Court Finds Dell Guilty of Fraud

[DainBramaged]

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.

Dell did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the ruling


http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146371/court_finds_dell_guilty_of_fraud.html


I guess we know why they reported such high profits.

[Triana]

1. If you run CentOS (unbranded redhat linux) - they'll damn near hang up on you...

...if they find out - and they'll insist your problem is caused by the OS (which is just redhat linux minus the logo - and they support redhat linux). Doesn't matter what the problem is or what support contract you have with them - if you run CentOS - don't tell them - you'll get zero support.

[DainBramaged]

2. I stopped calling them years ago when they outsourced support

We use Dell's at work. They have been trouble free. But if one breaks, I just fix it. Can't be bothered waiting for support or a tech to come on site or for a replacement. Had one bad one out of over 40 in 4 years. they run 24/7 and get shut down about once a month.

Fuck dell. I am beginning to just build systems now from Ebay parts. Cheap and effective.

[Selatius]

3. We all thought Bill Gates cornered the market on evil in the computerverse.

I guess we were wrong.

[DainBramaged]

4. Michael Dell is lower than scum

[flashl]

5. For years, the mystery for me, why did everyone BUT Gates got a pass?

To this day, no manner who the vendor may be for a component or a service related to a computer, if they find you have a Windows OS, they will find a way to refer you to MS.