U.S. m1330 customers take action...

I've been following this board since the shipping thread had only a few dozen posts, but I had to register to suggest a different way to take action.

Many of you are, understandably, canceling your orders and going elsewhere. That will get you a laptop sooner, but it will do nothing to Dell. Right now they are probably grateful to every m1330 customer who cancels, since it lessens the burden on them. That's why they're making no effort to keep you.

A better way for U.S. customers to take action is to contact the consumer protection division of your state attorney general's office. Tell them about the delays, the lies, the false advertising (get yer 4-cell battery here!), and everything else. When enough offices get enough calls, they will start feeling around about taking collective action, and if they do, they will hit Dell hard enough that it stings.

Ask Sony what happens when the state AGs get upset that spyware is bundled onto music CDs -- multimillion dollar settlements and consent decrees are not far behind. Dell could face the same thing because they are not being straight about why the machines are delayed. If the truth is quality problems rather than supplier delays, the AGs will find out and make them suffer for lying in the first place.

They obviously don't care if you cancel your order. They obviously don't care if you spam their blog with complaints. They obviously don't care if you chew out their Indian CSRs out of frustration. They will care very much when state governments band together to prosecute them. If you want to join together and send Dell a message, enlist the big guns!

 

Dell owns the BBB. Good luck with that

 

1. They probably do care when someone cancels because thats $700 profit they will no longer be getting... they just understand that not everyone who orders is willing to wait 2 months to get what they order.

2. They haven't done anything illegal even if it is bad business or annoying. Delays are a part of new products, that doesn't constitute fines/lawsuits. To my knowledge no one has been "lied" to, sure some CSR said that your estimated ship date was 10 days after your ordered it, but the key word is that its an estimated ship date, not a "sue us if we don't ship it on this date." Additionally to my knowledge very few people have actually had their ESDs exceeded yet considering to have a ship date in July in the USA you had to order on June 26th, its not lying if they don't get you what you order before your estimated ship date, even if it does suck.

 

You're probably right about that, but Dell does not have 100% ownership stakes in state government. The AGs are elected officials in most states, always hungry for the publicity that comes from taking a chunk out of a corporation that has frustrated thousands of their constituents.

And Dell doesn't want to do anything that will cause a rift with the governments that represent some of their biggest customers . . .

 

Last year Dell had net profits in excess of $3.5 billion. If your profit estimate is correct, even 10,000 people canceling their orders would have a bottom line impact of 0.00002%. As long as those customers are diffuse and disorganized, it's not much of a threat to them, especially since every canceled order is one other customer whose delay is shortened.

The "estimated" hedge language can protect Dell from actions for breach of contract, but the fine print can't protect them false advertising or dishonest business practice or unfair competition claims by the states.

AGs don't have to post on blogs begging for information, they send demand letters and the information arrives. Eventually the truth about these delays will come out. Either Dell rushed to take orders on this computer knowing they didn't have the parts in the pipeline, or they found out too late that they had a problem but wouldn't fess up to their customers. Either way, it's enough for the states, acting together, to make Dell cry uncle and promise to change their practices as well as compensate their customers.

 

Interesting idea, but I'm with Mad... not enough culpability.

Plenty of law students here what do you guys think?

 

Reading this post has made me less smart.

 

You should check out the Lenovo dealys this summer....

 

Umm, liability only occurs with material defects. They've already corrected the 4-cell/8400M issue and will probably remedy every buyer that asks about it. The courts don't care about a manufacturer that's unable to fulfill capacity for a high demand item. Time for you to brush up on your contract law young man. There is no "case" here. Order it and get in line and wait or buy something else. End of story.

 

Umm, I could swear that I stated specifically that I wasn't talking about a contract action. Yeah, I did:

Really? Never? Hmm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_and_switch

It must be, because all I can see here is irony.

You don't seem to grasp that consumer protection claims can have nothing to do with contract law, and that actions by AGs are as much political as they are legal. Did they have a "case" against the tobacco industry? Nope, but it was one hell of a shakedown anyway. The same could happen to Dell if enough people bothered to try.

 

Well, your argument was such a mish mash that I had to pick something to comment on. You proposed that state's Attorneys general should take action for "delays, the lies, the false advertising (get yer 4-cell battery here!), and everything else". I chose to rebut two of the issues you addressed.

1) False advertising (get yer 4-cell battery here!)

Dell has addressed this issue and is moving forward.

2) Delays

Manufacturing delays for a "hot item" could hardly be considered bait and switch. I'm sure Dell would enjoy selling as many M1330's as they could produce. There appears to be no scheme or conceit that's been designed to limit their production or sale. Nor does Dell appear to be profiting from any delay.

As far as your other claims of "lies... and everything else!" go, you're left to your own devices.

Tell you what, let's bet a $100 that in 2 months, after supply is meeting demand, that any material action is taken in court by any state attorney general in any state of the union. Game?

