Dell hit by class action lawsuit

Dell's been hit with a class action law suit by a law firm in California. Their claim? That Dell is pulling some skeezy bait-and-switch action — advertising computers with super low prices but when someone calls up to buy one telling them that it's either no longer available at that price or simply no longer available. There are also allegations that Dell is shipping products that are of (even) lower quality than what they have listed on their site.

[Dustin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

There is only one word for this. OWNED.

[Ignite++ @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

well, another word for it would be "true"

[geekdreams @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

No big surprise. Dell owners epitomize the term "buyer's remorse".

[Russell @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

"There are also allegations that Dell is shipping products of are of (even) lower quality than what they have listed on their site."

I'm sorry...what?

[bazald @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

3. True, but my main complaint is actually ATI's fault - the lack of an M11 driver for Linux.

At least it is more stable than my last computer (not saying much if you know my last computer).

[Phil @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

well, my dell's been great, my video card took a crap and they actually replaced it with a newer one. so buyers remorse, no, incredibly stable, and reasonable prices

[brandon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

my dimension 4400 has run 3 years straight, every day no major probs. Im planning on getting a XPS Gen 4 soon.

[Dereko Thopio @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I'm a very happy Dell owner, no complaints myself. I do scads of reasearch before I buy anything though. I can sympathize with the casual buyer though, a "deal" with Dell is not for the faint of hart (coupons, stacking coupons, meanings retail prices).
----
Your sentence should read...
There are also allegations that Dell is shipping products [that] are of lower quality than what they have listed on their site.

[Dereko Thopio @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

to correct myself...
I'm a very happy Dell owner, no complaints myself. I do scads of research before I buy anything, though. I can sympathize with the casual buyer, a "deal" with Dell is not for the faint of hart ("sales", stacking coupons, meaningless retail prices).

[Carl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I have had no problems with my Dell Precision workstation. (Dual P3 600/512mb) My wife now uses it for her photography and photo sharing and it still does everything we throw at it. I built my most recent computer only because it was significantly cheaper.

Still, if the bait and switch thing is true, they should get blasted for it.

[Roy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Oh yes this is true...I have watched and analysed the "special offers" of Dell for a while (wanted to buy a new server) here in the Netherlands. And I can tell you that the special offers are a lot of balony.
Example 1. dual xeon, second processor for free..price $999...2 weeks after the special a new special, the same server one processor $699..guess what you've got to pay for the second processor?

Further more there were special prices mentioned with the products overview, but when you go to the configuration screen you pay the normal price. So I called and they just say sorry, it's a mistake...probably of a previous special they say. This happened several times.

[chinolofus @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#1 u got it wrong its pwned...

[bungholio @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

This EXACT thing happened to me today! I called in for a "Super Value" deal (Celeron Desktop + CDRW + 17" flat panel for $449 after rebates) and when I gave them the offer code, the guy "checked" twice and said it didn't exist.

He tried to sell me a P4 with flat panel and cheapie printer (no cdrw) for $500 after rebates. I said no and told him to re-check the offer number. Lo and behold, he found it.

I ordered the cheaper computer, but I was thinking in the back of my mind that this might be a bait and switch... I am pretty sure that it is now... I'm glad I was insistent on the original offer.

I like Dell a lot, but this policy sucks (assuming the allegations are true).

[Jay @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Thats what you get for dealing with a shit company. Hope they slap them with the lawsuit that buries them.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I bought a Dell laptop for my wife a couple years ago, goddamn thing literally CRACKED just from opening and closing the lid (and I don't mean hard, I just mean normally, like you do every day when you open it up to use it).

I have not had experience with being baited and switched but it wouldn't surprise me. It may not even be intentional - my guess is somebody calls for a deal they see on TV, the sales drone just plain can't find it in his computer, and is instructed by his superiors to try to sell *anything* before letting that customer off the phone. Sounds like good business, right? Trouble is, it's illegal in California, New York and probably many other states. It's covered under bait and switch laws.

If you advertise something, you have to have a reasonable stock on hand at that price to cover potential orders. That makes bait and switch cases sort of hard to prove, because what is "reasonable"? But it has been proved plenty of times, and a BTO company like Dell is going to have a tough time saying they can't honor an advertised price when they also advertise that they custom build every system they sell.

