Dell gets notice for over-pricing

Here is the article from Economic Times of India,

COMPUTERmajor Dell India has been issued notice by a district consumer court here for allegedly over-pricing products and supplying a faulty laptop to a customer.

A consumer court in Shalimar Bagh, while issuing notice to Dell India earlier this week, asked the firm to file its response by December 21, the next date of hearing.

The court was hearing the plea of Archer Softech Pvt Ltd through its advocate Ankur Raheja, who alleged that the Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop it bought for Rs 69,164 (Approx $1440) turned out to be faulty. He also said that the company was not ready to replace or repair the product.

"Except the hard-disk and processor (which are of Toshiba and Intel make, respectively), almost each and every part has either been replaced or is not functioning properly due to manufacturing defects and poor quality of spares supplied for the laptop," Raheja told IANS.

He added that his client had to run form pillar to post to get spare parts for the laptop and its servicing, which also resulted in loss of business. He has demanded that the company return the amount paid by the consumer for the laptop and a compensation of Rs 400,000 (approx $8,333)

The complainant also alleged that Dell is over-pricing its products, charging consumers much more than the maximum retail price (MRP). "There is no doubt that Dell India's aim is not just profit but extraordinary profit by exploiting Indian customers. That is why the prices for laptops and especially parts are always charged on the higher side in India," Raheja said in the complaint. He said that the company had charged much more than the MRP for a battery. The cost of the battery, printed on the box, was Rs 2,100 (approx $44) but the company charged Rs 5,152, (approx $107) he alleged.

"We have contacted the company on many occasions but lame excuses were provided by the irresponsible staff. And on some occasions, no response was received," Raheja said.





Source: page 5 of Economic Times dated 3-Aug-09

 

Hi,

Little about me:

I purchased Dell SXPS 1640 in Feb.

Till now, my palmrest has been replaced 2 times, MB has been replaced 1 time, DVD burner has been replaced 1 time.

Dell said that, they will again replace MB, Palmrest, LCD, and power adapter.

I am having problem with almost every part of the laptop.

In last, I found that my ATI grpahic card doesnt work properly. One of the customer of Dell SXPS 1640 reported that he is able to run NFS U. at high settings smoothly. But I cant even run it. I tried endless number of tweaks, Like using XP, then Vista, then Win 7, latest drivers, without internet security..etc etc but none of them worked. So in last, I am sure even my video card is faulty.

 

I've heard bad support from Dell India but never about overpricing issues...

 

That doesn't guarantee it is a defective GPU though it is probably the case.

I'm interested to see why Dell wouldn't replace components on that computer (though Dell does not make near as many components in laptops as is implied in the statement) as they typically have pretty good warranties here in the US. That said, Inspiron 6400 batteries cost more here in the U.S. ($136 for a 6 cell).

Does Apple sell computers in India? I wonder what would happen to them with pricing .

 

Even, I am hearing this first time. This quote is from newspaper. If anyone wants a proof of it, let me know. or just search the headline in google.

From my experience, Dell does provide faulty parts to its consumers in India.

Thanks. I am not a hardware tech, so, I will talk about this to Dell. Also, If I charge my laptop and touch its touchpad and silver grid, I can feel electric current. So, may be its most probably the case. But already:

2 times palm rest has been replaced
1 time mb
1 time dvd burner
and one more replacement of mb, palmrest, power adapater, lcd screen is pending...

Not sure about pricing of apple...

 

The fact that you can feel electric current running through your palmrest is probably due to an improperly grounded AC adapter, rather than a flawed palmrest.

 

You might be correct. But I tried my laptop in 3 different locations and I am using a 3 PIN adapter and still getting this problem.

More problems were:

Wifi and LAN werent working, MB replaced and no they work

DVD wasnt burner correctly, again, replacing MB solved this

Dead pixel - LCD replacement will solve this

Electric current stuff - Pending

Fittings are now damn loose and tons of scratches has been made during parts replacements - No fix - Pending technician review

 

dell india really need to change their service.. they are loosing lot of customers because of that.

customer service is really poor ..Your call wont be answered for hours., it will be disconnected
your mails wont be answered..

(REALLY STRUGGLING HARD TO GET A 64BIT DVD FROM DELL FROM WEEKS)(as per DSN ID 159098)

I Dont have any problem with my laptop.. recently bought it few days ago.. the pricing for the laptop was close to the US Pricing when i bought few days ago.. so no problem there for me