 

Well, yes, they did. They were able to show harm done. That's the basis of any actionable claim. In this case, where laptops are being delayed, there is none. It's unpleasant... I'm waiting for my own Dell order, but there is no issue of "consumer protection" here.

 

God, I've seen plenty of whining before, but this takes it to a whole new level. Oh noes, supply is unexpectedly high while supply is unexpectedly low! SUE SUE SUE!

 

Fair enough. I just became confused when the one thing you picked to comment on was the one thing I explicitly excluded from the mish mash. My apologies.

Well, I think everyone can agree that we don't have the facts, but appearances are in the eye of the beholder. In my mind, delays from suppliers wouldn't cause 99% of the laptops to be delayed. If they were unexpectedly popular, Dell would sell out quickly but at least they would have a good-sized batch to ship out to the earliest buyers.

Whether they are profiting also depends on whether they are able to lock in customers who will stand in line waiting for the m1330 while other models, like the Sony or the MBP, lose out on the chance to sell to those people even though their machines hit the street first.

There may be nothing there, but there is at least a story. We don't need to convince a judge and jury, we need to convince an AP tech reporter. This is a PR power play, as most consumer protection actions are. (My apologies to anyone who thought their Netflix coupon served the interests of justice.)

Well, I wouldn't bet that any actoin will be taken after Dell has already gotten away with it and anyone with a desire to complain has been taken care of. But a flood of complaints right now, while the issue is hot, would certainly get some kind of action. All it takes is for a few AGs to start requesting information, and then Dell will go submissive to prevent the true PR disaster that can't be caused by sites like this or engadget. Probably it still won't help us, but it will make Dell think twice in the future.

 

Ultimately it would need to be shown that Dell had deceived with the intent to profit from delays or had carelessly acted to cause harm. If customers aren't willing to wait they are free to cancel their orders and buy another product. If there are impediments to cancelling orders then there may be an issue but I don't see it.

I apologize as well. I feel that I may have been a bit rude and that wasn't my intent. I disagree with your opinion but should have been more polite about it.

 

Was there this much uproar over the Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Ipod, Elmo dolls, or other consumer products that couldnt release on time or meet the consumer market demands?

People camped out for some of those products on cold sidwalks in front of buildings for days, others paid huge premiums to scalpers and ebay sellers. I dont recall class action lawsuits against Nintendo and stores because the Wii was advertised by them and suppliers, but not available on shelves when people got there. I prefer the Dell direct method here, no camping out, but its still a wait. Its not like my entire life revolves around waiting on this laptop. When I get it, I get it. Its not delaying anything Im doing or causing me any distress. If it was, I would just cancel and get something else.

Dell did give a long expected ship date to me in advanced, so I was aware of the delay. Im also aware of the demand. But Im not going to post on a forum for everyone to unite to bring a class action against a company, or heat from an AG, because I cant get what I want, when I want. All these people bickering about additional discounts, expedited shipping, extra compensation, etc, really should stop. I would have paid $1,000 extra for my same configuration if that is what it costed. Its not money, its principle.

I cant imagine where this thread would go if Dell had to cancel production of the 1330 completely and remove it from thier product line if they found out it was radioactive or something. I suppose someone would demand something happen because they couldnt be exposed to a radioactive laptop theyve anticipated and been advertised about to for months and could not accept any other alternative non radioactive product.

We are all aware of the wait and long delays. So I agree: wait for your 1330 or cancel and spend your money elsewhere on a different product.

Im not trying to flame you, but everyone has a different prospective of things. Unfortunately I dont share the same one with you, and I just explained my reasoning why. Nothing personal, we are all entitled to our own opinion. Good luck on your decision regarding your Dell.

 

And of course for those in the US -- Dell has not even collected/charged your credit card yet. They will on shipment.

I see a number of people are canceling and buying the Vaio SZ6 series, who knows when that is going to ship. Amazon says "available" on 1 August the SONY Canada site says 14 August... Just sit tight all -- you will get it in the order it was received.

 

Go buy a laptop at the store, ya crybaby.

 

I don't see that Dell has done anything wrong. An unexpected popularity for the m1330 has brought in many thousands of orders. It is easy for me to believe the delays have been caused by supply shortage.

Dell has been in the consumer computer business for years, I think they know what they're doing.

As for bringing State AGs into this matter, I think it's just you wanting to get what you want, when you want. That, my friend, is what we call selfishness.

 

since when did delayed delivery become false advertisement? they clearly stated the shipping dates are preliminary and are subject to change.

 

how old are u guys?

 

ASL ?

 

Prime example of Americans suing faster then tabloids on celebrities eh?

 

man people in the US get such good deals.... be thankful for that... waiting a couple of weeks don't harm nobody....

 

Sometimes we forget how lucky we are.

 

Imagine what the OP does when his food is delayed at a restaurant.

 

Replying to his post has made all of you more dumb.

 

Welcome to the thread then.

 

*starts dancing around Lawrence*

ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!