A D.C. woman is suing Best Buy over a lost laptop computer for $54 million, the exact amount that a judge sought in a lawsuit against a local dry cleaners over a lost pair of pants that drew worldwide ridicule.
Raelyn Campbell, 37, concedes that the $54 million was a ridiculous amount, but she chose the number to draw attention to the consumer property and privacy-protection practices at America’s largest consumer electronics retailer and because each year $54 billion is lost to identity theft.
“What in the world is a sane number? What is it going to take for this company to take this issue seriously, to get them to change their policies so the next customer won’t have to go through the same thing?” Campbell asked The Examiner. “It shouldn’t take a $54 million lawsuit to get Best Buy to do what it is legally required to do.”
Best Buy spokeswoman Nissa French said she was unable to discuss the case because of the pending litigation. She said that Campbell was offered and collected $1,110 for the laptop and she received a $500 gift card for her inconvenience.
“We’re obviously embarrassed and disappointed that we were unable to resolve thiscustomer’s issue,” French said. “We’ve tried to resolve this dispute and feel badly that it escalated to a lawsuit.”
Campbell, who works for a nonprofit think tank, said she spent six months and more than 150 hours trying to get Best Buy to explain what happened to her computer after she took it to the Tenleytown store for repairs.
Repeated requests for an investigation into the theft and demands for less that $5,000 compensation were met with insults and indifference by Best Buy representatives, she said.
Best Buy placed the money back into her account only after the District of Columbia Attorney General’s Office notified the company it was investigating. She said she donated the gift card to a nonprofit.
Her laptop contained personal information such as her Social Security number and date of birth, which could be used by thieves to leverage her credit, she said.
The company never notified her about the exposure to identify theft, which she said is required by D.C. law.
Campbell said she hoped the publicity would get Best Buy to address what she called the companywide indifference to privacy-protection obligations.
