" to set an example of "zero tolerance policy" in the customer service field who fail to tell the truth, mislead consumers and expose individuals to identity theft.

Seems typical of customer service in big stores.
i hope you win it!!

My blood boils when I hear about cases like this -- the ball was dropped repeatedly and it's completely unacceptable. Ms. Campbell, unfortunately, has some responsibility in the matter. When dropping off the computer, she had to sign a waiver agreeing to the terms and conditions of the repair. In that waiver, she agrees that Best Buy is not liable for any loss of data. Though the unit should never have been lost, she was responsible for backing up her data prior to having the it sent out.

Bravo, it's time someone took issue with best buy's so called insurance. I had the unfortunate pleasure in dealing with their computer support/techies i.e. geek squad. They also pormised me that they would have my computer fixed/call me if they couldn't when I took it for repair covered under warranty by best buy.
After an agonizing two to three months, repeated phone calls by me when they never called me as they promised they would - they replaced the hard drive and lost my photographs from the files.
I promised myself I would never buy anything there ever again and tell all my frinds about their lack of understanding and total disregard for their customers.
I have not set foot in their store since and do not intet to. She deserves everything she gets to teach them a lesson.

Best Buy has taken a hint from the big oil companies... ignorance is bliss (and profitable)!

I really agree with what she is doing, I dont take crap from anyone or store no matter the size. Futureshop here in Canada (Toronto to be exact) it is owned by Bestbuy. I got burned badly by them as well and after some fishing around managed to hunt down the president Keven Layden and call him directly at his home to have an issue resolved and boy does that ever work ;) Hope she wins a nice chunk..enough to smarten Bestbuy Up!!

I never shop at Best Buy, for exactly the reasons cited in this article. Their customer service is terrible! I will go out of my way to make my purchases from other retailers. I'm glad this woman has raised such a stink. Maybe they'll change their ways.

I hope she gets a multi-million dollar settlement. I know retailers have to make money like everyone else, but my recent experience (not so dissimilar to this womans) is that customer service is long gone in the retail industry, and consumers are tired of being treated so poorly, specially after they've spent mega-bucks.

This is the state of customer service today - lies, more lies, delays, more lies and eventually you just get screwed. I've documented MANY instances where Customer Service flat out told me what I wanted to hear in order to get me off the phone - it's easier then actually doing their job! Judging from the names mentioned, it seems BB hasn't offshored their customer support - so nice that an American treats another American like crap.

You go, Ms. Campbell! It's about time something or someone got their attention. It seems like every time you have a complaint, you're connected to someone, who connects you to someone, who connects you to someone else. You go thru the same story over and over again. A ploy to wear you down and make you go away. Something, you refused to do. Sadly, Customer Service is a thing of the past. On behalf of all consumers, I hope you win and win BIG!

I think this is awesome. Companies that forget about Customer Service will all pay eventually. Go get um girl!

best buy? more like best lie...

This lady is nuts. I agree she should be upset about losing her computer with her files and stuff, but to sue for 54 million dollars is unacceptable and outlandish.

robert delissio,s reply just makes me want to slap him sideways!! Thank God Campbell is taking on Best Buy for all the rest of us that are left with blood pressures going through the roof. Strong arming your customers for a few bucks. sick, sick, sick!!!

I ran into the same problem with a personal laptop and another piece of electronics purchased from the Best Buy store in Humble, TX. They pressure the customer into purchasing this bogus extended warranty plan and won't perform. This is the reason I do not even go into Best Buy at all.

One word: BACKUP!

She looks as though she would be someone that wants something for nothing.....that chick has balls!

You go girl! This will show those corporate drones that they need to pay more attention to the details and less to covering up for poor management

This is what is wrong with our society, sue happy people. We are all inconvienced at times, does that mean next time I'm inconvienced I can just call her lawyer and never have to work again????? Bunch of BS. Get a new laptop get over it crap happens. Best buy should pay for identity theft protection supply her with a new laptap, and maybe throw in an extra extended warrenty to another repair shop. But 54 million, I refuse to have the prices raised at my Best Buy because one customer got po'd. Get over it!!!!!

Go Raelyn! Being from MN, where Best Buy is headquartered, and hearing other stories like yours, I hope you win BIG! Best Buy needs to step up to the plate and fix a quite obvious problem.

I am not surprised by Ms. Campbell's experience. I spent over $3000.00 on a new system only to discover that the DVD/CD drive did not work when I got home. I too had purchased the protection coverage but had not purchased the at home Geek Squad. I live 10 miles from the Liberty, MO Best Buy but they refused to drive to my home to replace the drive, even though one of their "highly-trained" Geeks had lied to me about testing the computer after loading some software. I finally took it back to the store and was told to pick it up in two days. Two days later, it still was not fixed. I knew that a cable was probably disconnected but did not want to break my warranty by fixing it myself. I will NEVER buy another electronic device from Best Buy. I was not impressed with their Geed Squad either.

C'mon please give me a break, $54 million for a lost laptop? You've got to be kidding! Has this woman lost her mind? Everyone wants their 15-minutes of fame!

I always bought an extended warranty for most of the items I have purchased from Best Buy and the majority of the time they have paid for themselves. If this case doesn't get thrown out or settled out of court it will be setting a very terrible precident.

Way to go. The things the public are put through are outragous. Her time and inconveniencea and possible severe loss are worth a lot of money. Their poor management is expensive and they should know it. Instead of handling it properly, they did it poorly and should pay for that.

Best buy is overpriced for what you get. The Geek squad is a rip off not real geeks.!

Best buy is overpriced for what you get. The Geek squad is a rip off not real geeks.!

I had an expierence,with best buy too.

Best Buy Sucks Plain and Simple. They have gotten too corporate and forgotten that the Customer is always right.

Good for her...

Best Buy has asked for this lawsuit for years by giving shoddy service. I love everything insi