It's not exactly all that uncommon for Dell to misprice an item on its website and, if you're lucky, it might even honor it. But it looks like the stakes have just been raised considerably in Taiwan, where the company recently listed a 19-inch monitor for NT$500 (or about $15US) and promptly received more than 26,000 orders for close to 140,000 of the monitors. Now, ordinarily, Dell would simply send out a polite email explaining their mistake and call it a day, but Taiwanese regulators have now stepped in and
ordered suggested that Dell honors the misprice after receiving a couple of hundred complaints. For its part, Dell simply says that it plans to "compensate the buyers for the mistake," although it's not clear if that means it'll actually be sending out the monitors -- which, incidentally, would add up to more than $20 million at their full list price.
Update:
Engadget Chinese tells us that the Taiwanese government has
suggested to Dell that it compensates consumers fairly and will assist in legal action against Dell if they don't. Also, the $15 price applies only to the first monitor purchased with discounts applied to subsequent units for those who made multiple-monitor purchases.
Update 2: Dell has agreed to issue a NT$1000 (about $30) coupon for every monitor purchased including those made through multiple purchase orders. That sound more than reasonable to us.
[Via
The Raw Feed]
posted July 1st 2009 7:07PM
To correct certain facts -
1. What Dell did is offering a NTD$7,000(about USD$212) disccount for all their monitor models, not just the 19 inchers.
2. What the Taiwanese regulators did was holding Dell responsible for false advertisement and they therefore "suggested" Dell to honor the deal in compromised ways by selling the first units(presumably per order or per person) at the advertised price, then the following units discounted, and if Dell choose to not comply with the "suggestions", they will arrange legal assistances for those who plan to sue Dell. No fine has been mentioned yet.
OMG this was in my law exam, except that it was with Kodak and Woolworth's online selling cameras for half their price. On the Internet the normal rules of offer and acceptance are a bit hazy and a conformation of an order is not an acceptance
Except that, as someone said above, US law is not Taiwanese law, and that apparently, according to Taiwanese law, clicking "order" makes it binding. In that respect (and others- if Congress was like its Taiwanese counterpart C-Span would have much higher ratings) the US could stand to learn from Taiwan.
The event happened at 11pm to 7am, so many people didn't sleep..... And many people ordered more then 10 ! According to our news TV, there are 2 company owner ordered more then 500 LCD ! That is ... greed if I may say.
The legal disclaimer at the bottom of the US websites says "Purchase limit of 10 same items per order".
Maybe that kind of thing doesn't fly in Taiwan.
Wonder what other government agency will get involved when Dell cancels its contracts with suppliers in Taiwan and starts sending its business to the mainland.
these two companies may be...
however, for most consumers who placed ordered from Dell.com.tw
they knew Dell placed NT7000 discount for each model, it was not placed wrong price.. this is different case.
The most important is that most consumers haven't been contacted by Dell, however, Dell tell media that they had meet agreement with parties that is not including their customers.
I had read some complaint from this post and I suddenly realized Dell did not only cancel order in Taiwan. I am worrying my sister's credit holder's information as it had been submitted to Dell already.
If they want to receive the order first and then decided whether they want to accept the order, they should not ask us to give credit card information first. I read their clause: the products could be dispatched next day after order, at least 5-10 days, but it still conflicted with their another clause.... received order do not mean accept the order.
I'd like to suggest may be we should find a more secure way for consumers doing internet shopping.
Excellent!!! DOAH! Good job guys, why not take $2 million when you should be getting $20...that is no way to turn your company around!
Michael...you should shut down the company and return the cash to the shareholders...lol
Dell, this is the part of the movie where you tell Taiwan to "blow me". Then when the customers ask for their money back, you pump your fist full of dollars and say "MY MONEY"
And that's when they say "Go get your components somewhere else" or supply "special" parts.
Templarian: "I shouldn't of slept through business law"
Or your English grammar classes. LOL
Pay up... pay up Michael Dell :-)
Although I honestly don't believe they should honor such a typo, and who really believes they can get a lcd for 15$usd, I am getting tired of dell making typos. Honestly how hard is it for who ever writes these things to proof read their own work? I'm pretty sure people are told all their lives to do that, maybe they should start saying that to dell employees. Or perhaps they did it just to lol at the people that ordered it, and the drama that would ensue.
If it was the government saying Dell to pay, Dell could very well tell them: F**k off, we won't buy a single PC/Monitor/Whatever else from any Taiwanese OEM if you make us do this!!!
Then, the big OEM's would all line up at the government door telling them: F**k the people, we want the money. As the governement has been doing that for the past year, they would simply go on with business as usual...
Dell needs to send them the displays.
End of story.
Don't care if it is a mistake or not.
