JSutherland36
Junior Member
I am in Maryland.
have a legal that is related to business law, agency, and privity of contract. I will explain the whole story and the background information.
Before the start of law school I purchased a Gateway laptop at a large famous electronics store on the advice of a salesperson there. Last November the laptop had so many problems that I had to replace it. I visited the same store and the salesperson told me that Gateways were poor computers. This annoyed me, but I purchased a fairly expensive Sony Vaio because of the company’s reputation. At the end of December I noticed that it had a cracked screen, so my fiancé took it into another location of the store to have it repaired on December 30th. He had a few runarounds with them the facts of which I am not certain. Then I received a call from the store (it was an automated message) that my laptop was ready to be picked up. We drove to the store and the laptop was unrepaired. It took them forever to find the laptop, and then they told us that we had refused the estimate. This is completely untrue and in fact we had never received a phone call from them at all until the one notifying us to pick the laptop up.
My fiancé was very frustrated because, in part, of his recent issues with the company relating to this repair, so he asked to see a store manager. He had dealt with the repairs division manager before and that was not helpful to him at all. A manager came over and he was very rude. The staff rolled their eyes at me when I was signing the new repair order because I actually read what it said. Then when they printed out a contract to give us it was pretty much blank because the printer was out of ink. When we complained and asked for a readable copy we were made to feel like we were being ridiculous and were told that they could not print us a clear copy because they had no ink!
A few weeks later I received an automated message from the store that said that the laptop would be shipped back via UPS within 5 business days. I assumed that this meant shipped back to the store since that was the agreement and at no point was shipping to my house ever discussed. On Monday my fiancé called the store and again they could not find the laptop. Getting fed up with the store he called the corporate customer care line and spoke to a representative. She was helpful to a point and filed an official complaint against the store itself (or so she said) but then she started trying to tell my fiancé since they shipped it to Sony we had to take it up with Sony as they were liable. He asked for a supervisor and put me on the phone. The supervisor again tried to tell me that Sony was liable, but then I explained that I did not think so, that the company was acting as an agent of Sony and there was no privity of contract between Sony and me. Then she said something like, “of course”, which makes me wonder if she was deliberately trying to trick me. She asked what I wanted and I told her that I wanted my repaired computer as soon as possible and if they could not do that I wanted another of the same make, year and model. She said the latter was out of the question and went to see where the computer actually was. When she came back on the line she said that according to the tracking number she had, Sony had shipped it via Federal Express and it was delivered on the 8th. I told her that was unacceptable: shipping to my home made no sense as the repair bill was over $600 (she agreed that made no sense), that shipping to my house was never discussed and never even mention and it goes against their regular business practice, that I never had anything shipped here because I live in a city row home, and that no package was received. She said she would try to find a solution for me and get back to me in 24 hours.
I never received a phone call from her so 48 hours later I phoned the corporate customer service number. I spoke at first to a new service representative and she could not find ANY record of any of my dealings with them on this mater no matter how she searched. The supervisor was not available as she was “helping another customer”. I was transferred into her voicemail and left her a lengthy message.
There are so many problems with the company’s story: I received the phone call about delivery after the 8th and from the company, even though the company made it sound as if Sony unilaterally decided to mail the laptop to me. She had a tracking number all along and still behaved as though she didn’t know what was going on or where my laptop is, and I was on the phone with her for almost an hour. She seems to have known that I shouldn’t have to deal with Sony, she did not return my call, she was not available to talk, and the records of all of this have “disappeared”.
My question for you is, do you think that I am correct in that the company is responsible to me for the loss of my laptop even if, as they are trying to claim, Sony did something odd with it? I think that I might have to sue them and I want to make sure that I am right before I pursue this and further. I really appreciate any help that you are able to offer.
Also: I have heard that another woman in Maryland is suing the same major electronics retailer for an almost identical issue. If anyone knows anything about that I would love to know the name of her attorney or the case number.
