In December of 2002, I started a page on my Computer Gripes site devoted to Dell.
Accumulating gripes about Dell was like taking candy from a baby; there was no sport in it. Eventually, I gave up maintaining the page, but despite a total lack of advertising or promotion, people kept finding the page and adding their own gripes.
Now these Dell gripes are official.
The Office of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo won a lawsuit on Tuesday against Dell and affiliate company Dell Financial Services (DFS). The illegal activity involved both computers and finance. According to a government statement, "Dell and DFS engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices, and abusive debt collection practices." Wow.
The Associated Press reports that the attorney general's office had 700 complaints when the lawsuit was filed and has received more than 1,000 since. And that's just in New York.
"For too long at Dell," Cuomo was quoted as saying, "the promise of customer service was a bait and switch that left thousands of people paying for essentially no service at all."
State Supreme Court Justice Joseph C. Teresi, who made the ruling, said, "Dell has engaged in repeated misleading, deceptive, and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading, and deceptive practices in credit financing, and failure to provide warranty service and rebates."
On the computer side, the decision says (the bullet points below are taken directly from the official statement) that customers were deprived of warranty tech support by Dell:
- Repeatedly failing to provide timely on-site repair to consumers who purchased service contracts promising "on-site" and expedited service;
- Pressuring consumers, including those who purchased service contracts promising "on-site" repair, to remove the external cover of their computer and remove, reinstall, and manipulate hardware components;
- Discouraging consumers from seeking technical support; those who called Dell's toll-free number were subjected to long wait times, repeated transfers, and frequent disconnections; and
- Failing to provide rebates that were promised to consumers.
On the financial side, Justice Teresi concluded that "Dell lured consumers to purchase its products with advertisements that offered attractive "no interest" and/or "no payment" financing promotions. In practice, however, the vast majority of consumers, even those with very good credit scores, were denied these deals. In a classic 'bait and switch' scheme, DFS instead offered consumers financing at high interest rates, which often exceeded 20 percent. Dell and DFS frequently failed to clearly inform these consumers that they had not qualified for the promotional terms, leaving many to unwittingly finance their purchase at high interest rates."
The response from Dell, besides disagreeing with the ruling, was that not many people complained. The same AP story quotes a Dell representative, who says, "We are confident that when the proceedings are finally completed, the court will determine that only a relatively small number of customers have been affected," and it reports earlier statements by Dell that the company "had 6 million transactions in New York between 2003 and 2006, with alleged complaints representing only a tiny fraction."
To help draw your own conclusion, read the original decision and order (PDF).
See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.
It seems that Michael Dell is breathing new life into his company.
A year ago, Dell was brave enough to backtrack on its Vista-only policy for consumer machines (Dell brings back XP on home systems). It also showed some independence from Microsoft by offering Linux to consumers. And again, Dell is innovating.
Fact 1: As of June 30, large computer manufacturers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard can no longer offer Windows XP preinstalled on new computers, though Microsoft has said it would consider re-evaluating the deadline if there's enough customer demand.
Fact 2: Anyone who buys a copy of either the Business or Ultimate versions of Vista is entitled to also get Windows XP Professional.* Each computer manufacturer decides whether, or how, to implement this.
Until now, consumers who exercised their right to get XP Professional when they purchased Vista got a computer with Vista preinstalled and an XP image CD in the box (an image CD is very different from a retail Windows CD).
Dell's innovation? It will do the XP image installation for you. It may not sound like much, but the net result is that the computer leaves the factory with Windows XP Professional on it, rather than Vista.
Deadline? We don't need no stinkin' deadline.
Microsoft can't be happy about this, though a cynic would note that even though Dell computers leave the factory with XP on them, Microsoft can tally it as a sale for Vista.
It's an interesting power play between the two companies. Will other companies follow Dell or toe the Microsoft line?
According to Randy Copeland, president and CEO of Velocity Micro, after the June 30 deadline, all of its computers will ship with Vista preinstalled. The company will offer the XP Professional "downgrade" in the traditional way, by including an XP image CD in the box. Interestingly, each XP image CD will be mated to one, and only one, computer.
Dell has a Web page devoted to its new policy, Windows XP Availability, which notes that the last day to buy a computer with Windows XP preinstalled under the current rules is June 18. Afterward:
When selecting your operating system, you will see an option called "Genuine Windows® Vista Business BONUS" and "Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate BONUS." With these options, you may...have Dell factory install Windows XP Professional. You will also receive a backup media disc for Windows XP Professional, as well as the media for Windows Vista.
In other words, Dell provides optical discs for both XP and Vista, so you can change over at any time. This is not like Apple's Boot Camp, however; the computer can have only one operating installed on the hard disk at a time. But Dell provides technical support for both XP and Vista. Whether its tech support is worthwhile is another matter.
According to Infoworld, Dell will offer this new "buy Vista, get XP Pro preinstalled" service on some Latitude, OptiPlex, and Precision systems for free. It will also offer it on some Vostro and XPS systems for a small fee.
For more about getting Windows XP after the June 30 deadline, see my previous posting, Who's selling Windows XP in July?
*NOTE: Microsoft allows a "downgrade" only to XP Professional, not to the Home or Media Center editions. According to InfoWorld, large organizations with site licenses can "downgrade" from any version of Vista.
See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.
Internet Explorer 7 was missing on a brand new Dell Latitude D630 running Windows XP SP2. I tried to find out why, which resulted in the saga below. Consider this a tip for anyone purchasing a new XP based computer and a heads up on how Microsoft and Dell treat their customers.
The machine arrived a few days ago, and one of the first things I dutifully did was run Windows Update from Internet Explorer (Tools -> Windows Update). I was surprised to find the machine came with Internet Explorer 6 considering that IE7 has been available for a year now.
After the usual round of updates to the Windows Update software, it found over 40 missing bug fixes and correctly installed all of them except for one. No big deal, I've seen this many times with one of the patches for .NET. Still, Windows seems pretty stale. It's hard for me to judge the age of 40 some odd bug fixes, but it could be that Windows hadn't been updated for over a year.
After rebooting, Windows Update finds the missing bug fix and installs it. Only then I notice that I'm still running Internet Explorer version 6. What gives? Hundred of times I've seen Windows Update try to install IE7.
Back to the Windows Update website. IE7 is not in the list of optional patches. A review of the update history shows only the one error I already knew about. Nowhere in the history is IE7. I try to restore the hidden updates, but there aren't any. I decide to investigate. Is it a bug in Windows Update?
Microsoft
At the home page for Internet Explorer (microsoft.com/ie) the lead story is "Internet Explorer 7 now available to all users running Windows." This, of course, is not true. IE7 does not run on Windows 2000 or any of the earlier versions of Windows.
I follow the link to "Find help get answers" which leads to the Internet Explorer 7 Support page. Here too, Microsoft makes a statement for which truth is not an appropriate attribute. The page says "Support for Internet Explorer 7 is available via the phone based on your locale."
I call the Support number and answer the phone menu questions. In the end, Microsoft says it's not their problem. Because Windows XP came pre-installed on the computer, the instructions say to contact the hardware manufacturer.
I called Microsoft again and this time chose the option for Windows Update returning an error. In response, the telephone system sent me to the Windows Update website with instructions to click on "Get help and support". Speaking to a person was not an option, even though I was calling during the hours of operation. The linked-to web page didn't provide anything useful.
In a third go-round with Microsoft's telephone system, I chose the security and virus problem option figuring that IE7 is supposed to be more secure than IE6. The telephone system told me go to onecare.live.com/scan and run a full service scan. At this point I could take the hint, so I tried Dell.
Dell
At the home page for Dell support (support.dell.com) there is a "Live Chat" link at the very top. I clicked it, opted to chat with technical support and entered my service tag. This starts a hardware chat. My problem is software, but there isn't a software chat.
After entering my name and email address, IE issues two different warnings about problems with digital certificates.
The text in the chat window at the bottom of the resulting page is small, click I click on a link in the top part of the page for large text. This changes the text size in the top, but not in the chat window. Looks like Dell hasn't put much effort into this chat thing.
Fairly quickly, someone starts chatting with me and they confirm that the chat is only for hardware problems. So I ask where the software chat is. Rather than answer the question, the person asks what the software problem is. After explaining it, I'm told "... what I can do is give you the number to Microsoft and they will be able to assist you with this issue." I'm told to call (800) MICROSOFT. Thanks Dell.
I call this new Microsoft number and end up with the same phone menu options as before. Again, when I tell Microsoft's telephone system that Windows XP came pre-installed, they tell me to call Dell (in so many words).
I soldier on to Dells' technical support web page where it correctly auto-detects that I'm running a Latitude D630. I click the Contact us link and end up here where I opt to call Technical Support on the phone.
Calling requires an Express Service Code, a different number from the Service Tag. There is a link to display your Express Service Code but it only works in Internet Explorer. Still, it wasn't hard to find.
The instructions offer different phone numbers to call depending on who or what you are. I don't' know who I am. The computer belongs to a client of mine and I don't know if it was purchased as an individual, small business or perhaps higher education. The phone number for each differs and I'm too pessimistic to call any of them.
Back to Microsoft
But I decide to spend a few more minutes searching Microsoft's site. As Jerry Pournelle often says, I do this stuff so you won't have to.
Somehow I end up at the Internet Explorer Solutions Center. There is search box for searching the tech support Knowledge Base. I enter "windows update", click the arrow and find nothing that answers my question in the search results.
At the top of the list is a link to the Windows Update Solution Center. The initial page has nothing about IE7 disappearing from Windows Update, so I try Other Issues. From the list of products, I select Windows Update, say I'm in the United States and end up at a page where I can submit a problem report. Looks like there is free technical support for Windows Update. Yippee.
But before submitting a problem you're presented with a long "Agreement for Microsoft Services". This is the end of the line for me, I resent being bound by this agreement just to get help with Windows update. Also, there is a section in the agreement on confidentiality that starts with "The terms and conditions of this agreement are confidential..." I want to write this posting so confidentiality is out of the question. It does however, beg the question of why Microsoft needs confidentiality for tech support.
Get the Memo?
Maybe I didn't get the memo. Maybe everyone but me knows IE7 is no longer available from Windows Update. I do a web search for "internet explorer 7 windows update".
IE7 has been in the news lately. Microsoft dropped the requirement for WGA validation. This means that people running illegal pirated copies of Windows can now get IE7 (see Microsoft disables Internet Explorer 7 validation process by Tom Espiner) . The article doesn't mention Windows Update.
Installing
At this point, I download and install IE7 without incident. It's available from microsoft.com/ie and microsoft.com/downloads (where it heads both the popular and new lists).
After the required reboot, I run the Secunia Software Inspector (a future blog topic) for an unrelated reason only to have it point out that I'm missing a bug fix to IE7. Windows Update confirms this, as shown below.
Thanks Microsoft, for letting me download a known buggy version of IE7 and not warning me to run Windows Update afterwards. Or was the bug left there for those running pirated versions of Windows?
P.S. You're still better off with XP as opposed to Vista.
Update: October 14, 2007. According to the Automatic Updates Distribution Process page at Microsoft's website, IE7 is being distributed by Windows Update. Either this page is wrong or there is a bug in Windows Update.
On October 4th, Steve Reynolds, Program Manager for IE at Microsoft, wrote:
"If you are not already running IE7, you can get it now from ... or, if you haven?t already received it via Automatic Updates, this version will be delivered to you as we described previously."
I confirmed on another Windows XP machine that IE7 is not offered via Windows Update.
Update: October 15, 2007. I tried a third XP computer running IE6 and this time IE7 did appear in the list of missing updates. I tried a fourth machine and it too, was offered IE7. The best guess is that it was a temporary problem with Windows Update.
Update: October 16, 2007. Rather than a bug, this was probably a temporary takedown of IE7 having something to do with the recent removal of the WGA requirement. As with so many computer gripes, it boils down to bad documentation.
Update: October 18, 2007. