If you took your laptop  in for repairs to a well-known big-box store only to discover the store's tech contractor had lost the machine, lied to you about it, manufactured fake documentation and finally offered you a "We're sorry" gift card -- you'd be steamed.
That's what allegedly happened to Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C. On her blog -- at bestbuybadbuyboycott.blogspot.com -- she tells a story of theft, lies, errors and cheapskate customer service. In fact, she was so mad that she filed a lawsuit. For $54 million.
Campbell says she brought her laptop into Best Buy in May 2007 for repair under a service contract. Shortly thereafter, she says, the computer was stolen. In June and July, Geek Squad -- which provides computer service under a contract with Best Buy -- told her the machine was "not in the system." On July 4, she says, a store employee created a false computer record to make it appear that the laptop had been processed for repair on that day. She said the machine was confirmed missing on August 9.
'Ridiculous Amount'
What really appears to have gotten Campbell's goat is that Best Buy at first ignored her and then offered what she considered insulting levels of compensation, ultimately amounting to $1,100 for the computer and a $500 gift card as an apology.
On her blog Campbell freely admits that $54 million is "a ridiculous sum of money." It's not just the cost of the computer ($1,100), the emotional distress of losing all her data or even the risk of identity theft. Campbell wants punitive damages.
Indeed, she identifies two motivations for such an "absurd" amount (her words): to persuade Best Buy to "reassess its ways" and to gain enough publicity to put widespread consumer pressure on the company.
Even so, "there's no way she'll get $54 million," said Eric Goldman, director of the High-Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University.
Punitive Limits
In BMW v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that in evaluating punitive awards, courts should consider the degree of reprehensibility, the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages, and statutory sanctions for comparable misconduct. While the court eschewed hard ratios, it strongly cautioned in Gore and other cases that double-digit punitive damages would be unlikely to pass constitutional muster.
Based on actual damages of $1,000 for the lost laptop, Campbell is seeking punitive damages on the order of 540,000 to 1. While it's impossible to predict what she might ultimately win in a trial, anything above the low five figures would appear to be suspect under Gore. (continued...)
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