Thanks!
have a legal that is related to business law, agency, and privity of contract. I will explain the whole story and the background information.
Before the start of law school I purchased a Gateway laptop at a large famous electronics store on the advice of a salesperson there. Last November the laptop had so many problems that I had to replace it. I visited the same store and the salesperson told me that Gateways were poor computers. This annoyed me, but I purchased a fairly expensive Sony Vaio because of the company’s reputation. At the end of December I noticed that it had a cracked screen, so my fiancé took it into another location of the store to have it repaired on December 30th. He had a few runarounds with them the facts of which I am not certain. Then I received a call from the store (it was an automated message) that my laptop was ready to be picked up. We drove to the store and the laptop was unrepaired. It took them forever to find the laptop, and then they told us that we had refused the estimate. This is completely untrue and in fact we had never received a phone call from them at all until the one notifying us to pick the laptop up.
My fiancé was very frustrated because, in part, of his recent issues with the company relating to this repair, so he asked to see a store manager. He had dealt with the repairs division manager before and that was not helpful to him at all. A manager came over and he was very rude. The staff rolled their eyes at me when I was signing the new repair order because I actually read what it said. Then when they printed out a contract to give us it was pretty much blank because the printer was out of ink. When we complained and asked for a readable copy we were made to feel like we were being ridiculous and were told that they could not print us a clear copy because they had no ink!
A few weeks later I received an automated message from the store that said that the laptop would be shipped back via UPS within 5 business days. I assumed that this meant shipped back to the store since that was the agreement and at no point was shipping to my house ever discussed. On Monday my fiancé called the store and again they could not find the laptop. Getting fed up with the store he called the corporate customer care line and spoke to a representative. She was helpful to a point and filed an official complaint against the store itself (or so she said) but then she started trying to tell my fiancé since they shipped it to Sony we had to take it up with Sony as they were liable. He asked for a supervisor and put me on the phone. The supervisor again tried to tell me that Sony was liable, but then I explained that I did not think so, that the company was acting as an agent of Sony and there was no privity of contract between Sony and me. Then she said something like, “of course”, which makes me wonder if she was deliberately trying to trick me. She asked what I wanted and I told her that I wanted my repaired computer as soon as possible and if they could not do that I wanted another of the same make, year and model. She said the latter was out of the question and went to see where the computer actually was. When she came back on the line she said that according to the tracking number she had, Sony had shipped it via Federal Express and it was delivered on the 8th. I told her that was unacceptable: shipping to my home made no sense as the repair bill was over $600 (she agreed that made no sense), that shipping to my house was never discussed and never even mention and it goes against their regular business practice, that I never had anything shipped here because I live in a city row home, and that no package was received. She said she would try to find a solution for me and get back to me in 24 hours.
I never received a phone call from her so 48 hours later I phoned the corporate customer service number. I spoke at first to a new service representative and she could not find ANY record of any of my dealings with them on this mater no matter how she searched. The supervisor was not available as she was “helping another customer”. I was transferred into her voicemail and left her a lengthy message.
There are so many problems with the company’s story: I received the phone call about delivery after the 8th and from the company, even though the company made it sound as if Sony unilaterally decided to mail the laptop to me. She had a tracking number all along and still behaved as though she didn’t know what was going on or where my laptop is, and I was on the phone with her for almost an hour. She seems to have known that I shouldn’t have to deal with Sony, she did not return my call, she was not available to talk, and the records of all of this have “disappeared”.
My question for you is, do you think that I am correct in that the company is responsible to me for the loss of my laptop even if, as they are trying to claim, Sony did something odd with it? I think that I might have to sue them and I want to make sure that I am right before I pursue this and further. I really appreciate any help that you are able to offer.
Also: I have heard that another woman in Maryland is suing the same major electronics retailer for an almost identical issue. If anyone knows anything about that I would love to know the name of her attorney or the case number.
Thanks!
