Win A Lawsuit Against Best Buy, Get Banned For Life

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Some guy successfully sues Best Buy and gets banned for life in the process. I wonder if they would have banned him had he lost the case? ;)

When Best Buy sent me a check to satisfy the judgment against them, they enclosed a letter banning me from shopping at, seeking services at, and/or entering any of their stores, threatening to have me cited for trespass if I do so. Apparently shoplifters and people who point out that Best Buy is violating consumer law get treated the same!
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i would still return to best buy....... just to play around with the toys.

a restraining order- is that even legal ?
 
That's why I never sho-- oh forget it everyone knows where this is going.


Fuck best buy
Piscian out
 
What if he wanted to spend some of the money he got from them, at BestBuy, basicly giving it back to them?

wow, welcome to the future...
 
Who actually buys anything there anymore? Prices are terrible!

$50 box sets of shows I can watch on TV for free, zomg what a bargain!
 
caddys83 said:
Sue em again for banning you :p
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Companies are free to sell to you or not. Their choice. As long as they simply aren't serving you because of your race or sex...they can tell you do go f*** yourself.

It's a funny story though.
 
Right to refuse service to anyone. If you sued my company, I would ban you for life too.
 
When I had my computer shop which was high traffic, over the 4 years I was there before I moved I had to ban maybe 5 or 6 people. I didn't like to but you have to protect your sanity and business. I had one guy that kept always having problems with motherboards, burners, memory, etc. The 4th time I made an exchange for him, not counting all the other times he complained, I pulled him aside and told him I could not afford to keep doing this for him and said, I am sorry but I am banning you from my store. At first he looked really shocked then said what did I do? I told him you have too many problems with everything you buy. No one else does. And before he could say anything else, I said, if I see you again, I will quietly call the police and the 3 of us can discuss why I banned you from here. Never saw him again and I never had anywhere near the problems I had with him again in my store. Best Buy might have been in the wrong here but at the same time they do have a right to ban problematic people. I am almost sure it is nothing personal against him. It's the fact that it's easier to ban him and avoid any "potential" problems from this person. You really have to look at this from both sides before passing judgment.
 
Michael said he'd call me back again. Within the hour, I got a call saying I could pick up my receiver when it comes in and not pay any more than the deposit.

I can understand the guy's frustration. Damn though. He basically got a $40 receiver repair. Then he puts the boots to them? I agree they where wrong, but shit happens and as far as I'm concerned, they made it right. Perhaps they think this guy is planning a slip and fall next.:p
 
Plus that ban is laughable. All he has to do is go into a completely different store in a different city. No one will know who he is. You actually think the clerk is going to know he is banned for life? LAWL
 
BallerX said:
Michael said he'd call me back again. Within the hour, I got a call saying I could pick up my receiver when it comes in and not pay any more than the deposit.

I can understand the guy's frustration. Damn though. He basically got a $40 receiver repair. Then he puts the boots to them? I agree they where wrong, but shit happens and as far as I'm concerned, they made it right. Perhaps they think this guy is planning a slip and fall next.:p
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Not the point. Once they demand money when you haven't authorized any charges, they've broken the law and need to be held accountable.

Like one of the commenters on the consumerist said, If you steel a TV, then bring it back to make it right, it's not going to be 'alls well that ends well', and you'll end up in jail. In this case, Best Buy broke the law and they had to pay whether they made it right in the end or not.
 
I honestly don't see what the issue is. Best Buy is just helping him make better purchasing decisions. Persoinally I wish they would just extend the favor and ban everyone from shopping at Best Buy. :D
 
GreenMonkey said:
Companies are free to sell to you or not. Their choice. As long as they simply aren't serving you because of your race or sex...they can tell you do go f*** yourself.

It's a funny story though.
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Yup. Best Buy is free to ban this guy, he's free to point out how childish they are, and we're free to ridicule them and give them a bad rap until the end of time (or more realistically, until we forget about it next week). :p
 
TheCapulet said:
Not the point. Once they demand money when you haven't authorized any charges, they've broken the law and need to be held accountable.

Like one of the commenters on the consumerist said, If you steel a TV, then bring it back to make it right, it's not going to be 'alls well that ends well', and you'll end up in jail. In this case, Best Buy broke the law and they had to pay whether they made it right in the end or not.
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this
 
Falkentyne said:
Plus that ban is laughable. All he has to do is go into a completely different store in a different city. No one will know who he is. You actually think the clerk is going to know he is banned for life? LAWL
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Their corporate system could still potentially flag him if he pays with a card though, and after security footage confirms it was him, they might try to nail him for trespassing. That would be hilariously self-destructive of course, since they'd only be denying themselves business, but I wouldn't put it past them. If they were smart, they'd only enforce their ban in the event he causes problems for them again (after they tried pulling something on him first, probably).
 
Falkentyne said:
Plus that ban is laughable. All he has to do is go into a completely different store in a different city. No one will know who he is. You actually think the clerk is going to know he is banned for life? LAWL
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Sure, up until he checks out, is flagged in their computer system (which he probably is) and has the police show up and arrest him. I have no doubt he is in their computer systems now.....
 
Cool, I am going to sue Best Buy just to make sure I don't accidentally buy something there.
 
