Dell apologizes for remove-this-blog-post-or-else nastygram

A blog post at Consumerist.com offering tips on buying from Dell drew a nasty cease-and-desist letter from the company's attorney and then, in quick succession, a chastened apology from a Dell manager.

The original post, titled "22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager," appeared last Thursday. The same afternoon, Dell attorney Tracy J. Holland sent a nastygram to Consumerist saying the post must be deleted because "it contains information that is confidential and proprietary to Dell."

The offending post included advice like this: "Thursday is the first day of new promotions. If you go to the web site at 11:45 p.m. on Wednesday night and again on 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, the promotions are different. The catalog promotions run from the start of the month to the end."

That legal threat might have worked a decade ago, but not today. The correspondence was Dugg; it was Slashdotted; it was generally dissected and discussed at length by increasingly irate customers (and potential customers) until Dell was forced to turn tail and apologize.

That happened in a "we goofed" post on Saturday by Lionel Menchaca, Dell's digital media manager. He said: "We blew it... Instead of trying to control information that was made public, we should have simply corrected anything that was inaccurate. We didn't do that, and now we're paying for it." (Dell also offers a community forum.)

What makes this case mildly puzzling is that, based on the information that's been made public so far, Consumerist was under no obligation to delete anything. Journalists routinely obtain "confidential and proprietary information" from sources -- in fact, that kind of material, if it checks out, usually makes for the best stories.

I've written scores, if not hundreds, of stories based on confidential leaked government documents. News.com has broken its share of business stories, including being the first to confirm the highly confidential information that Apple was switching to Intel chips. And in the Bartnicki case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld journalists' First Amendment right to publish highly confidential information (that they had obtained by breaking no laws).

Expecting our esteemed members of the bar to be familiar with the First Amendment might, it's true, be asking too much. But it's heartening to note that at least Consumerist knows its rights under the law, and stood its ground against unfounded legal threats.

[dem0]

big companies seem to forget...

the old lashing out against the little guy doesn't work on today's Internet. Every time one tries to cover up a story, they end up making it that much more popular. You can't censor everybody and it's getting to the point where people realize if they stick to their guns they can make a fool out of anybody.

[MaLvaDo39]

Close shop

Dell should sell the company and give the money back to the
shareholders.

[mr3vil]

They need to fire the robots.

It seems like more and more these big companies have robots spitting out C&D letters like credit card companies spit out "You're pre approved" letters. If they had a human being at the controls...or more properly a human being capable of rational thought...Dell wouldn't have ended up with egg on their faces.

[ralahinn1]

"secret" information would give me more incentive to buy

If I was to buy something from a big company these days, it is probly because some "insider"(disgruntled or not) has put information about the product/ company on the web that the general public doesn't know. Regular consumers today need an edge in their choices, since quite often there is alot of competition among the big companies today in the types and formats of products offered.

[Jane in KC]

Lawyers and What They "Know"

The article commented: "Expecting our esteemed members of the bar to be familiar with the First Amendment might, it's true, be asking too much."

Good shot, and indeed it might. Lawyers seldom "know" much more than the interested, intelligent "man on the street." They are taught how to find the information, though, and certainly have a responsibility to make that effort before jumping to conclusions.

Correctly or not, they are also taught how to argue any side of a question. Therefore, some corporate lawyers think it is their job to automatically support what they perceive as the side of their employer.

The thinking process is time-consuming and therefore not observable any more in the legal profession than in any other.

[Dr_Zinj]

Hope Dell fired that attorney

Making mistakes is one thing, sticking your foot in your mouth up to your hips is another.

Also, if there is no consequences for making a blunder, there's no reason to stop making them. i.e. if Mr. Lawyer is going to learn anything, it's going to need to hurt him a bit.

[ewon91]

Typical Corporate blindness

I have some experience having been one of their corportae customers in the past. Dell is a huge nebulous organization and employees with knowledge either are not enpowered to act or when they do make decisions(management)are so far removed from the day to day business that they tend to make the wrong move. The big picture is these "tips" will land Dell sales for consumers. Dell has gone from a nice computer company to being an aggorant entitlement minded company. You can't squash information.

[stlwest]

What kind of tip was that? Here's a tip.

Go buy the system you want and then within the allowed timeframes call in and tell them you want to return the system. Chances are you will be offered a discount to keep the system. This seems to work especially well on laptops for some reason.

It is just easier for them then having to QC the system, possibly re-package, and then sell as refurbished at a discount to somebody else. Of course as an alternative you could buy a refurbished system from Dell.

[qwerty75]

The only tip you need

Never buy from Dell. Their computers are made of junk parts, with junk performance and support.

People who buy Dells have absolutely no right to complain.

[Des Alba]

I don't buy Dell any more.

Having owned a couple of Dell PCs in the past, they can keep 'em AND their customer service. There are many other great PC builders out there, with ibuypower and pugetsound just being two of them, in case you don't have time to build your own. This legal nastygram and the confused apology that followed illustrate that this company is in a state of confusion and has lost its way.