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.
I saw this on another forum, there were over 200 comments, all unfavorable to Best Buy. Still, $54 million is a [i]bit[/i] excessive.
We bought my daughter a Sony laptop for school at Best Buy, and went ahead and got the extended service agreement. About a year later (or less), the hard drive crashed and they informed her that the agreement didn’t cover the entire cost of replacing the hard drive, and it would cost her around $200 to fix it. We really had no choice, she was 200 miles away, she had all the paperwork, and the Geek Squad holds all the cards. So she paid the money. She also put out a little extra to get an external drive to backup all her data (which she was doing, but on a jump drive).
yep, Best Buy is terrible when you consider their quality of service and warranty service, etc. But they are still better than Circuit City.
Jim E.
“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”
That D.C. judge lost his case and his reputation and (last I heard) looked like he might lose his job as well. Not the footsteps I’d want to walk in.
Library Jim, What about CompUSA? What do you know about them? I’m also in Talla.
Thanks, GA/FL
Our CompUSA is going out of business (currently everything 20-50% off), so I wouldn’t advise going there. They’ve had financial troubles for some time now.
I bought some computer memory from them, they assured me it was compatable with my computer, they installed it, and my computer kept crashing. A friend took a look at the computer, took out the extra memory, and it worked fine. 🙄
It’s high time that Best Buy corp execs get their act together and apply an ounce or two of ethics to their business practices. Maybe this whacky lawsuit will be the wakeup call they need.
When I bought a Toshiba laptop two years ago, with an extended warranty of three years, Best Buy’s sales rep against my explicit instructions and unknown to me, signed me up for a $30 a month “broadband” AOL account. I already had an AOL dialup and cable account — for years. It’s a huge ordeal to get through to AOL customer service and accounts people, but when my credit card started getting charged for the “new” account, I persevered and had the unauthorized account canceled. The sales rep could see that I had an account already, but suggested another member of my household signed up, and wouldn’t it be nice to keep it. The only other person in my house is my blind and totally disabled wife, under in-home hospice care! I never received a refund credit from AOL; as soon as one mentions refund, most AOL reps hang up. MANY people across the country were hit by this collusion between AOL and Best Buy, and a huge class action suit is now in court.
Toshiba has had many problems with the inverter in their laptop displays. The inverter is a little stick chip in the inner corner of the display that controls the amount of light on screen. When it goes bad, the screen goes dark. I couldn’t afford long down time for repairs, so I bought a new inverter for $60 and installed it myself in less than an hour. It lasted for one month before the screen blacked out again. I went to Best Buy to find out how long it would take to get it fixed. The tech rep said they were having “a lot of problems with the warranty repair shop” and trying to make Toshiba pay to fix the defect, and I could expect to kiss my laptop goodbye for 8 to 10 weeks minimum! I came home and plugged the laptop into a desktop LCD monitor while I decide what to do.
This week, I received a mass mail notice from Best Buy notifyiing me that my extended warranty would soon expire, but I could get it extended further for ~$250. The mailing extolled all the advantages. Yet the warranty would be with the same company that they are having huge problems with — lost and damaged computers, financial problems, inadequate staffing, repairs that weren’t, etc. etc. Imagine that! I may have been sucker bait the first time around with Best Buy, but never again.
I’ve seen too much corporate neglect, mismanagement, and abuse in many companies of late. The execs are off courting stock options and no one is minding the store or honoring commitments to customers.
Sheesh.
w.w. (in rant mode, sorry)
I know Best Buy needs to get their act together. But they’ve already reimbursed her for the laptop AND given her $500 which they were under no obligation to do – and she accepted that. To sue after that smacks of greed. Her data may be worth billions for all I know, but the higher a price she puts on her lost data, the more foolish she looks for not backing it up. I am pretty sure that every computer repair service or center has a disclaimer that they are not responsible for lost data once you turn your computer over to them. These days it’s so much easier to back up your data – with CD-Rs and DVD-Rs and external harddrives and even the increasing prevalence of home networks and other technology. No tapes or tape drives and it doesn’t ahve to take 10-12 hours every day or anything like that.
If she lost valuable data, this woman is at fault and she signed a paper stating as much.
I have an 80gb external hd. All my music, photos, personal files and ‘big space’ files are on that rather than my 40gb internal drive. It’s portable, if I have to ‘restore’ my computer (again) I won’t lose anything. They are a huge asset for any computer user.
I’m thinking of getting a larger one.
Library Jim, Can an external HD crash?