Best Buy/Bad Buy Boycott Blog launch

WASHINGTON D.C (BLOGGER) REPORTS ON DIFFICULTYIES WITH BEST BUY ON STOLEN COMPUTER ISSUE Best Buy/Bad Buy Boycott Blog: Best Buy/Bad Buy Boycott Blog launch

Web-Blog Editor Note: This article has important information on the real costs to the victim of a stolen computer

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Best Buy/Bad Buy Boycott Blog launch

WHAT IS "APPROPRIATE" COMPENSATION FOR A VICTIM OF COMPUTER THEFT AND COVERUP BY BEST BUY? WHAT IS AN "APPROPRIATE" FIGURE TO MOTIVATE BEST BUY TO ADOPT ADEQUATE MEASURES TO SAFEGUARD FUTURE CUSTOMERS' PROPERTY AND PERSONAL INFORMATION?

My initial effort to bring attention to how little Best Buy and its agents respect the property, private information, time, and interests of its customers was well received by the small circle of family and friends to whom I forwarded my 10/19/07 email (posted separately on blog).

Given this, and Best Buy's less-than-satisfactory response to date, I've decided to broaden the scope a bit and ask the broader public to weigh in on the situation through this blog.

Best Buy's response has been insulting at best. Best Buy Tenleytown-DC General Manager Robert Delissio responded on 10/19/07 with an email riddled with misleading, inaccurate, and insulting statements (posted separately on blog).

At the HQ level, Mr. Robert Feivor of Best Buy Co., Inc. responded on 10/16/07 to an inquiry from the DC Attorney General's Office that "Best Buy feels we have appropriately addressed this issue" by proposing resolution through: 1) a refund of the original purchase price of the computer package ( i.e., NOT the value of a comparably sized and equipped replacement computer); and 2) a $500 gift card "to address the other concerns and inconvenience resulting."

As a point of reference, DC Metropolitan Police Department website (http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1237,q,543203,mpdcNav_GID,1548.asp) confirms its view that "the cost of a stolen laptop is not just its replacement cost, but also the cost of peripherals such as modems and network cards, the installed software, the cost of configuring and loading replacement software, and the cost of lost time for the laptop owner while thecomputer is being replaced. An even greater cost (especially if your employer issued your laptop) is the potential exposure and liability that results from lost confidential corporate and client information."

The even greater cost and risk, in fact, is what can happen should personal information (e.g., social security numbers and other information included on tax and other documents saved on acomputer) fall into the wrong hands and the person falls victim to identity theft . I have been advised that DC Law (Consumer Protection Procedures Act) and Federal Law (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA)- http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/index.shtml) require that businesses adopt reasonable safeguards to protect customers against risks associated with the theft of personal information. Best Buy demonstrated reckless disregard for this in their initial failure to prevent the theft of my computer, subsequent failure to disclose the theft in a timely manner so that I could take measures to prevent identity theft and illegal use of my personal information immediately, and apparent lack of a sense of need for immediate measures to modify procedures to safeguard against the re occurence of similar situations.

Given this, I'm curious to see if I am alone in questioning whether Best Buy's response has been "appropriate" and whether others would consider a $500 GIFT CARD (that must be used at the offending company!) adequate compensation for the time and expense of replacing lost software, a lifetime collection of music, 4 years of digital photos and albums, and future years of expense for credit monitoring and IDtheft prevention services necessitated by the fact that their SSN and other personal information has fallen in the hands of God-knows-who as the result of Best Buy's negligence.

What would you suggest as fair compensation if you similarly found yourself as a victim of Best Buy's negligence and gross mismanagement? What amount of damages do you think would would be "appropriate" to get the apparently complacent Best Buy to revise its internal policies to prevent the recurrence of such incidents for future customers?

Posted by rcdc at 7:42 PM