Guilty, Guilty, Guilty... FraudandFalseAdvertising@dell.com

Well, no big surprise to most of us who reside here in dellhell.

Dell was found guilty of Fraud and False Advertisingin New York yesterday and it will have major repercussions for Dell. The loss of credibility among consumers and the potential damages and fines which they are facing are not going to be easy to explain on the direct2dell site or in the shareholder meetings to come.

Just to repeat the obvious, here is a quote from the Judge.

"Dell has engaged in repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and failure to provide warranty service and rebates."

Dell claims it is only a small percentage of consumers who complained! Oh, well I guess that makes it okay then, silly me.

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Dell Hell - By the Numbers 9

700 - Number of complaints by NY State consumers who were part of a lawsuit filed by the state Attorney General in May, 2007.

1000 - Additional complaints after May, 2007 related to the lawsuit.

7 - Percentage of Dell customers who actually qualified for discounts and freebies which led to the lawsuit in New York State.

16 to 30 - percent interest rate actually paid by most Dell customers who were misled by Dells' offer of "no interest financing" in the New York lawsuit.

18,509 - Number of views of a consumerist.com article titled "Drunk Dell Tech Repairs Laptop With Hammer"

3 in 18 - Number of Chief Financial Officers at Dell in the past 18 months. Although the latest departure of the CFO was planned from the beginning of his tenure so that he could sort out the mess of Dells flawed quarterly reports, it makes one wonder how you run a company like that? The incoming CFO is facing a daunting task at a time when Dell could use a little more longevity on the board!

356,244 - Views of "My PC is on Fire" parody at Youtube
17,698 - Approx. number of views since March 26, 2008
10,000 - Approx. number of views per month

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How much is a 5 Year Next Day Warranty worth at Dell?

CNET, long a leading site for software and hardware reviews and news, published a sad, but familiar story yesterday, I read it with a huge smile on my face.

Each time I see something like this article, I feel vindicated in my belief that Dell is hopelessly broken and the current crop of talking heads and management should retire in shame. Lionel, what on earth is going on? I haven't checked lately but last I heard of him Lionel was the guy over at Direct2Dell who has been telling everyone who will listen that Dell is fixing it's problem with customer service, fixing its problems with timely delivery, fixing its problems with... you get the idea.

One day after publication the article at CNET has already garnered 78 comments, mostly negative, many angry. How do you fix that, Lionel? Obviously you (and I mean Dell) haven't a clue or the will, or something, "cause it ain't gettin' done" as we say outside of Round Rock.

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