I'm sure you'd feel the exact same way if an innocent typo put you out of a job.
Breaking News
Today Taiwan Consumers' Foundation negotiate with Dell, but Dell didn't accept the suggestion as mentioned earlier. Dell says they can offer a nice discount (20%-30% off, depends on how many one ordered), but the "first LCD on every order should honor the price" is too much. Dell can't accept that.
So Consumers' Foundation put a statement on their website http://www.consumers.org.tw/unit211.aspx?id=161 (It's in Chinese) It seems they will assist consumers to take legal actions against Dell.
How can NT$500 = $15US and NT$100 = $30US??
Dell need to honour their price mistake and if i where any person who ordered a monitor then i would expect it, if i got an email saying sorry i would say thats your problem not mine since it is their problem, a simple amount of text which says its ok to make mistakes in regards to prices, i support the Taiwanese government in this one as its about morals and ethics and dell can't brush it off as a mistake, they need to watch what they are doing, and need to learn from their mistakes.
In the long run we (US) will be paying for this. Sure Dell will take a hit but a misadervisted prices have been around forever. So they should have a common sense clause and who cares about suggesting they honor their price. With all these overseas regulations and strict rules Europe and Asia can sit in dark and count stones. Like the EU cracking down on MS on their IE8 for Win7, so MS just took it out and they come back no no that's that what we meant, (we really meant to put our internet browser on in your software) and MS just reply's we don't care we're tired of spending money on this BS. So suck it Europe, figure out to install a new browser yourself. You don't go to Ford and tell them you want an LS3 in your Mustang do you? Have common sense.
Dell are liar....
1,Dell not make wrong list price,Now the list-price are the same as before.
2,Dell give all line product discount around USD 200, Laptop PC, Display are same discount.
Can somebody give me an answer on this? Can Dell use the personal information(email, credit card info, and such) of these invalid orders for any other purposes other than deleting them?
Dell has pissed off a lot of Taiwan consumers based on their attitude. First of all, they have not apologized for their error since the even has occurred. You don't even receive a note nor a email to update you what's going on with ur order, at least I didn't get one. BTW, the retail price on Dell.com was NEVER wrong, the retail price was the same before, during and after this fiasco. Dell is simply NOT honoring the discount it was offering that night.
I live in Taiwan. And, I'm not the one who order those product. But, many people angry for DELL's attitude.
WHY?
(1) Accounting to Taiwan's consumer law, " you can't cheat your consumer" . If you make some mistake, you can ask for help. But, they denied accept it. If you can read Chinese language you can read it "http://www.cpc.gov.tw/detail.asp?id=1231". It's Taiwan Government Official statement.
(2) Taiwan DELL until now didn't formal and public say sorry to Taiwan people ,just say they misprint. It looks like OTHER PEOPLE'S FAULT. Therefore, many Taiwanese feel angry for DELL's attitude. Because they didn't show their respect to local customer. and we (Taiwan people) ask our government to punish Taiwan DELL.
Above, is my personal point of view.
Dell is making mistake again right now. Just check the Dell Taiwan's website. the laptop E3400's price is about 23K(USD696) you can get TWD42323 price off (USD1322) from its origional price. Change the CPU to be Red and Blue, you will find out!
If you can read Chinese you will see:
http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=tw&l=zh&s=bsd&cs=twbsd1&kc=&oc=S720508TW
Sorry, miss type. The model number is DellTM LatitudeTM E4300 Laptop
No, we do not expect Dell to ship out those monitors, but we do want everybody to know that when you're dealing with your cunsumers, deal with them with all your respect. And guess what, Dell's got a big poo today again. Just to change the color of the laptop then you save your NT$40000(approx.US$1200) then you can buy the original price NT$60000 (approx.US$1800)laptop with just about NT$22000(approx.US$670). When you're taking this issue as a joke, have you asked Dell to take a good look of themselves? Yes, please keep laughing, if you think Dell's right byt posting the price wrong again then again within 8 days. What's wrong with this company and what's wrong with you by laughing others?
No, we do not expect Dell to ship out those monitors, but we do want everybody to know that when you're dealing with your cunsumers, deal with them with all your respect. And guess what, Dell's got a big poo today again. Just to change the color of the laptop then you save your NT$40000(approx.US$1200) then you can buy the original price NT$60000 (approx.US$1800)laptop with just about NT$22000(approx.US$670). When you're taking this issue as a joke, have you asked Dell to take a good look of themselves? Yes, please keep laughing, if you think Dell's right byt posting the price wrong again then again within 8 days. What's wrong with Dell and what's wrong with you by laughing others?
After this mishap, a local study says percentage of Taiwan people who know Dell sells PC in Taiwan has tripled since last December.