This week New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against Dell Inc. According to the claim, Dell deceived customers by using "bait and switch" advertising practices to lure in new business. Cuomo claims that Dell advertised zero percent financing, but at the time of purchase switched over to a high interest rate plan without notifying the customer.
Cuomo claims that that while one or two customers are minor problems, a large number of customers have complained about the same issue. Cuomo told reporters that his office "received an unprecedented number of complaints against Dell, approximately 700 and the numbers keep growing."
Representatives from Dell say that the claims are uncalled for and unjustified. "We are confident that our practices will be found to be fair and appropriate," indicates Dell spokesperson Bob Pearson.
According to Pearson, the Round Rock, Texas-based company is innocent of all wrong doing, but did indicate that a limited number of customers complained. "While even one dissatisfied customer is too many, the allegations in the AG's filing are based upon a small fraction of Dell's consumers transactions in New York," says Pearson.
Pearson indicates that while many applied for Dell's zero percent financing option, as many as 85-percent of those applied did not receive the plan. Paul Reisner was one of many who were not offered Dell's promotional plan even though he has an excellent credit rating.
"Why did I not qualify for promotional financing?" asked Reisner. "I own my own home, always pay my bills on time."
Over the last several months, the spot light has been put on Dell more than once, but unfortunately not for good reasons. Most recently, Kevin Rollins resigned as Dell's CEO, throwing quite a surprise to many outside of the company as well as those within it. Rollins was credited with much of Dell's recent success but also blamed for the loss of market share to rival HP.
Late last year, Dell was sued for allegedly supplying incorrect processors to customers. Zhan Min filed a suit against Dell after contacting Dell to try to rectify the situation. Min reported that Dell shipped him a laptop with an Intel T2300 processor but advertised a T2300E -- the difference being Intel's Virtualization Technology. When Dell told him that there weren't any differences between the two processors, Min sued.