Best Buy and Microsoft accused of internet scam

[Almighty Colin]

[Reuters]

Samuel Kim has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Best Buy and Microsoft, accusing them of scamming customers by charging them for online services without their knowledge. The suit claims the alleged scam stemmed from a promotion in which customers at Best Buy, who paid for purchases with credit or debit cards, were given free compact discs that allowed them to try Microsoft's online service, MSN.

Accoring to the lawsuit a Best Buy employee scanned Samuel Kim's debit card and, without any explanation to him, scanned a trial MSN compact disc and placed it in his shopping bag. When Kim asked why the compact disc had been scanned, the employee allegedly said it was to keep track of inventory. Best Buy allegedly sent Kim's debit card information to Microsoft, which activated an MSN service account in his name without telling him.



Last edited by Colin at May 9 2003, 06:45 AM

[Trev]

and yet it's pornographers that have the bad name :grrr:

[Winetalk.com]

I disagree,
BOTH:
Microsoft AND pornographers have a bad name,
even though I have to admit,
in the recent history,
more states prosecuted Microsoft than porn industry
;-))

[Torone]

That's not a scam...When I recently bought a new laptop, basically the same happened; but the checker advised me that it was being done and to connect up ASAP and cancel the signup. This guy is just trying to get in on the 'lawsuit lottery'.



Last edited by Torone at May 9 2003, 07:15 AM

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by Serge_Oprano@May 9 2003, 07:10 AM
in the recent history,
more states prosecuted Microsoft than porn industry
;-))
That's a good one. :D

[Trev]

Originally posted by Serge_Oprano@May 9 2003, 12:10 PM
more states prosecuted Microsoft than porn industry
;-))
he can offord to lose a couple of billion in lawsuits <_<

[Mike AI]

Microsoft AND pornographers have a bad name,
even though I have to admit,
in the recent history,
more states prosecuted Microsoft than porn industry

HAHAHA Classic!!!!

[Peaches]

I see ads all the time from the big computer stores for "$400 (or so) off the price of your computer with a 3 year membership to MSN". I'll bet that this is one of those situations and dumbass was one of the millions of people out there that has the inability to read terms and conditions. :awinky:

[TheEnforcer]

Originally posted by Torone@May 9 2003, 07:15 AM
That's not a scam...When I recently bought a new laptop, basically the same happened; but the checker advised me that it was being done and to connect up ASAP and cancel the signup. This guy is just trying to get in on the 'lawsuit lottery'.
Knew it wouldn't take long for someone to approve of what they did and try and blame lawyers.

[Torone]

Originally posted by TheEnforcer+May 9 2003, 02:26 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (TheEnforcer @ May 9 2003, 02:26 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--Torone@May 9 2003, 07:15 AM
That's not a scam...When I recently bought a new laptop, basically the same happened; but the checker advised me that it was being done and to connect up ASAP and cancel the signup. This guy is just trying to get in on the 'lawsuit lottery'.
Knew it wouldn't take long for someone to approve of what they did and try and blame lawyers.[/b][/quote]
What's the matter, TE? You one? I'll go a step further and say that 300 lawyers in a leaky boat in the middle of the Atlantic with no communications is what's known as 'a good start' ( still want a 'finger' smilie!).

[TheEnforcer]

Nope, not a lawyer, that's Mike AI. But I'd be happy to tell every place you shop that they can happily lie to your ass and charge your credit card for all sorts of stuff and you won't mind a bit cause you think it's ok to do so.

[PornoDoggy]

Now, the pity of the whole scenario is that let's say a judge does find there is enough evidence to try the case that Microsoft and Best Buy conspired to defraud a million customers out of $400 each, and this case is certified as a class action lawsuit. That's $400,000,000 in fraud. (I'm not saying that's what happened, or will happened - just using it as an example. The 1 million customers is lowball, and their lawyers will fight tooth and nail for 2-5 years before it gets that far. Microsoft has more lawyers than the Bush Administration has reasons for the war in Iraq, and Best Buy is very skillful at defending it's "marketing practices" as they have had lots of practice at it.)

Microsoft and Best Buy will then propose a settlement. Samuel Kim and any other named plaintiffs will get $5,000. The plaintiff's attorneys will pocket anywhere from $4 to $20 million.

The rest of the plaintiffs in the suit will receive a $40 discount coupon for their next purchase at Best Buy. As of 4 years ago, it was estimated that about 20% of the people would actually use it. I worked on a couple of these cases, and the payout to the planitff's lawyers basically gets higher the quicker the suit is settled.



