INTRODUCTION
Dell Inc. is a multinational company which mainly produces all the computer related products, be it software or hardware. It was established by Michael Dell in1984. Dell has its headquarter in Round Rock, Texas in U.S. and employs nearly 76500 people worldwide.
Once in 1990's Dell became the largest seller of personal computers and servers. In 2008, it was ranked as the 2nd best seller after Hewlett Packard. The company currently is selling personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software and computer peripherals. Dell also sells HDTVs, cameras, MP3 players, printers and other electronics built by other manufacturers.
Dell has been ranked as the 25th largest company on the Fortune 500 list and the 8th most admired company by Fortune magazine in 2006.
History
While being a student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, Michael Dell founded the company as PC's Limited. The startup aimed to sell IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components. Michael Dell started trading in the belief that by selling personal computer-systems directly to customers, PC's Limited could better understand customers' needs and provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs.
In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design - the "Turbo PC", which contained an Intel 8088-compatible processor running at a speed of 8MHz. PC's Limited advertised the systems in national computer magazines for sale directly to consumers, and custom-assembled each ordered unit according to a selection of options. This offered buyers prices lower than those of retail brands, but with greater convenience than assembling the components themselves. Although not the first company to use this model, PC's Limited became one of the first to succeed with it. The company grossed more than $73 million in its first year of trading.
In 1988, the company changed its name to "Dell Computer Corporation". In 1989, Dell Computer set up its first on-site-service programs. In June 1988, Dell's market capitalization grew by $30 million to $80 million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at $8.50 a share. In 1990, Dell Computer Corporation came up with a new idea of selling its products indirectly through warehouse clubs and computer superstores, but met with little success, and the company re-focused on its more successful direct-to-consumer sales model. In 1992, Fortune magazine included Dell in its list of the world's 500 largest companies.
In 1996, Dell began selling computers through its web site.
In 2002, Dell made an attempt to expand by tapping into the multimedia and home-entertainment markets with the introduction of televisions, handhelds, and digital audio players. Dell also produced Dell-brand printers for home and small-office use.
In 2003, at the annual company meeting, the stockholders approved changing the company name to "Dell Inc." so that the company's expansion beyond computers gets recognized.
In 2004, the company announced that it would build an assembly-plant near Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The city and county provided Dell with $37.2 million in incentive packages. The state provided approximately $250 million in incentives and tax breaks. In July, Michael Dell stepped aside as Chief Executive Officer while retaining his position as Chairman of the Board. Kevin Rollins, who had held a number of executive posts at Dell, became the new CEO.
In 2005,it was revealed in the company's press releases that the share of sales coming from international markets have increased for the first two quarters of its fiscal 2005 year. In February 2005 Dell gained the first place in a ranking of the "Most Admired Companies" published by Fortune magazine. In November 2005 BusinessWeek magazine published an article titled "It's Bad to Worse at Dell" about shortfalls in projected earnings and sales, with a worse-than-predicted third-quarter financial performance — a bad omen for a company that had routinely underestimated its earnings. Dell acknowledged that faulty capacitors on the motherboards of the Optiplex GX270 and GX280 had already cost the company $300 million. The CEO, Kevin Rollins, attributed this bad performance partially to Dell's focus on low-end PCs.
In 2006, Dell purchased Alienware which manufactured computer hardware. Dell Inc.'s plan expected Alienware continuing to operate independently under its existing management. Alienware had expected to benefit from Dell's efficient manufacturing system.
In 2007,investors and many shareholders called for Kevin Rollins' resignation because of poor company performance. So, on January 31, 2007, Kevin B. Rollins, CEO of the company since 2004, resigned as both CEO and as a director, and Michael Dell resumed his former role as the CEO. At the same time, the company announced that, for the fourth time in five quarters, earnings would fail to reach consensus analyst-estimates.
In February 2007 Dell became the subject of formal investigations by the US SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The company had not formally filed financial reports for either the third or fourth fiscal quarter of 2006, and several class-action lawsuits have arisen in the wake of its recent[update] financial performance. Dell Inc's lack of formal financial disclosure would normally subject the company to de-listing from the NASDAQ, but the exchange granted Dell a waiver, allowing the stock to trade normally.
On March 1, 2007, the company issued a preliminary quarterly earnings report which showed gross sales of $14.4 billion, down 5% year-over-year, and net income of $687 million (30 cents per share), down by 33%. Net earnings of the firm would have declined even more if not for the effects of eliminated employee bonuses, which accounted for six cents per share. NASDAQ extended the company's deadline for filing financials to May 4, 2007.
Dell and AMD
When Dell acquired Alienware early in 2006, some of the Alienware systems had AMD chips. On August 17, 2006, a Dell press-release stated that starting in September, Dell Dimension desktop computers will have AMD processors and that later in the year Dell would release a two-socket, quad-processor server using AMD Opteron chips, moving away from Dell's tradition of only offering Intel processors in Dell PCs.
CNet's News.com on August 17, 2006 cited Dell's CEO Kevin Rollins as attributing the move to AMD processors to cost-advantage and to AMD technology. AMD's senior VP in commercial business, Marty Seyer, stated that "Dell's wider embrace of AMD processor-based offerings is a win for Dell, for the industry and most importantly for Dell customers."
On October 23, 2006, Dell announced new AMD-based servers — the PowerEdge 6950 and the PowerEdge SC1435.
On November 1, 2006, Dell's website began offering notebooks based on AMD processors (the Inspiron 1501 with a 15.4-inch (390mm) display) with the choice of a single-core MK-36 processor, dual-core Turion X2 chips or Mobile Sempron.
Dell and desktop Linux
In 1998 Ralph Nader asked Dell (and five other major OEMs) to offer alternate operating systems to Microsoft Windows, specifically including Linux, for which "there is clearly a growing interest" Possibly coincidentally, Dell started offering Linux notebook systems which "cost no more than their Windows 98 counterparts" in 2000, and soon expanded, with Dell becoming "the first major manufacturer to offer Linux across its full product line" However, by early 2001 Dell had "disbanded its Linux business unit."
The reason(s) for such a quick reversal remained the subject of debate. Court documents accused Microsoft of coercing OEMs to drop Linux:
Microsoft executive Joachim Kempin described his plan of retaliation and coercion to shut down competition from Linux: "I am thinking of hitting the OEM harder than in the past with anti-Linux actions" and will "further try to restrict source code deliveries where possible and be less gracious when interpreting agreements — again without being obvious about it," continuing "this will be a delicate dance"
While in a 2003 interview Michael Dell denied that Microsoft pressured Dell Inc. into doing an about-face with regard to desktop Linux, citing a lack of sales: "unfortunately the desktop Linux market didn't develop in volume. It's more of a server opportunity" but adding: "We continue to offer Linux on the desktop and there is nothing else to say." However, a 2004 report noted that Dell no longer offered pre-installed desktop Linux:
So what does it mean "factory installed Linux"? If you want Dell to install Linux for you, first add on $119. But here is the annoying part. They won't send you a computer with Linux pre-installed. They sell you the computer and the boxes of software on the side, and then they make an appointment to send you someone who comes to your house or business and installs it there.
Ubuntu on Dell systems
Dell has supplied Ubuntu on some of its computers since 2007
On February 26, 2007 Dell announced that it had commenced a program to sell and distribute a range of computers with pre-installed Linux distributions as an alternative to Microsoft Windows. Dell indicated that Novell's SUSE Linux would appear first. However, Dell on February 27, 2007 announced that its previous announcement related to certifying the hardware as ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux and that it (Dell) had no plans to sell systems pre-installed with Linux in the near future. On March 28, 2007, Dell announced that it would begin shipping some desktops and laptops with Linux pre-installed, although it did not specify which distribution of Linux or which hardware would lead. On April 18, 2007 a report appeared suggesting that Michael Dell used Ubuntu on one of his home systems. On May 1, 2007, Dell announced it would ship the Ubuntu Linux distribution. On May 24, 2007, Dell started selling models with Ubuntu Linux 7.04 pre-installed: a laptop, a budget computer, and a high-end PC.
On June 27, 2007, Dell announced on its Direct2Dell blog that it planned to offer more pre-loaded systems (the new Dell Inspiron desktops and laptops). After the IdeaStorm site supported extending the bundles beyond the US market, Dell later announced more international marketing. On August 7, 2007, Dell officially announced that it would offer one notebook and one desktop in the UK, France and Germany with Ubuntu "pre-installed". At LinuxWorld 2007 Dell announced plans to provide Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on selected models in China, "factory-installed". On November 30, 2007 Dell reported shipping 40,000 Ubuntu PCs. On January 24, 2008 Dell in Germany, Spain, UK and France launched a second laptop, a XPS M1330 with Ubuntu 7.10, for 849 euro or GBP 599 upwards. On February 18, 2008, Dell announced that the Inspiron 1525 would have Ubuntu as an optional operating system. On February 22, 2008 Dell announced plans to sell Ubuntu in Canada and in Latin America From September 16, 2008, Dell has shipped both Dell Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows XP Home versions of the Inspiron Mini 9 and the Inspiron Mini 12. As of November 2009[update] Dell ships the Inspiron Mini laptops with Ubuntu version 8.04.
Employees
On January 31, 2007 Michael Dell returned to the company as CEO. As the chairman of the board, Mr. Dell had had significant input into the company's operations during Rollins' years as CEO. However with the return of Michael Dell as CEO, the company saw immediate changes in operations, the exodus of many senior vice-presidents and new personnel brought in from outside the company.
Departures announced include:
* Kevin Rollins, CEO
* James Schneider, CFO
* John Medica, senior vice president, consumer products
* Joe Marengi, senior vice president, Americas
* John Hamlin, senior vice president, worldwide online operations
* Paul McKinnon, senior vice president, human resources
* Rosenda Parra, senior vice president/general manager, home and small business group
* Glenn E. Neland, senior vice president, procurement
Additions announced include:
* Michael Dell, CEO and co-Chairman of the Board (previously Chairman of the Board)
* Don Carty, CFO and co-Chairman of the Board (previously Board member)
* Michael R. Cannon, former CEO of Solectron, as President, Global Operations
* Ron Garriques, who formerly headed Motorola's mobile phone unit, as President, Global Consumer Group
* Stephen F. Schuckenbrock, Senior Vice President, Global Services
As Mr. Dell was reappointed as the CEO, he announced a number of initiatives and plans so as to improve the company's financial performance. These include:
* elimination of 2006 bonuses for employees with some discretionary awards
* reduction in the number of managers reporting directly to Mr. Dell from 20 to 12
* in a noted departure from previous years, "build, partner, and buy" to increase services capabilities
* reduction of "bureaucracy"
Manufacturing
In the 1980s Dell became a pioneer in the “configure to order” approach to manufacturing - delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. In contrast, most PC manufacturers in those times delivered large orders to intermediaries on a quarterly basis.
To minimize the delay between purchase and delivery, Dell has a general policy of manufacturing its products close to its customers. This also allows for implementing a just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing approach, which minimizes inventory costs. Low inventory is another signature of the Dell business model - a critical consideration in an industry where components depreciate very rapidly.
Dell's manufacturing process covers assembly, software installation, functional testing (including "burn-in"), and quality control. Throughout most of the company's history, Dell manufactured desktop machines in-house and contracted out manufacturing of base notebooks for configuration in-house. However, the company's approach appears to have started to change. The 2006 Annual Report states “we are continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships and manufacturing outsourcing relationships.” The Wall Street Journal reported in September, 2008 that “Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell" their plants.
Assembly of desktop computers for the North American market takes place at Dell plants in Austin, Texas (original location), Lebanon TN (opened in 1999), Winston-Salem NC (opened in 2005) and at the Miami, Florida facility of its Alienware subsidiary. Dell servers come from Austin, TX.
Dell assembles computers for the EMEA market at Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, and employs about 4,500 people in that country. Dell began manufacturing in Limerick in 1991 and went on to become Ireland's largest exporter of goods and its second-largest company and foreign investor. On January 8, 2009, Dell announced that it would move all Dell manufacturing in Limerick to Dell's new plant in the Polish city of Łódź by January 2010. European Union officials said they would investigate a €52.7million aid package the Polish government used to attract Dell away from Ireland. European Manufacturing Facility 1 (EMF1, opened in 1990) and EMF3 form part of the Raheen Industrial Estate near Limerick. EMF2 (previously a Wang facility, later occupied by Flextronics, situated in Castletroy) closed in 2002, and Dell Inc has consolidated production into EMF3 (EMF1 now contains only offices). Dell's Alienware subsidiary also manufactures PCs in an Athlone, Ireland plant. Construction of EMF4 in Łódź, Poland has started[update]: Dell started production there in autumn 2007.
Dell opened plants in Penang, Malaysia in 1995, and in Xiamen, China in 1999. These facilities serve the Asian market and assemble 95% of Dell notebooks. Dell Inc has invested an estimated $60 million in a new manufacturing unit in Chennai, India, to support the sales of its products in the Indian subcontinent. Indian-made products will bear the "Made in India" mark. In 2007 the Chennai facility had the target of producing 400,000 desktop PCs, and plans envisaged it starting to produce notebook PCs and other products in the second half of 2007.
Technical support
Dell routes technical support queries according to component-type and to the level of support purchased. Dell Inc brands its service agreements at five levels for their business customers:
1. Basic support provides business-hours telephone support and next business-day on-site support.
2. Silver support provides 24×7 telephone support and 4-hour on-site support after telephone-based troubleshooting.
3. Gold support provides additional benefits over and above Silver support, including: customer-declared severity; priority access to support; expedited escalation of support; 4-hour on-site support in parallel with telephone-support.
4. Platinum Plus support provides additional benefits to Gold Support, including: performance benchmarking; real-time tracking; custom planning and reporting; a dedicated technical account-manager.
5. 2-hour on-site support, offered in some cities: mostly limited to major metropolitan areas.
Dell's Consumer division offers 24x7 phone based and online troubleshooting rather than only during business hours. Gold Technical support is not offered for customers purchasing through the consumer department, and neither is Same-Day Onsite response.
On February 4, 2008 Dell launched a revamped services-and-support scheme for businesses named "ProSupport", offering customers more options to tailor services to fit their needs. Rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach, Dell has put together packages of options for each category of its customers: small and medium-sized businesses, large businesses, government, education, and health-care- and life-sciences.
Dell now offers separate support options for IT staff and for non-IT professionals. For the latter, the company offers "how-to" support for software applications, such as Microsoft Office. Dell also offers collaborative support with many third-party software vendors. For IT departments, Dell offers "fast-track dispatch" of parts and labor and access to a crisis-center to handle major outages, virus-attacks, or problems caused by natural disasters.
Besides offering response-options for handling problems, Dell has launched "Proactive Maintenance", which offers assessment and recommendations for updating drivers and firmware and for the application of customer-approved patches and system-updates. Dell also offers assessment-services for storage area networks, as well as for Dell's computing hardware.
The new offerings replace Dell's tiered services-structure in which customers could choose from a variety of service levels, such as platinum, gold, or silver. The latest system takes a more customizable approach to support.
DellConnect
The DellConnect program, a remote-access tool, gives technicians within Dell Support the ability to access customer computers from a remote location for troubleshooting purposes. By using this tool, support technicians can analyze the configuration of a computer system, view and edit its files and software environment, view and comment on the screen, or take control of the computer system (with the customer's approval) to carry out troubleshooting.
Commercial aspects
Traditional business-model
Traditionally, Dell has sold all its products — whether to end-use consumers or to corporate customers — using a direct-sales model via the Internet and the telephone-network. Dell maintains a negative cash conversion cycle (CCC) through use of this model: in other words, Dell Inc. receives payment for the products before it has to pay for the materials. Dell also practices just-in-time (JIT) inventory-management, profiting from its attendant benefits. Dell's JIT approach utilizes the "pull" system by building computers only after customers place orders and by requesting materials from suppliers as needed. In this way Dell mirrors Toyota by following Toyota Way Principle #3 ("Use 'pull' systems to avoid overproduction"). Since the days of the original dominance of telephone-ordering, the Internet has significantly enhanced Dell's business model, making it easier for customers and potential customers to contact Dell directly. This model also has enabled Dell to provide very customizable systems at an affordable rate, since Dell's manufacturing arm builds specifically for each customer. Other computer-manufacturers, including Gateway and Hewlett-Packard, have attempted to adapt similar business-models, but due to timing and/or retail-channel pressures they have not achieved the same results as Dell.
