I can’t help but get a little bit of personal satisfaction out of this story.  It seems that Dell Computers was engaged in a large scale “shell” game or “bait and switch” scheme in New York.  A New York judge recently found that Dell misled consumers repeatedly by engaging in “false and deceptive advertising” of its promotional financing terms/incentives and service warranties.  The New York Attorney General’s (”AG”) office logged over 1,700 complaints from consumers.

Dell was luring consumers to purchase its computers by offering free financing, rebates, upgrades, and  other incentives for “well qualified” customers.  However, according to the AG, as few as 7% of consumers actually qualified for the promotions.  The vast majority of applicants were instead offered hefty interest rates between 16% to 30%, conveniently financed through Dell Financial Services.  The judge, among other things, enjoined Dell from advertising certain promotions without first  prominently disclosing to consumers how many applicants were likely to qualify for them.

On the service end of things, the judge found that many consumers were placed on hold for technical support for inordinately long periods of time, had to call repeatedly to get through to a technical representative (who I’ve found to be useless anyway), and many instances where the company refused to provide on-site service.  Some customers apparently waited for months or even years for service.  So much for their “next day” service guarantee.

As an owner of 2 Dell computers that have been nothing but trouble within months of buying them, it’s somewhat gratifying to see the company get slammed for its deceptive conduct.  Almost all of my experiences with Dell’s technical support have been, uh, well—what’s the Hindi word for “abysmal”?  I stopped calling them long ago and now use my own pricey IT consultant.  In any case, my frustrations are clearly widespread and well-founded.

As I’ve said before, the “unfair or deceptive” standard used by almost any AG’s office is an especially broad one that easily encompasses conduct which may not meet the higher standard used for “fraud.”  With fraud, it must be shown that a company actually knew that what it was doing was wrong—although in this case, the folks at Dell seemed to be fully aware of their actions.  How could they not be? 

But an AG doesn’t need to jump through hoops to prove fraud anyway.  Showing unfair or deceptive conduct is much easier.  And once the AG has a high-profile and wealthy corporate defendant in its sites that is the subject of 1,700 consumer complaints, rest assured that it will  pursue the company vigorously.  Given my own problems with Dell, I say: “Give ‘em hell!”