What is Digg?224 Comments
- BoneStamp, on 02/13/2008, -7/+120Where does she get the number 54 million? Obviously there wasn't anything valuable on her laptop if she trusted it with BestBuy.
- holyskeleton, on 02/13/2008, -5/+111I'd take the $54 million.
- Beson669, on 02/13/2008, -3/+96Having worked for the Geek Squad for a couple of years I can say this: In defense of the Geek Squad (the service company bought by Best Buy and used to "re-image" their own techs), BBY continues making extreme budget cuts in the service area, which means more and more computers get brought in and backed up due to a steadily decreasing workforce and labor budget. We used to keep 6-7 pretty smart guys on hand at our precinct at all times and made the store tons of margin but it got to the point we had our supervisor position removed, 2-3 employees scheduled for the entire day, customer service crap spilling over into our section, and a sincere lack of giving a ***** from the BBY management. In lieu of this, BBY's ***** computers and equally-***** salespeople didn't know how to match a customer up with the right product, always selling some cheap POS (because they were selling as if they were the ones buying and wanted to at least say they made a sale) so more and more computers get brought back. In light of this, stuff becomes missing because there is so much of it and it is a complete hectic nightmare to go into the store (btw: my precinct was consistently rated top 50 in the 800+ stores in the company so I don't even want to know how bad it was for other stores).
Because of lawsuits like this, the agents who actually knew something about computers had were over time forced to use "company-approved" methods only to fix computers, which basically meant a few free-ware programs offline and hooking the units up to "Jonny Utah" which is just a VPN to Indians overseas to fix computers. All decent techs left because the job only required you to have a "decent" knowledge of computers then and even then we were told we were "salespeople first, techs second". We lost stuff all of the time because BBY spent so much on advertising GS (increasing traffic) and decreased labor budget substantially giving it to their sales floor instead. That and it got to where any "major" hardware repairs had to be sent off to a service center.
It's all a joke. But for idiots who don't know any better (read: most of the people who use computers and are over the age of 30) it's a supposed life-saver. In all honesty the laptop was probably lost en-route to the service center or given to another customer on accident, and more than likely her information won't be stolen (would you steal someone's identity if you came across a strange laptop?) but it's the principal of the matter... it COULD happen - zspeed78, on 02/13/2008, -0/+80Hey Buddy, Im a mechanic, and it makes me laugh what people pay for things too in my industry.. unless youre an expert in every field, I would get off your high horse.
- veled, on 02/13/2008, -12/+87Go for the $54 million!
... I don't care that she gets it, but DAMN wouldn't that be sweet if she pwned Best Buy. - voomfoo, on 02/13/2008, -10/+7154 million is a bit excessive no?
- ToTiredToCare, on 02/13/2008, -6/+67that's a lot of porn...
- geneikillua, on 02/13/2008, -2/+56If identity theft is worth a $54 million award, then I want my identity stolen.
- trubbleshute, on 02/13/2008, -1/+38Yep, I pay $30 for an oil change, and $400 for brake rotors. Because I do not know how to do it.
- 40hands, on 02/13/2008, -2/+38She did it to attract attention. It worked.
- xboxmods, on 02/13/2008, -2/+38you can't believe that people can't change a PSU? I've seen people asking geek squad to install itunes, and sync their ipod for them. If someone can't figure out how to click next and i agree a few times, they don't deserve to touch a computer.
- moskaudancer, on 02/13/2008, -1/+33It's only worth so much because she's the heir to a fortune in Nigeria.
- MasterThief117, on 02/13/2008, -3/+30Best Buy deserves this lawsuit. I hope they lose. This is possibly one of the worst managed and the most poorly executed business in the history of businesses. They ***** people over to no end. It is just terrible *****, they got to stop and I hope this lawsuit opens their eyes.
- rjam710, on 02/13/2008, -0/+26Well if that's all she wanted, she should've just asked for *one TRILLION dollars*!
/Dr. Evil - hawkspur, on 02/13/2008, -0/+23Paying 17 bucks for a power supply is just asking for a fried motherboard. The cheap, poorly-made supplies tend to not be protected correctly, so if you have a power surge, bye bye computer.
- Rikkochet, on 02/13/2008, -0/+23An oil change is pretty much equivalent to swapping out a power supply. Once you've done it once you can do subsequent ones in half an hour and have higher quality oil and filter (if the quick lube shop even bothers to change the filter) than getting a grease monkey to do it.
zspeed78 is pretty right though - elitist nerds are the reason computers still have such a "nerd" stigma. Just because you can do something well doesn't mean you can do anything else passably.
That moron programmer can't even replace his spark plugs. WHAT AN IDIOT.
That stupid mechanic doesn't even know how to stitch a wound. DUMBASS.
That braindead doctor can't reinstall his OS? MORON.
I'm pretty sure this ignorance exists in every field, but it sure ain't helping the tech crowd. - badjokes, on 02/13/2008, -2/+23best buy is terrible, you can get about everything they offer off newegg for cheaper even with shipping. and geeksquad is just an expensive waste of time. they charge over a 100 dollars just to back up your data and put it back on.
- real, on 02/13/2008, -4/+22"This is America"
Land of excess. - Rikkochet, on 02/13/2008, -0/+17As an Engadget commenter summarized, she chose that number because it's the same number that DC judge came up with when he sued his drycleaners for losing his pants. She chose the number not expecting to get it, but because it was a huge arbitrary number like the judge threw out and helped to gain the case publicity.
- Subriot, on 02/13/2008, -1/+18I would take some grammar lessons if I were you.