[Khaytsus @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Number 13,

Congratulations! You paid $50 less for a computer that sucks! Celerons bite for anything except basic web browsing, $50 more for the P4 system would have been a steal. Add a CDRW for $20 or a DVD drive for $35 from any computer store and you would have been ahead in the game.

They might have been baiting and switching, but guess what; this time it was a better deal.

[cliffstitt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I might have worked for Dell at one point in my sales career. I might have attended a teleconference where the topic of discussion was how to overcome customers' objections when they want the naked, stripped P.O.S. advertised in print and broadcasts. I might have heard a naive young man, suitably Dellwashed, describe how to do this, and actually complete the sentence with "it's the ol' Bait & Switch". And I might have then heard someone from upper management congratulate him and applaud him for his contribution.

[cliffstitt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I might have worked for Dell at one point in my sales career. I might have attended a teleconference where the topic of discussion was how to overcome customers' objections when they want the naked, stripped P.O.S. advertised in print and broadcasts. I might have heard a naive young man, suitably Dellwashed, describe how to do this, and actually complete the sentence with "it's the ol' Bait & Switch". And I might have then heard someone from upper management congratulate him and applaud him for his contribution.

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

lower quality is how i'd describe my dell experience. total customer satisfaction? yeah right. i bought a latitude d600, supposedly the business class super laptop. when i bought it, it was maxed out with all the highest specs and i even got the dell internal bluetooth module which has only worked for a grand total of two months. within two months of purchase, my motherboard died. i've since, in a one year period, been through six motherboards, two lcds, three cpus, two harddrives, two batteries, two wireless cards, and three bluetooth modules. all i use my laptop for is word processing and online research. that's it. and i won't even begin to describe their customer service. award winning? that's ridiculous. twice they've sent the local technician the wrong part. when i sent my laptop to the dell diagnostic center where presumably they know what they're doing, they replaced my motherboard and forgot to put my bluetooth module onto the new one. recently, i was supposed to get another new motherboard, and one month later, sure enough, i did. what caused the delay? they made a mistake in my order and cancelled it, then forgot to reissue it with the correct part. so much for my next-business-day onsite care. buyer's remorse is very apt. no other computer i own or have owned has given me so many problems. i will never do business with dell again and i recommend no one else do it as well. the local company who contracts with dell to service computers even told me how incompetent dell's tech support service is, and furthermore, they testified to the unreliability of dell products.

[ken @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I noticed one of the people complaining about the prices changing from week to week. Duh! They will never offer a different price that will screw over the customer from week to week. You have to pay attention to the promos. One week of free processor, next week free ram and it all equals the same price. You obvisouly did not do that great of research.

[Ben @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I for one have had fairly positive experience with Dell. Though you have to wait till the right deal to come along, Dell often offers the cheapest prices on Computers, Accessories, and Cameras. I have also had to exchange a few defective products , and each time the experience was fairly painless. Just another consumers opinion.

[arkowi @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Last week, I was helping a small business order a computer. I went on Dell's site and configed a machine with a quote for her and gave the owner of the small biz a printout.

She sent the same config to her Dell rep, without the price. He came back with a cost of about $500 more.

She told him about this price difference and he sent her a new quote with a price MUCH closer.

Well, when the computer arrivd we saw how the rep had "cut" the price. He had removed from the order the speakers, the keyboard, the mouse, and the free monitor upgrade.

Hmmm...bring your own monitor mouse and keyboard? That's why she didn't want a Mac.

[OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

We buy pretty much all Dell's at work. No major complaints with their hardware or tech support, pretty near top notch.

But we usually shop in the Enterprise section, not the budget department...

I think part of the problem is that people are expecting more out of low end hardware than is reasonable. As someone so aptly stated earlier the Celeron is not an allstar performer, it's a budget solution. Basically you get what you pay for...

As for the bait and switch, yeah Dell's little screen edge ads will say ~"Laptops as low as $500..." and picture a machine costing $1500, but most companies engage in that type of marketing. The consumer does bear some responsibility to do independant research so they can make intelligent choices.

You can sue Dell and others if you want, but if people don't modify their buying habits to protect themselves their just gonna keep getting rooked...

