Dell has been accused of selling thousands of desktop PCs despite knowing the machines contained faulty components, according to recently unsealed court documents.
The documents unsealed in a civil case against Dell in Federal District Court in North Carolina accuse Dell employees of having prior knowledge that the company's OptiPlex PCs sold to customers were likely to break, the newspaper reported.
Dell shipped around 11.8 million OptiPlex computers between the May 2003 to July 2005 period that were at risk of failing because of the faulty components, according to the unsealed court and internal documents. Dell sold OptiPlex desktops to companies and business customers in the US including Wal-Mart and Wells Fargo.
The problems stem from bad capacitors on motherboards. which could cause systems to fail. The documents also say that Dell employees knowingly tried to play down component problems, which put customers at risk.
Dell salespeople were told to say "don't bring this to customer's attention proactively", in an effort to conceal system problems, according to the documents reported on by the New York Times.
Dell has had customer support issues in the past few years. The company took a $442 million charge during the third quarter of 2006 to account for a number of issues including the costs associated with replacing faulty capacitors on some of its OptiPlex desktops, layoffs and inventory writeoffs.
Comments
michael robson said: i have a fauly dell xps 1330 wich also has knowing faultsi will never buy a delllaptop again had it 3 onth then screen went faulty known to bad graphics they have sold milions of faulty items bsfntlivecouk
Gary Gemmell said: This was a known fault over 10 years ago on many boards sold by Abit amongst others Abit KT7A was a bad example I know I had one Back then it was all down to the manufacturer of the capacitors using cheap cost cutting filling for the capacitors that expanded during use - usually appearing as a popped cap after a year or so of use
Ian, Exeter said: It is a little known fact that motherboards used in Dell desktop systems are made by MSI
J8s8n said: Having purchased DELL XPS M1330 Laptop recalling the urgent enthusiasm of DELL employees I am not surprised that they are knowingly selling faulty goods DELL similar scenario to Toyota became too avaricious their integrity went to line their pockets with Thirty Pieces of Silver
jtt said: It doesnt surprise me Known problems are pretty common in the electronics industry A company has to assess how likely it is that the component will fail If its not likely to affect many people the company probably isnt going to do an expensive recall
Vincent J Pelatari said: My Son Purchased a PC in Germany as a surprise for me He is in Military protecting you and me I recevied an XP Home Edition that never Funtioned Correctly due to Capacators DELL WHERE DID INTERGRITY GO I work for ATT and we use alot of your Productsbut not for Long because they have numerous problems with this PCs and Ones Like It I Let CWA union know about this as well as DIST 6s Members who use same PC This is the tip of the Iceberg for ATT I recently Retired from ATT and know the decision Makers who have a hand in what contract to renew or not This was Totally Inappromate on Dells part Negelencemis-informationfalse advertisingYata Yata Yata I Hope you have my Drift and I will follow this action with more actionGood Luck and If you Just do the NEXT Right ThingThen DELL will prosper with ATT and its membersGod Bless Your Decision
vincent pelatari said: I want a replacement for Broken pc that was kept from consumersVp33swbellnet i am one and I am angreyDo right by me replace my PC with functioning Capacteors and whatever else has caused my PC NEVER To Have WORKED RIGHT from Beginning SO update Credit Bureas and leave me alone Contact me as I consider this an executive Complaint send copy to Michael Dell and respond to me ASAPPlease I do not want to go to courtI have documentation and a Lawyer in the wingLets work together and avoid class action suites for several people and thats just the ones I know will Particapte in any Legal action
Cyteck said: Having purchased many DELL systems over the years here in the UK and having had exceptionally good quality machines and non having gone wrong not even once I find this a sad story and I also find it hard to imagine DELL computers behaving in this way a Knowingly allowing sub standard machines to be sold would also back fire on them as a company b Its just not in their own interests to behave in that way c DELL would quickly loose its high quality reputation d Ultimately they would loose customers amp market share as consumer confidence would quickly drop off