Woman Sues Best Buy For $54M Over Lost Laptop

Frustrated with what she sees as incompetence of Best Buy "Geek Squad" staffers who admittedly lost her computer, one woman files a whopper of a suit

The saga of one crazy suit began with Best Buy customer Raelyn Campbell's purchase of a laptop computer from a local Best Buy store in the D.C. area. A Best Buy staffer talked her into buying a $300 extended warranty. The warranty includes coverage by Best Buy's service technicians -- "Geek Squad" -- for three years, and replacements of defective hardware free of charge.


Her laptop indeed experienced hardware malfunctions within a year when her on/off switch broke. At that point, Campbell breathed a sigh of relief that she purchased the warranty and took her laptop in to Best Buy. She turned in her laptop in May and was told that it would be up and running within two to six weeks. This was a major inconvenience to her, as she was a frequent business traveler, but she figured she just should stay optimistic that it came as soon as possible.

In July an 'Agent David Goodfellow’ told Campbell that the laptop would be "ready within days". A call several days later informed her that the laptop was not ready, and was in fact still at the repair center. The rest of the month concluded with continued assurances that it was going to leave the repair center in no time.

By August, she returned from a business trip to Asia and still had heard no new word from Best Buy. Feeling concerned she called the store and asked to speak to the manager. She was told the manager was in a meeting, so she left a message. Her phone call was never returned. She eventually tried calling again and another employee 'Cicero' listened to her story and searched the store records, and informed her that he discovered that "[The laptop] never appears to have left the store."

A few days later he called her back and informed her that it appeared that the laptop was lost in store, without ever having been shipped out. While Campbell says that 'Cicero' was considerate and helpful, she was extremely angry that the other store employees had been apparently outright lying to her.

While 'Cicero' promised that he'd try to get the store to compensate her, nothing happened. After weeks of calling, Campbell was finally informed that she could accept a $900 dollar gift card, far less than the $1,100 she paid for the laptop and $300 she paid for the warranty. Angered and insulted, she wrote a frustrated letter to Best Buy's management detailing the situation, on August 24. She rejected the offer and demanded $2,100 in cash.

Best Buy outright refused her demands and she heard nothing from them by October. So Campbell told her friends and family members to write Best Buy and complain. Her friends did and received a surprising response from the store's general manager, Robert Delissio in the form of a surly email. In the email Delissio stated, "For every customer that has had an unpleasant experience I can show you hundreds who have had a great experience. I have been in retail for a long time and the one conclusion I have come to is that not every customer can be satisfied. Does my store have opportunities? Absolutely! What I can say is that we strive to deliver the experience that every customer deserves to receive."

Further infuriated, Campbell contacted the Washington, D.C., attorney general's office, who contacted the store. The store caved a bit and offered her an increased offer of $1,100 credit refund and a $500 gift card.

That's when Campbell discovered that her identity could be at risk due to private documents she stored on the computer. Shocked and infuriated with Best Buy's lack of helpfulness, she found a lawyer and filed a $54 million dollar lawsuit against Best Buy for losing her property and opening her to identity theft.

Best Buy has since upped their offer to Campbell to $2,500 cash if she signed a confidentiality agreement. Campbell refused. She says she realizes she probably won't win a multi-million dollar settlement, but she does want substantial damages for store negligence and an honest "explanation as to how my computer could have been stolen from a secure area" within the store. She also demands a company promise that they will institute training for their employees on identity theft issues.

Campbell admitted a major goal of the suit is to draw attention, to what she feel is atrocious customer service. Campbell strongly believes in this role as a legal champion, stating, "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."

Best Buy's legal representatives have refused to comment on the case.