Dell ding-donged

Court Finds Dell Guilty of Fraud by Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

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.

But otherwise, it's a Dell of a company.

It was elsewhere reported that (beware of loud ad when clicking this link)

"Dell said in a statement that “We don’t agree with this decision and will be defending our position vigorously. Our goal has been and continues to be to provide the best customer experience possible. We are confident that when the proceedings are finally complete, the court will determine that only a small number of customers have been affected.”