Organization
A board of directors of nine people runs the company. Michael Dell, the founder of the company, serves on the board. Other board members include Don Carty, William Gray, Judy Lewent, Klaus Luft, Alex Mandl, Michael A. Miles, and Sam Nunn. Shareholders elect the nine board members at meetings, and those board members who do not get a majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. The board of directors usually sets up five committees which have oversight over specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues, including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposed mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters (including nomination of the board); and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.
The corporate structure and management of Dell extends beyond the board of directors. The Dell Global Executive Management Committee sets strategic directions. Dell has regional senior vice-presidents for countries other than the United States, including David Marmonti for EMEA and Stephen J. Felice for Asia/Japan. As of 2007[update], other officers included Martin Garvin (senior vice president for worldwide procurement) and Susan E. Sheskey (vice president and chief information officer).
Marketing
Dell advertisements have appeared in several types of media including television, the Internet, magazines, catalogs and newspapers. Some of Dell Inc's marketing strategies include lowering prices at all times of the year, offering free bonus products (such as Dell printers), and offering free shipping in order to encourage more sales and to stave off competitors. In 2006, Dell cut its prices in an effort to maintain its 19.2% market share. However, this also cut profit-margins by more than half, from 8.7 to 4.3 percent. To maintain its low prices, Dell continues to accept most purchases of its products via the Internet and through the telephone network, and to move its customer-care division to India and El Salvador. A popular United States television and print ad campaign in the early 2000s featured the actor Ben Curtis playing the part of "Steven", a lightly mischievous blond-haired kid who came to the assistance of bereft computer purchasers. Each television advertisement usually ended with Steven's catch-phrase: "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!"
Dell recently began using the slogan "Yours is here" to show that it customizes computers to fit customers' requirements.
Criticisms of Dell's marketing of laptop security
Recently[update] Dell has received a lot of press coverage over its claim of having the world's most secure notebooks, specifically, its Latitude D630 and Latitude D830.
According to a (U.S.) National Advertising Division (NAD) report released in late June 2008, Dell did not have enough evidence to support its claim as maker of the "world's most secure laptops" within its marketing campaign. Lenovo filed the complaint to NAD accusing Dell of making unverified claims.
"Although NAD determined that the advertiser could truthfully advertise its position as the first in the industry to combine these particular third-party components in creating secure systems for large businesses, NAD observed the distinction between the security provided to the individual computers and the security provided to a large network of computers." "Since not all of the components of the FDE Encryption Solution are equally relevant for all sizes of business, NAD recommended the advertiser make this distinction to the extent it intends to make broad security claims." "On the basis of the evidence in the record, NAD determined that advertiser demonstrated that it offered features of computer security that were both unique and meaningful to consumers."
The market expects laptops with full disk encryption to have data-at-rest (DAR) protection, but they remain vulnerable to cold boot attack, a type of side-channel attack, which takes advantage of data remanence "However, it also determined that the broad claim "World's Most Secure" was not adequately supported and was appropriately discontinued."
Dell voluntarily discontinued the "world's most secure laptops" advertisement after the announcement of the NAD investigation.
Competition
Dell's major competitors include Apple, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Samsung, Sun Microsystems, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, Acer, Toshiba and Asus. Dell and its subsidiary, Alienware, compete in the enthusiast market against AVADirect, Falcon Northwest, VoodooPC (a subsidiary of HP), and other manufacturers.
Mergers and acquisitions
As of 2009[update] Dell Inc has acquired ten companies (eight of them based in the United States), purchased stakes in four companies, and divested two companies. Dell has not released the financial details for most of these mergers and acquisitions.
Dell's first acquisition involved ConvergeNet Technologies: on September 8, 1999. The company acquired Alienware, a specialty computer-desktop manufacturer, on May 8, 2006 for an undisclosed sum and integrated its technology into the company's high-end product lines. The acquisition of Alienware introduced several new items to Dell products, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) microprocessors; all of Dell's previous CPUs had come from Intel. To prevent cross-market products, Dell continues to run Alienware as a separate entity but still a wholly-owned subsidiary. The company acquired EqualLogic on January 28, 2008 to gain a foothold in the iSCSI storage market. Because Dell already had an efficient manufacturing process, integrating EqualLogic's products into the company drove manufacturing prices down.