Last edited by PornoDoggy at May 9 2003, 10:54 PM

[Torone]

Originally posted by TheEnforcer@May 9 2003, 10:31 PM
Nope, not a lawyer, that's Mike AI. But I'd be happy to tell every place you shop that they can happily lie to your ass and charge your credit card for all sorts of stuff and you won't mind a bit cause you think it's ok to do so.
I don't know how old you are, or how high you got in school; but you obviously don't read too well. Where did I say anything like that? I didn't.

Fact is, you are one of those kool-aid drinkers who automatically rules against business. In your poor, feeble roboticized mind, business=bad and trial lawyers=good. You, my friend are part of the mind-numbed Liberal base.

Bend over, the various Liberal candidates each want a go at you...

[Mojo]

You know...I noticed a big sign in the window at Best Buy yesterday that said "Credit Card used for Age Verification purposes only"


:blink:

[Winetalk.com]

Originally posted by Mojo@May 10 2003, 09:01 AM
You know...I noticed a big sign in the window at Best Buy yesterday that said "Credit Card used for Age Verification purposes only"


:blink:
LOL
;-)))))

[Torone]

Originally posted by Mojo@May 10 2003, 09:01 AM
You know...I noticed a big sign in the window at Best Buy yesterday that said "Credit Card used for Age Verification purposes only"


:blink:
:groucho: :groucho: :groucho: :groucho:

[TheEnforcer]

Originally posted by Torone+May 10 2003, 07:31 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Torone @ May 10 2003, 07:31 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--TheEnforcer@May 9 2003, 10:31 PM
Nope, not a lawyer, that's Mike AI. But I'd be happy to tell every place you shop that they can happily lie to your ass and charge your credit card for all sorts of stuff and you won't mind a bit cause you think it's ok to do so.
I don't know how old you are, or how high you got in school; but you obviously don't read too well. Where did I say anything like that? I didn't.

Fact is, you are one of those kool-aid drinkers who automatically rules against business. In your poor, feeble roboticized mind, business=bad and trial lawyers=good. You, my friend are part of the mind-numbed Liberal base.

Bend over, the various Liberal candidates each want a go at you...[/b][/quote]
And it's people like you that don't realize that what you say may come back to bite you in the ass. You stated above that what happened WAS NOT A SCAM! You therefore are perfectly ok with that business practice and will happily accept it to be used on YOU! Therefore I would happily like to inform everyone you do business with that they can treat you that way in business and that you find it perfectly acceptable.

So to use your own words- the fact is that you are a mindless kool-aid drinker yourself and were all too happy and quick to declare this a sound business practice that you deem acceptable to be practiced on you and immediately rushed to business defense and condemn lawyers and "lottery seeking" plaintiffs.

And you are part of a mindless group that is too quick to generalize everything down in your feeble mind to someone who is "liberal" posts something so no matter what the facts are I'll attack it and mindlessly make a remark and then not admit that you were too foolish to actually stop and think of what you posted and then try and salvage what's left of your pride by trying to deny you said what you actually said.

[Torone]

TE,
You again prove your position. You stand on the assumption that the story as told was true. I'm saying that the guy was LYING! Best Buy did run a special which depended on the buyer signing up for MSN; but the disclaimers were all there. I repeat: The guy was lying in hopes of winning the lawsuit lottery. People do it all the time. I personally defeated one who I saw lie down on the floor in a supermarket and then start screaming that she had fallen. She didn't know that I had seen her actually lie down very carefully. She's now doing time for fraud. Wake up, man! Business is NOT automatically guilty just because some wanna-be-rich ambulance-chaser files a lawsuit.

[Torone]

BTW, is it just MS and Best Buy that you hate, or is it the entire Capitalist system?

Remember what happened when the previous administration decided to bring down America's largest technology company? Can we say 'dot bomb'. That's right. The attack on Microsoft was the trigger for what happened to the high-tech sector. Look at the timeline (after you learn to read).

[TheEnforcer]

Don't hate capitalism at all. Just narrow minded "kool aid drinkers" that can't back up their arguements with facts as well as people who are dumb enough to assume that all businesses act above board in their dealings with customers.

Also, as for the dot com bust, brick and mortar business practices that were untenable in the online world as well as sticking with outdated and untenable payout sytems were just as, if not more, responsible for the dot com bust as the DOJ going after Microsoft was. Of course that would require going beyond your narrow little world and actually acknowledge that businesses can fuck up mightily without the government's help.

[Torone]

Personal experience is about as real as it gets...your world is the one that is small. Mine includes everything I want plus some things I don't.