The $54 Million Laptop

[Hazirak]

We'll see how far $500 goes for the inconvenience of having her identity stolen. (If it ever comes to that.)

Remember, that's a GIFT CARD - she can't use it anywhere without the sign "Best Buy" above their door.

 

[DaveDaDon]

The reason she is suing for 54 million is because of identity theft
which she claims she had a lot of important documents on her laptop

 

[rlodge]

Remember, that's a GIFT CARD - she can't use it anywhere without the sign "Best Buy" above their door.

Yeah, I know. That's why I quit shopping there. Even their "mail in" rebates were going to gift cards. Now why would I want a gift card that I can only use there and lose some money for tax on a purchase when I would rather have cash back? Some rebate.

 

[Hazirak]

I find it pretty amusing that, if what this woman claims is true, they just sent her the card and credit to her account without telling her about it first. "Here Mrs. Angry Customer, take this $500 gift card while you attempt to sue the pants off me!"

Disclaimer: By reading this post, you understand that I understand that said woman would have me understand that the payments were sent before she filed suit.

 

[rlodge]

It could be an attempt on Best Buy's part to say she already received restitution for the problem and now she doesn't have a reason to sue. Especially if she goofs and not only accepts the money but she then spends it. That's what I'd be hoping for if I were Best Buy.

 

[Hazirak]

She apparently already gave the card to a charity, from the sounds of it.

If Best Buy were really trying to remove the possibility of a suit however, they would have actually come up to her and offered the payment. A good friend of mine works there, whenever they offer any kind of compensation, they usually have the customer sign a contract that basically says "By accepting this payment, you agree to not sue us later on."

 

[rlodge]

She apparently already gave the card to a charity, from the sounds of it.

If Best Buy were really trying to remove the possibility of a suit however, they would have actually come up to her and offered the payment. A good friend of mine works there, whenever they offer any kind of compensation, they usually have the customer sign a contract that basically says "By accepting this payment, you agree to not sue us later on."

Cool...That means the saga continues!

 

[otherside]

I'll be the first to admit that best buys warranty stuff is a complete hassle to deal with (They always find a way to not let the third repair count so they don't have to replace it), and generally there customer service is less than spectacular. However, suing for that is ridiculous, much less 54 million. In todays society people just don't want to work for a living, and are usually trying to find easy money. If this had happened to me, I would have gone to the manager and explained the situation and demanded compensation and then some, so like she got the price of the computer and a $500 credit. Perhaps thats because I always back up my files, but still. However I do understand waiting three months is more than excessive, but 54 million, come on! Now if the manager didn't attempt to help and then proceeded to cop a feel, then by all means sue (for sexual harassment, not some laptop for goodness sake)! But that didn't happen now did it?
-The Other Side

 

[Fahad]

...absolutely insane, but Best Buy deserve it for fabricating evidence.
But that makes you wonder: could the person who kept trying to pretend BB still had the laptop have been the guy who stole it? In that case, $54m is justifiable!

I wasn't saying whether she did or not, I'm simply stating that in her blog, she claims she never knew about either the $1,100 or $500 gift card until the transfers were completed (the former of which I personally have my doubts about).


Next time something like that happens, pick up a good, strong magnet and run it over the drive. It'll still be intact, but the data will be effectively corrupted, at the least. If I'm not mistaken, they actually make magnets used for the sole purpose of wiping out hard drives.

Pits and bumps (binary) are made on the HD with a laser (and read with a weaker laser, sensor and a mirror). If the disk is not magnetic, how would this have any effect?

 

[score_under]

But after losing the laptop, you lose any saved passwords people could get hold of, registered software, product keys, credit card numbers, hosting accounts ( ), money from advertising, time used implementing the software, stolen documents, evidence that she downloaded keygens, etc.
EDIT: the last one was a joke.

 

[Hazirak]

Pits and bumps (binary) are made on the HD with a laser (and read with a weaker laser, sensor and a mirror). If the disk is not magnetic, how would this have any effect?

You do have a point there, I'll give you that. The question still becomes of how it would affect whatever other electronics are in the drive - I'd be highly surprised if it were just a head, platter, and cable attachment without any other intervening chips to control the head and platters, interpret signals from the cable, and transmit information over the same cable.

But I could also be wrong, as I've just been proven here. That's the fun part of it, though.

 

[Fahad]

If the magnet was strong enough, it might cause a power surge to some components if they were on, but that's it.
And the only way to truly destroy data on a hard disk is to shatter both (or all ten if its a SCSI drive) of the metal disks. (dynamite, maybe?)

 

[.algx. maX]

I wonder when people will stop trying to get rich quick.......llol.

 

[deadimp]

Thing with identity theft now is, someone would have to either be in or out of their right mind to decidedly try and steal her information if they know who she is. The publicity they might receive for it would either suck or be great, depending on what kind of moron's doing it.

As for the rest of the story, I think most of my sentiments have been covered by the people who've actually read the story and understood the situation.

 

[adminhullms]

It seems that everyone nowadays is suing companies for these kind of things... When will people stop? I think it is just a matter of reducing the power of these humongously huge companies... Which I am all for, because the best deals come from small business!

 

[smaier]

Pits and bumps (binary) are made on the HD with a laser (and read with a weaker laser, sensor and a mirror). If the disk is not magnetic, how would this have any effect?

A hard drive does not store info with pits and bumps, you are thinking a CD. Hard drives store data, essentially, by magnetically polarizing tiny sections of the drive. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive

 

[Hazirak]

And the only way to truly destroy data on a hard disk is to shatter both (or all ten if its a SCSI drive) of the metal disks. (dynamite, maybe?)

Or just take a drill and put a few holes through the whole thing.

It'll still technically be possible to recover some data, but chances are it will simply take too much time and effort to be considered worth it.

 

[Fahad]

I hadn't thought of that!

Or you could just do the obvious and melt it down in a furnace (OK, not too obvious!)

 

[Blockis2]

I think that it's rediculous that someone would go to such extremes, but the store DID lose the computer and kept lying. THey sholdn't have done that, and now there paying for it!

Good job lol.

 

[Derek]

It's same as the pants case right?