From 1999 to 2000, Dell purchased stakes in four companies. It also divested two companies, in 2000 and 2008, selling parts of the company to other companies. Dell's largest acquisition was New Hampshire-based EqualLogic in January 2008 for $1.4billion. The company made the most acquisitions in any one year in 2008 with three: EqualLogic, The Networked Storage Company, and MessageOne. On September 21, 2009 Dell announced its intent to acquire Perot Systems (based in Plano, Texas) in a reported $3.9billion deal.
Criticism
In the 1990s Dell switched from using primarily ATX motherboards and PSU to using boards and power-supplies with mechanically identical but differently wired connectors. This meant customers wishing to upgrade their hardware would have to replace parts with scarce Dell-compatible parts instead of commonly available parts. However, company practice in this respect changed in 2003.
In 2005, complaints about Dell more than doubled to 1,533, after earnings grew 52% that year.
In 2006, Dell acknowledged that it had problems with customer service. Issues included call-transfers of more than 45% of calls and long wait-times. Dell's blog detailed the response: "We're spending more than a $100 million — and a lot of blood, sweat and tears of talented people — to fix this." Later in the year, the company increased its spending on customer service to $150 million.
In May, 2008 the New York Supreme Court ruled that Dell and Dell Financial Services "engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices, and abusive debt collection practices". The relevant lawsuit aimed primarily to highlight and seek restitution for a lack of technical support given to customers by Dell. The court plans to hold further proceedings to determine how much money Dell has to pay out to customers and how much profit Dell made unlawfully, in New York.
ETHICAL PRACTICES
Dell's 2008 CSR report has been ranked as "Application Level B" as checked by GRI. Dell became the first company in the information technology industry to establish a product-recycling goal (in 2004) and completed the implementation of its global consumer recycling-program in 2006. On February 6, 2007, the National Recycling Coalition awarded Dell its "Recycling Works" award for efforts to promote producer responsibility. Dell set a goal of becoming the greenest technology company on Earth for the long term.
The company launched a zero-carbon initiative that includes:
· reducing Dell's carbon intensity by 15 percent by 2012
· requiring primary suppliers to report carbon emissions data during quarterly business reviews
· partnering with customers to build the "greenest PC on the planet"
· expanding the company's carbon-offsetting program, "Plant a Tree for Me".
The company introduced a term "The Re-Generation" during a round table in London commemorating 2007 World Environment Day. "The Re-Generation" refers to people of all ages throughout the world who really want to "make a difference" in improving the world's environment. Dell also discussed about plans to take the lead in setting an environmental standard for the "technology industry" and maintaining that leadership in the future.
Energy Efficiency
The company aims to reduce its external environmental impact by energy-efficient design of products, and also reduce its direct operational impact through energy-efficiency programmes. Internal energy-efficiency programmes reportedly save the company more than $3 million annually in the energy-cost savings. The largest component of the company's internal energy-efficiency savings comes through PC power management: the company expects of saving $1.8 million in energy costs through using specialised energy-management software on a network of 50,000 PCs.
Lawsuits and other legal action against Unethical Practices of DELL
· Dell sales and technical departments are not related at all. Indian tech's are not trained on sales, so they are unable to find the right part for customer, and mostly they sell them wrong parts because of management pressure (because Dell international services -DIS) wants to be a self funded site.
For an example, if you have Mcafee on your computer, tech would tell u that go for norton, and sell you norton. This is the kind of cheap tricks these guys perform to make extra money. They intentionally create a need (by telling u there is something wrong with your machine) and then sell you parts you dont need.
· In 1997 Håkan Lans sued Dell for the infringement of his color-graphics display patent, U.S. patent no. 4,303,986. Dell won the case because Lans did not had any ownership interest in the patent, having assigned it to a corporation that he owned.
· In 2005, Dell began the construction of a facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Many claims emerged that Dell had used unfair practices to obtain huge incentives. Dell Inc. fought a lawsuit which the court system later dismissed.
