$54 million is what Raelyn Campbell wants out of Best Buy for her missing laptop, personal data, and her time. The Washington, DC, resident filed a lawsuit against the company after Best Buy allegedly lied to her for months at a time about the status of her machine, then offered her an insultingly low compensation once it acknowledged the loss. Campbell even says that she knows $54 million is outrageous, but it's apparently the only way to get media attention and put enough pressure on Best Buy to do the right thing.
"It shouldn't take a $54 million lawsuit to motivate Best Buy to address these issues," Campbell told MSNBC. In fact, she doesn't even expect to win that much—all she wants is appropriate compensation, an explanation of what happened, and a promise that employees will receive training on preventing the loss or theft of items from secure areas of the store.
The story of how the lawsuit came about is convoluted. Campbell bought the laptop from Best Buy in 2006 and was "talked into" paying an extra $300 for the extended warranty. A year later, in May of 2007, the power switch on the computer broke, so she took it in for repairs and was told it would take between two and six weeks. Two months later, she began making phone calls to Best Buy to find out the status of her repairs, but continually got the runaround.
"On July 11, I contacted the (store's) helpline and was instructed by 'Agent David Goodfellow' that it would be 'ready within days,'" Campbell wrote in her complaint letter to the company in late August. She called again on July 19, when someone told her that the machine was in Louisville for repairs. On July 25, she was told that a part had been ordered and it would be leaving Louisville "soon."
