New York Sues Dell for Poor Customer Service

Phanatic1a writes "New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is suing Dell, alleging bait and switch financing tactics, false advertising, and 'numerous other deceptive business practices relating to their technical support services, promotional financing, rebate offers, and billing and collection activity.' According to Cuomo himself, 'At Dell, customer service means no service at all.'"

Re:I know why

[eln]

That's an interesting theory, but I think it has more to do with Cuomo following the Eliot Spitzer School of Getting Yourself Elected Governor of New York. It mostly involves bringing high profile cases against nationally recognized big corporations.

Corporation Baiting

[capt.Hij]

I live in NY, and I am glad for the work that Eliot Spitzer has done. Now that Cuomo is the AG he is trying to make a name for himself the same way Spitzer did. Spitzer took on powerful interests within the state. Cuomo is taking the easy way out and going after out of state entities like colleges who have less than ethical relationships with loan organizations. Cuomo is a corrupt politician just trying to get his name out there. I fear that in the end his little adventures are going to go badly, and it will not reflect well on the state of NY.

Re:I know why

[Anonymous Coward]

That's an interesting theory, but I think it has more to do with Cuomo representing the pissed off people of New York. It mostly involves bringing high profile cases against nationally recognized big corporations that the people are pissed at. Crazy how democracy sometimes works, eh?

Not so bad.

[milamber3]

I don't really know where the New York AG is coming up with the "no service at all" comment. While I'm not sure about their problems with promotional financing, rebate offers, and billing activity; when I am forced to interact with dell for customer support on work computers I have always had good experiences. Maybe it is because I can fix most software issues and the only time I really go to them is when something fails. They have replace what's broken quite readily. Even if his problem is with their other practices I think he's over stating the support problems. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not a fan of dell but I don't like them because of the proprietary hardware and the preloaded bloatware.

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[account_deleted]

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Pathetic, Im so glad I left NY!

[N3WBI3]

A state should not be in the business of suing companies for bad customer service! People should go and by Apple, or HP, or lenovo. But leave it to NY or MA or CA to go and get the state involved where it has no place. I notice that Andrew Cuomo is failing upwards..

Re:I know why

[truthsearch]

Yeah, I agree. I think the choice of going after Dell is mostly publicity. NY (and probably most states) like to go after the big fish to set an example for the rest.

Re:I know why

[N3WBI3]

Evidence of what? dell has bad service? thats not hard to come by... The question is why the hell is it the AG's job to sue somebody for poor service? Does not NY have some real problems to deal with?

Re:I know why

[qwijibo]

How's that working out for you? Most of the support contracts that stores offer are pretty much worthless. Have you tried taking something back a few times and see how good their customer service really is? They wouldn't offer the support if they expected you to use it. Anyone can sound good in a sales pitch, but how they act after they have your money is the real metric worth noting.

Having dealt with NY state services

[N3WBI3]

Who the hell are they to sue anyone for bad service. Get me through the DMV is less than an hour and maybe then you can talk!

You can sue for poor service?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, can we suggest more lawsuits?

How about Comcast for the undisclosed limits on downloads even with "unlimited" service? Or Microsoft over the Microsoft tax you end up paying on new computers unless you jump through tons of hoops. Or Paypal for, well, the tons of crap they've put people through.

Or any of the other places that give you crappy service; I'm sure Slashdotters could come up with a pretty long list...

Why is this a problem?

[brennanw]

Spitzer was a good AG for New York. If Cuomo wants to follow in his footsteps that's fine by me. I have no problem with someone auditioning for future jobs by doing their current job well.

Re:Yawn yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

If you buy a machine from dell, and it comes pre-loaded with software. When that software acts up, dell should be responsible. If dell doesn't want to take responsibility, then don't install 3rd party software.

When I purchased my car (a honda actually), I had the dealership install an after market remote starter. When I had trouble, guess who I brought it to. Guess who fixed it ? The dealership.

Now, had I bought it from Best Buy I would have brought it back to Best Buy.

On-line chat

[icthus13]

Always, always, always use the online real time chat for Dell tech support. The waits are shorter and it does a lot to reduce the language barrier.

Re:I know why

[aichpvee]

The USSR didn't have regulation, dipshit. They had government monopoly of production, run by the same kind of crooks we have running our deregulated industries here.

Re:Geek Squad

[mrchaotica]

Best Buy is actually a good place to buy computers, as long as they're low quality. Why? Their extended warranty has a "three strikes and you're out clause" whereby after the computer has been serviced three times, if it breaks again they give store credit for a replacement. So, the procedure is as follows:

1. Buy a crappy PC and a service plan from Best Buy
2. Take it in for service when it breaks the first time
3. Take it in for service when it breaks the second time
4. Take it in for service when it breaks the third time
5. Get store credit (of full original price!) towards replacement when it breaks the fourth time
6. Repeat.