- KayinNasaki, on 02/13/2008, -0/+16The woman has said she doesn't expect to make that money. But she got massively jerked around and ***** over by them. She's making it clear that she's serious and getting attention. Maybe this'll make Bestbuy settle for something more reasonable. I personally thinks she deserves a decent sum just to penalize Bestbuy.
- nrtikman, on 02/13/2008, -1/+17She'll settle for 200K or so..
Appeals court will trim any absurd amount she MIGHT win in court..
/lawyer in DC
//no soul - Akaji, on 02/13/2008, -4/+19Then you'd be a fool.
- turpenine, on 02/13/2008, -0/+14oil is pretty easy if you don't mind getting dirty and doing some actual work, which i do, so I pay somebody else to do it for me. The timing belt though, ***** that.
- egarc, on 02/13/2008, -0/+14If I stole her laptop and she was awarded 54 million, you bet I'd steal her identity!
- oMeSSiaHo, on 02/13/2008, -4/+16I call ***** on your prices. Most stores (including mine) charge $40 for a power supply replacement + $50ish for a new PSU. We charge $30 for a HDD replacement plus the cost of the drive... if they need it. I charge around $60 to replace the MBR or any general work.
Quit making ***** up or shut up. - Synthesize, on 02/13/2008, -0/+11Best Buy employee: Would you like a 3 year warranty with that $54m lawsuit?
- Verdanic, on 02/13/2008, -0/+10If you've done it before. Otherwise, it's a ***** of wires going into a bunch of components you probably can't name, and that's no fun for somebody who just wants their internet machine fixed. I think it's a pretty good comparison, both can be overwhelming if you don't have any experience.
- NotOptium, on 02/13/2008, -1/+11NO DEAL!
- Rikkochet, on 02/13/2008, -0/+9Well that's fine, isn't it? Geek Squad generally resolved software problems or replaces hardware.
I don't get too choked when my friends don't understand EEPROM or call stacks or L1 vs L2 cache. - musicmanryan, on 02/13/2008, -2/+11Umm... The same story is five stories below this one....
- galore, on 02/13/2008, -0/+9Maybe she had a couple of songs from Itunes on her laptop. We know how much those are worth, if some crook at Best Buy made illegal copies.
- drewlew, on 02/13/2008, -0/+9It's like my mom says about who wants to be a millionaire. The questions are easy if you know the answer.
- Jalh, on 02/13/2008, -0/+9the complete story: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/02/a-lost-laptop-a.h ...
- jaybol, on 02/13/2008, -0/+8damn i settled for too little when they lost my hard drive. i advise anyone who has a problem with a company ever, to go to bbb.org and search through listings of the company and find someone that has a direct number (i.e. with an area code rather than an 800 number) and is an executive resolution type. then you can skip the b.s. that you get from the initial 5 people you call on the main customer service number
- Giblet2, on 02/13/2008, -1/+9but some people dont know that.. or dont know how.
- Zarokima, on 02/13/2008, -5/+13There's the very high potential for identity theft, especially since she doesn't even know what happened to the laptop.
- ICanRead, on 02/13/2008, -1/+9Ignore this post Grammar Nazis.
- MarkOfTheDead, on 02/13/2008, -0/+8Thats one pricey fixmbr command.
What do you charge like, $10 a letter? - Rikkochet, on 02/13/2008, -0/+8Why would you replace the Master Boot Record?
- dvdchris, on 02/13/2008, -0/+7Many people are quite capable of changing their oil, but have no place to do it. Most apartments do not allow you to work on your car in your parking space.
- ZephyrNinety, on 02/13/2008, -1/+8That laptop ain't worth 54 million dollars unless it has the original recordings of every Beatles and Pink Floyd song broken down into separate tracks and it's personally signed by Hitler and Stalin.
- Ajajadude, on 02/13/2008, -0/+7This is Digg. Did you expect people to pay attention?
- gpcprog, on 02/13/2008, -0/+7I know digg likes to replicate stories. But this is getting out of hand.
http://digg.com/business_finance/Victim_54_million ...
This was about 10 posts down from this one. - inactive, on 02/13/2008, -1/+8Duplicate
- trizzlelv, on 02/13/2008, -0/+7While I personally think 54 million is a little excessive, one could make the argument that the amount you would sue for would be relative to your personal worth. If a person is worth, let's say, 5 million dollars, the chances of that person's identity being stolen would be higher because said person has obviously a lot of credit to be exploited.
- Haphazardness, on 02/13/2008, -2/+8Microcenter > Best Buy > Circuit City
- lucutus, on 02/13/2008, -0/+6Working tech support for several years I find it amazing these days to find someone who actually backs up daily to some form of remote/external media. It's sort of PC law you see that's been lost in the rapid evolution of the technology. It's rare these days to run into an end user that would even know where to begin but messes like this can be prevented if more people were educated on the topic. It is so easy these days to keep all of your personal data off your PC and stored remotely. There are so many ways to do this it can be overwhelming for some. Unless you plan to service your PC yourself it is essential to store everything that matters somewhere other than your hard drive! Burn it to CD, Use google apps, Use g-mail as storage, Use an external or remove able hard drive as your personal file storage. If you need your PC serviced don't expect anything on it back. If it contains sensitive data do not take it to a chain service counter!!!!! Take it to a reputable data recovery service 1st!
- chinolofus, on 02/13/2008, -4/+10check the facts about the mcdonalds case before you open your mouth about it.
http://www.hurt911.org/mcdonalds.html - Privil3g3, on 02/13/2008, -0/+6Its a good thing people pay attention during the dupe-check period of submission. ***** i am over digg lately
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