· In October 2005, Dell filed a lawsuit in a Paris court to sue Minorca-based independent website-designer Paul Dell of "Dellimages" for engaging in "parasitism and unfair competition". This related to his company website "DellWebsites".
· On January 31, 2007, some shareholders filed a lawsuit accusing Dell and Intel of conspiring, and accusing Dell executives (including Michael Dell) of backdating options and of propped financial reports. Specific allegations claimed that:
o Dell had received kickbacks from Intel to maintain Intel exclusivity
o Dell had used the funds to prop up its sales-figures
o Dell reduced the period and scope of its warranties and cut corners on manufacturing and testing in order to funnel additional funds to sales; causing the stock-price to inflate to around $40 per share
o once stock-prices had peaked, several Dell executives, including Michael Dell, sold massive amounts of their personal stock-holdings to benefit from the artificially inflated stock-price
· On February 8, 2007, seven current and former workers at a call-center in Roseburg, Oregon sued Dell, saying the company worked its sales reps "off the clock", failed to provide proper rest-breaks and improperly recorded their lunch-periods. Moves have begun to turn the case into a class action. Dell suddenly closed down the facility there on August 2, 2007. The facility consisted of computer and electronics sales-agents and of customer-service representatives.
· In March 2007 an article titled "Computer Giant Faces Consumer Lawsuit Consumers Allege They Didn't Get the Tech Support They Paid For" appeared on an ABC News website. "Part of the suit claims that though Dell gave the impression of an "award-winning service" available to consumers "24 hours a day, seven days a week", consumers faced "nightmarish obstacles" to get help and technical service for their computers. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said that New York had received 700 complaints about Dell — more than the number of complaints for any other related subject.
· In May 2007, Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against Dell for "false advertising and deceptive business practices, including offering misleading financing, and failing to honor rebates, warranties and service contracts". Dell spokesman Bob Pearson portrayed the lawsuit as based on only a small portion of Dell's customers and as in no way reflecting the way the company treats its customers. Dell's hardware-warranty contract says that customers must troubleshoot over the phone — including possibly opening the computer — before Dell will send a technical service provider to replace a part. On May 27, 2008, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi required Dell to clarify its financing and warranty criteria, saying the computer maker engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business and abusive debt-collection practices. Parties have filed more than 1,000 additional complaints with the attorney general's office since the initial filing of the lawsuit in May 2007.
· On December 5, 2007, Typhoon Touch Technologies filed a lawsuit naming Dell inc. along with other defendants, and alleging patent-violations over Dell's use of touchscreen technology.
· On June 25, 2009, Dell made a major pricing error on its Taiwan web page, labeling all of Dell's product around $30 to $220 lower or higher than the intended price. Dell spent 8 hours responding to this error. Dell announced that in consequence customers submitted about 140,000 orders for monitors and notebooks to Dell Taiwan. After a week, the company apologized for the error. Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission suggested that due to pricing error Dell should at least sell each customer one product at the contract price, and then offer a discount on the additional orders. However, Dell refused to comply and continues in discussions with Taiwan's authorities.
· On July 5, 2009, following the previous incident, Dell again suffered from a pricing error in Taiwan. Dell labeled its Latitude E4300 laptop PCs (then normally priced at $2,101.34 in Taiwan, $1,450 in the U.S.A. and in Hong Kong) for sale at $563.40 on its online sales page for 8 hours, according to Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission. After notification by a reporter, Dell responded to this error 6 hours later after netting around 40,000 orders of the product. The company suspended its online sales for three days to fix the system. Dell apologized for the errors and offered $600 dated coupons on this product to people who had purchased computers at misprinted prices. However, the Taiwan Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) claimed it "cannot accept" such a response, because even if customers use the coupons, the price would still exceed market price in Taiwan and other countries. The Commission suspected Dell of using pricing-errors as an advertisement or of collecting customer information in an illegal way. Two weeks later, a judge froze Dell's bank account for two days, suspecting the whole incident as fraud. This affected Dell's financial flow with its business partners. On July 29, 2009, CPC fined Dell $30,000 because Dell did not establish its bona fides with its customers on this issue. The CPC stated "If Dell wouldn't have the agreement with the customers within two weeks, the company will not only be suspended its business in Taiwan but also will be penalized $45,000 each day".