My family went through this cycle about five times over about the past decade, starting with a refurbished Packard Bell 486 desktop and ending with a 20" iMac Core Duo (and no, we did not break anything on purpose, or be overly rough with our machines). Also, I don't count Apple as "crappy," although it should be noted that Best Buy replaces Macs on the first service instead of the fourth, because it doesn't have the facilities to repair them.

Well, partially.

[raehl]

Gas prices are high because a single cartel, OPEC, dictates the price per barrel. This is not a free market.

Price of a barrel of oil is only one component of the price of a gallon of gas. In the US, the price of gas is much more closely related to the supply of refined gasoline vs. the demand for refined gasoline. Presently, there is about a $1 swing between the price of a gallon of gas in the winter and in the summer. Every year. Does the price of a barrel of oil swing by $20 from the winter to the summer?

No, it doesn't.

Does OPEC reduce oil production by 25% in the summer?

No, they don't.

So what accounts for the swing in gas prices?

Supply and demand. We only have a finite amount of refining capacity. In the summer, demand goes up, but supply does not - there is no more refining capacity available.

The real culprit in the high gas prices are the oil companies and environmentalists. Oil companies don't want to invest their profits in more refining capacity, and environmentalists make it difficult to build new refineries at all.

OPEC, on the other hand, doesn't like high gas prices any more than you do - the higher the gas price, the more attractive alternate energy sources become. And if there's one thing OPEC definitely doesn't want, it's people investing in ways to use less gas.

Tech Support and Customers

[jshriverWVU]

I find it funny that when an article is about customer service, a lot of people post like "I am superior and the tech on the phone is a moron for not listening to me" Then when we have a post about customers we get a lot of people saying "I am superior, the customer on the end is an idiot and shouldn't have bought a computer" So which is it? Granted I've been on both sides of the spectrum. I've had poor CSR's before who didnt resolve my issue, and I've also worked tech support when people would call me asking "Why doesnt my modem work? So I'd start diagnosing connectivity problems. No the TV wont turn on my modem is broke" You'd be amazed how many people call a computer a modem. Anyway, some CSR's suck some clients suck. Nothing really new here.

Re:Geek Squad

[Ryan Amos]

Extended warranties are a ripoff -- on everything *except* laptops. On laptops, the cost of one repair is generally more than the cost of the warranty, and they're almost guaranteed to break within 3 years.

Re:Geek Squad

[evilviper]

Extended warranties are an extremely good deal on things like monitors.

3rd party repair facilities can't get documentation for the no-name crap monitors Best Buy sells. So if you don't have a warranty, you have to just buy a new one. If you have a warranty, you take it in, they put it on a truck, send it back to the manufacturer, and they fix the $5 problem and return it.

Whatever....

[tacokill]

Look, you may not like the 29.9% rate --- but it is 100% legal and 100% voluntary. The rates that credit cards (of all kinds) charge you are very very high and you certainly have the right NOT to use them. If you didn't read the fine print, that is 100% your problem. Not Dell's.

My question to you is this: why in the fuck are you buying a depreciating consumer item when you do not have the money to afford it?

I really, truly, do not understand some people's financial decisions. Leasing cars, paying ridiculously high APR's....and then wondering why, after all these years of hard work, they are poor.

Re:I've always been pretty happy with Dell

[nolife]

I fully understand both of your sides. One is responsible for their own actions. One should read all of the fine print. One should understand the total contract before they sign. On the other hand, saying free credit report is deceptive or is attempting to be deceptive. Offering unlimited internet that is not unlimited is deceptive. Placing a full page ad in the paper offering a 27in LCD television for $50 and in the fine print stating "only 2 per store" is deceptive. Why would the store waste so much money on that ad when they only have two of them? It is to deceive you! How about $500 of any car in our lot with fine print "only certain cars apply and ask salesman first", oh, now the salesman knows you have the coupon and will jack up the initial price $500 more. Maybe not deceive you as the law states but it is to deceive you in a real life situation. These advertisments are meant to catch you off gaurd and to fool people. We in the US (and who knows where else in the world) have been subjected to this for years and the use of these tactics is getting worse. I guess we accept it because it has been around so long and it changes slowly enough that we get used to the new tactics every time.

Re:I'll just point out

[246o1]

It is simpler and cheaper for both sides to just have one case to decide this. Since states have far less money for litigation than corporations Dell's size, this is clearly in favor of the state.

Re: I've always been pretty happy with Dell

[Kumba]

I'd love to read the micro-sized fine print, but we need to force these companies to actually keep the three-paragraph-long fine print block up longer than two seconds :P