- my 2 cents

[Balugabutt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I just got the SC420 server deal (Celeron 2.53, 80 gig SATA, etc) for $239. It was posted on their website as a 1 day only sale. They didn't try to sell me anything else and where happy to get my order.

I was satisfied with it enough that I ordered another about an hour later. Still no problems.

[MJS @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

My understanding is that the "bait and switch" allegations in the suit are mostly not related to pricing. Rather, they are primarily related to financing offers. Dell aggresively pushes their financing, with offers like no interest for one year and very low introductory rates. However, some customers have reportedly agreed to financing on these terms and THEN been told that they don't qualify for the "super deals". Instead, they are given financing at sky-high rates (25-35%) and are charged interest from the invoice date.

Consumers who choose to educate themselves quickly become aware that Dell pricing for a given configuration can change several times a week, and that you must strip off *every* upgrade to get a rock-bottom price. And almost all of their offers come with fine print. I personally had some trouble with my initial order with Dell, in that a coupon code became valid before it should have. My order was cancelled and I had a difficult time extracting from the reps why. In the end, things were resolved and I got the computer I wanted for a little more than my original order. Fast forward three weeks to a round of price cuts and better coupons. I called Dell and indicated my dismay that in only three weeks the price had dropped ~$150 on my config. Finally the rep to whom I spoke offered my a coupon for $100 off a purchase of $100.01 or more. Not great (since I don't plan to buy any electronics soon), but at least they were willing to do something for me. The next day, a different rep called my to discuss the situation. He was very nice and apologized to me for my trouble, and said that Dell would credit $50 back to my CC within the week. They did.

In the interim, I also had Dell send some CDs that were missing in my original package. All that took was three minutes in an online chat with a technical support rep.

Now I will agree that Dell is pretty rotten when it comes to their financing. But many of the other complaints are more issues of consumers not bothering to educate themselves. When people say that their computers ship with lower quality parts than advertised, I wonder if they mean "my Celeron 2.8 isn't lightening fast" or "my computer came with a last-generation motherboard". Post-purchase tech support may very well suck-- I haven't dealt with it much. But other than the cover of my laptop's screen not being as sturdy as I'd like (it's plastic, and I knew that before buying) I can't say I have any real complaints.

[Ralph Splash @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Who is actually calling in orders. Have you people heard of a little thing called the internet??

If you place your order on-line, you know exactly what you will get, and you won't get your pussy ass whipped on by some geek sales rep. :D

Dell Dimension - 5 years - still running - upgraded from Windows ME to Windows 2000 to Windows XP, no problems.

Dell DJ - got it for $129 shipped- regular price $199.

Dell Color Laser - got it for $284 shipped.

Just ordered a Dell Projector 2200MP - $704 shipped.

I have had no problems.

[OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

"Who is actually calling in orders. Have you people heard of a little thing called the internet??"

These people can't get to the internet, that's why they're trying to by a computer in the first place!

:) Just kidding. I know what you mean 'Ralph', and I do agree the internet is prefered for shopping (provided you use secure connections) because you can usually access and dare I say it READ all the pertinent docs/terms/conditions/limitations/loopholes/tricks
before you actually buy anything.

Then again, since we are talking about the lower end of the scale quite possibly many of these disgruntled individuals ARE first time PC buyers and actually can't easily access the internet.

'Course, despite popular belief, most municipalities in the US and other developed contries still maintain actual physical libraries from whence the internet can be often be accessed gratis...

So it still comes down to putting just a little more effort into making a good purchase...

[Nemo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Hrm, a couple of points to add here.

1) the folks that seem to think that they are getting screwed over, are the same folks that tend to call and have NO idea what they need (or in alot of cases, what they will be using it for). Very rarely are they educated enough on the differences in the hardware, or what potential upgrades are for. Many times the customer will be asked if they want to add or upgrade a particular item, and say yes, and then be angry later bc the price has changed. 99% of this comes from a lack of customer's educating themselves.

2) Dell Financial offers financing just like any financial institution, and although their interest rates are questionable, you DON'T HAVE TO USE THEM. It's the same as purchasing a car, hell I've never gotten a 0% APR in my life, but I know that I'm not going to with my current credit.


And I am VERY interested to hear what David is actually doing with that notebook. I call bullshit on your post.