Lorddeth said:
Sure, up until he checks out, is flagged in their computer system (which he probably is) and has the police show up and arrest him. I have no doubt he is in their computer systems now.....
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Pay with cash and lie if they ask for personal information.
 
Falkentyne said:
Plus that ban is laughable. All he has to do is go into a completely different store in a different city. No one will know who he is. You actually think the clerk is going to know he is banned for life? LAWL
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Tthey could care less if he ever sets foot in a store. They know it's not an enforceable ban and likely expect he'll be back.

What it does, though--assuming they sent the letter in such a way that they can prove it was delivered--is give them the ability to put that letter before a judge should he attempt to sue them again so they can prove that he was told not to come back. No matter how he gets treated on his next visit to BB, he doesn't have much of a case since he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.

It's not a bad idea, except that the internet will pounce companies that do stuff like this. As is evidenced here.
 
Lorddeth said:
Sure, up until he checks out, is flagged in their computer system (which he probably is) and has the police show up and arrest him. I have no doubt he is in their computer systems now.....
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The police can't arrest him in most places unless there is a standing trespass warning, and a letter from the company doesn't amount to that. They'll just tell him to leave and don't come back, and maybe issue that warning themselves so that it's on file so he can be arrested the NEXT time.
 
If you are going to sue me for shit that goes on in our forums, I am going to ban you. Not even a question. If I come over to your house, get hurt, sue the shit out of you, win........you gonna have me over for beers next week?
 
Let me get this straight. This guy got his repair essentially for free at the expense of Best Buy and has the balls to sue them? I mean seriously...this idiot does deserve to be banned.
 
BallerX said:
Michael said he'd call me back again. Within the hour, I got a call saying I could pick up my receiver when it comes in and not pay any more than the deposit.

I can understand the guy's frustration. Damn though. He basically got a $40 receiver repair. Then he puts the boots to them? I agree they where wrong, but shit happens and as far as I'm concerned, they made it right. Perhaps they think this guy is planning a slip and fall next.:p
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That's not the point. If more people sued over illegal practices, the company would eventually have to change their ways. The violation fines are there for a reason. Whose to say that this isn't a common practice for BB?

A lot of companies bank on people not knowing how to use the court system.
 
Honestly they done him a favor... They are anything but best buy... Over priced condescending asshats imo...
 
In all honesty, the guy was a bit of a douche. BB rescinded the charges.

I realize he doesn't legally have to absolve them of liability at that point (as the judge agreed), but it would have been nice. Don't we always say too many people are too quick to sue just because they see an opportunity to do so?
 
HOCP4ME said:
In all honesty, the guy was a bit of a douche. BB rescinded the charges.

I realize he doesn't legally have to absolve them of liability at that point (as the judge agreed), but it would have been nice. Don't we always say too many people are too quick to sue just because they see an opportunity to do so?
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I do not see why this double standard of morality exists. Businesses are never nice. They follow their policies and the law, and if you break either they will line right up to take payment. Ex: Past return policy, overdraft fees, etc. So when a consumer gets treated like crap and his consumer rights violated he just needs to roll over and play nice?

He was right to sue, Best Buy was right to ban.
 
I'd print up a few thousand leaflets with a copy of their letter to him on one side and a copy of his blog post on the other, pick a store, stand outside and start handing them out to everyone who enters...legal in every state of the union. Then, when they start harassing him for it sue them again. Repeat to your heart's content.
 
Whether or not BB banned him doesn't even matter. No rational person continues to do business with a company that has screwed them anyway.

It is for this reason that neither I nor any of my descendants will ever darken the door of a Gamestop; having jackasses try to push preorders on me with deliberate understocking when the product is widely available elsewhere has cost them my business.
 
Hmmm.....

Well, considering that BestBuy didn't charge him anything and basically rectified their mistake, I think he was a bit of a jerk for sueing them.

That said, the "Banned for Life" from BestBuy over this and the threat of charging him with Trespass is actually probably illegal in and of itself in many districts.

FEDERAL courts have already ruled that posting "We reserve the right to refuse service" signs has the potential to misused as a form of Jim Crowe/segregation attempt and are basically unenforcable -- and if someone does try to enforce it then they had better be able to prove a valid, non-discriminatory reason for it or they are opening themselves up to more Federal discrimination lawsuits than they can count. In many locales, when a store is open for business, it is considered a defacto public location and different rules apply regarding Trespass than otherwise would normally apply on private property.

Additionally, while a Judge could have ordered him to avoid BestBuy forever as part of a settlement term or had he been involved in criminal mischief at BestBuy (i.e. public disturbance, et al), it is not within their right to refuse him service because he proved that they were engaging in illegal business practices. Furthermore, considering that BestBuy is a national chain, his filing the lawsuit (and winning it) would potentially bring Federal consumer protection laws and whistle-blower protection laws into play (which basically state that punitive action cannot be taken against whistle-blowers with legal standing).

In other words, if the guy REALLY wants to be an ass, he could potentially go into a BestBuy and attempt to buy something and see if they flag him (preferably in another state, to make sure it is an interstate matter and Federal law is clearly in play). BestBuy has potentially set themselves up for even more lawsuits if they aren't careful.
 
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