Dell Found Guilty of Fraud, False Advertising

Natalie 05-28-2008

Dell was found guilty on Tuesday of fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices and abusive debt collection practices in a case brought by the New York attorney general.

The Albany County Supreme Court found that Dell deprived customers of technical support that they bought or were eligible for under warranty in several ways, including by requiring people to wait for very long times on the phone, repeatedly transferring their calls and frequently disconnecting their calls.

Dell also often failed to provide onsite repairs for customers who bought contracts for such support and often blamed software when hardware was actually the problem, the court found. The company also sometimes refused to offer support when a support contract ended, even though the user had first complained about a problem before the end of the contract. Subscribers to a "next-day" repair service sometimes waited as long as a year for support, the court found.

Dell and affiliate Dell Financial Services also advertised special no-interest financing, but denied almost everyone those terms. It often sold customers products without informing them that they didn't qualify for the special financing terms and then charged them interest rates as high as 30 percent, the court said.

Dell and DFS also often incorrectly billed people for cancelled orders and for accounts they didn't authorize. The companies then harassed the people for payment, using illegal billing and collection practices, the court said.

The court will determine how much Dell will have to pay in restitution to affected customers and will also require Dell to pay the state of New York the profits it made on these deceptive practices. In addition, the ruling prohibits Dell and DFS from continuing to engage in the fraudulent activities.

The court laid out plans for investigating how many people have been affected as a way to determine restitution. Dell hopes that the court will find that only a few people had bad experiences. "We're confident that when the proceedings are completed, the court will determine that only a relatively small number of customers have been affected," Dell said in a statement. "We believe that our customer service levels are at or above industry standards."

Nina

And this is the reason I never paid for extra insurance on Dell. Have a problem with a computer, give it to Sin and he'll fix it and it cost nothing.

spawnschickishot

hmmm well i gotta dell and i couldt never figure out where to take it to get fixed it has waranty until november!! lol but now i know what ive been knowing lol hahaha im retarded

Hsoolien

There used to be a Dell tech support centre in my city (Built mostly by the by taxpayers, we had a small tech support centre boom a few years back), it was supposed to be the mother load for jobs that were not oil dependent (future proofing our economy), they pulled put after less then five years do to the increase in value of the Canadian Dollar against Americas and economic boom driving waged up her, but it used to be cheaper to have tech support in Canada then the US, now they are all in Asia. Anyhow I knew a few people who worked there at various times, it ate truly compassionate people up

Chello

That's something I will have to admit is all the tech computer stuff I learn from Sin. Taking a computer into a shop fo something that's so simple to fix yourself with less then 30mins. No more getting hustled for me.

Hsoolien

Most of it's just how you see it in your head. You believe you can and you will because it's not hard, it's personal beliefs that make it hard.

orange

hsoolien is right on the ball... its not hard to remove 2 cables, 4 screws then swap things over that really is about as hard as it gets :\

anyway, its funny.. i've NEVER trusted Dell...

hugo281

Aww Crap!! I used a Dell computer at my job too, good thing I know how to fix the hardware problem too instead of calling Tech Support, shyt I don't want to wait a year for them to come fix the computers at my job lol, I'm with Orange I don't trust Dell either.

Raven

Yeah its not difficult but remember at the same time if you do it yourself and screw up well there goes your waranty and your computer. So for people who don't know how to do those things it can be a big gamble.

hugo281

that's true, but still waiting up to a year or being jerked around when you call their customer support line still sucks and compare that to fixing it yourself then might as well buy a "How to fix computer hardware, for dummies" from Barnes and Nobles.

Nina

Yeah there's a big difference in say Sin or Hsool or Gir messing with the insides of a computer to say Dreanna messing with the insides of the computer. She's never tried to before and if you just spent $1000 or more on a new computer I seriously doubt she wants to take a chance of messing it up herself. Although she could most likely do it it still some pressure for the first time for people.

hugo281

yeah that's true I guess I've been doing it for a long time now it just seems like its second nature just for Sin or Hsool but you know its just frustrating sometimes cause I deal with Dell most of the time and that's how I felt like sometimes too, and for those people who haven't had much experience digging around the insides of their computers that just getting that book would be the easiest thing to do but you right its not recommended if they don't have the experience either, but that's how frustrating it is for me sometimes when I'm at work

Hsoolien

Warrenties are always problomatic, that said it's not like Dell has been actualy upholding them

hugo281

yeah that's what I've been thinking too, which is why I hate calling their stupid tech support lines, and getting the "Uuuh Hello" tone from 1 out of 50 customer service techs, shyt that's already happened to me 2 times already

Hsoolien

You realize the people you're dealing with now are in Asia and likely learned English as they learned the tech support