[bungholio @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

"Who is actually calling in orders. Have you people heard of a little thing called the internet??"

People who get offers through snail mail with offer codes you can't enter on the web site.

And yes, Khaytsus, a P4 is a much better computer than a Celeron, but I didn't want to pay an extra 20% on a computer that wasn't even for me. It was a present for someone else who doesn't use computers very much.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Alright, You people that are bad mouthing this company definately have no idea what you are even talking about, They have different prices online than when you order over the phone, it's a mail order company, Also chances are most of you dont even know what bait and switch means you just want to throw your 2 cents into this board, I have 3 Dell computers myself and they do everything they said they would do and then some, The customers that purchase the basic 499 computer, you should know you arent going to get a GREAT computer at that price, that's a basic stripped system, and at the same time they DO back their products 100% and they try to help even when you are not inside of your warranty I mean, come on what company ever offers resolution when you are no longer under warranty, person I believe this is one of the greatest companies and I believe they should fight this case and not settle and everyone should know that electronics you cant guarantee it's going to be great all the time, things happen. To those who are siding with Dell on this BS lawsuit I commend you, but those bad mouthing what you have no clue over, definately need to go back read your posts and realize how much of an idiot you sound like. Some people just need common sense.

[Celso @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Used to be a sales rep for Dell. Managers encouraged us to scam. Rebate offers a scam. Dell is scam spelled in a different way. 'Nuff said.

[Stacey Rister @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

My daughter purchased a Dell computer over the phone. She thought she purchasd it outright. She opened a Dell account and financed it. They now say that it is a lease and will not let her out of it. She never received a lease agreement or any type of agreement for that matter. For equipment that totaled $800+ to purchase outright they now tell her that to buy it outright will cost her over $2,000. Has anyone else had this kind of experience with Dell? She has talked to a dozen "representatives" all of who cannot help her straighten this out. When she requests the tape of the conversation they tell her it's not available.

[Gary @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

For the real story about how reliable Dell is in Tech and Customer support, you can rely on the experience I have had. I just bought a Dell Dimension 8400 and within one week, I encountered two Blue Screen Error warnings that shut down the computer to prevent damage. After getting the run around by their outsourced Tech-Support from India, they sent a tech out to replace the hard drive. The next day, I encountered another Blue Screen Error warning. The tech I spoke to on the phone admitted that they had a global communication problem and he stated that the tech support from India was not trained adequately. After several emails and phone calls, they shipped out another tower and within two days, the Blue Screen Error warning occurred again. They told me to send that tower back and then after numerous emails and phone calls all to India, another tech was sent out this time to replace the Motherboard and CPU in the original tower. I had to ask if he had a ground wrist strap and he said, �Gee it is in the car. Do you think I need it?� In the last week, I have had two more Blue Screen Error warning messages after this latest repair call. They then suggested I reinstall windows and the resource drivers. I have called them and sent emails and I have not heard back from them. I have tried to talk to both Customer Support and Tech Support. I have not been able to receive any reliable response to my attempts at communication over this ongoing problem. The last phone call was to a supervisor from Tech Support who assured me that they would resolve the problem and to call him back at a generic voice mail. He has yet to return my call. It is obvious to me, that their employees are not trained properly. Even on the most simple repair problems, they have to refer to a manual. I have absolutely no faith in Dell as a company and how they value their customers. I also have a laptop that is 6 months old and two Blue Error Screen warnings have occurred on that machine as well. The other Dell desktop computer that I had for three years just had the hard drive crash and it needs to be replaced. This Dell Dimension 8400 is the fourth computer I have purchased from Dell and I assure you it will be my last. I am also advising other people to shop somewhere else.

[Greg Narag @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I'm a reporter for a news station in Austin, close to Dell HQ, and I've been following this story. It would be helpful to our listeners if we could hear from actual customers about this topic. I'm interested in speaking to a few of you...preferably on both sides of the issue. If you're interested in a brief telephone interview (you will be recorded) on your Dell experiences -- good or bad -- please contact me at [e-mail]. thanks, Greg News Radio 590 KLBJ

[chris branscom @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

some law firm needs to take up a class action lawsuit against dell for the design flaw in the inspiron 5150.