Round Rock (ip-192.com): Dell Inc. has been accused of selling millions of faulty computers to large corporations including Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, and the Mayo Clinic, and an unknown number of small businesses, the New York Times reports. Dell employees did know that the machines did have a high potential to fail, the paper reports, citing documents recently unsealed in a civil lawsuit against the Round Rock, Texas based company.
Over the course of several years, Dell shipped almost 12 million OptiPlex desktop computers with leaky capacitors on motherboards. Web hosting company Advanced Internet Technologies (AIT) informed Dell about the issues in 2007 
and subsequently filed a lawsuit. According to court documents obtained, "Dell salespeople were told 'don't bring this to customer's attention proactively,' in an effort to conceal system problems", the paper reports. An internal review by Dell found that 97 percent of the PCs in question were likely to fail over a three year period.
Dell started to ship its products to major retailers in the U.S. in 2007, starting with Sam's Club and Wal-Mart. Staples and Best Buy became Dell retail partners later in the year. Dell briefly sold its products through Sears in 2003.
The company has been in hot waters before. After an internal investigation into its accounting practices, Dell announced on August 17, 2007 that it would restate and reduce earnings from 2003 through the first quarter of 2007. The New York Supreme Court ruled in May 2008 that Dell and Dell Financial Services "engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices, and abusive debt collection practices."
Photo: www.imagine-your-world.com
Recent Comments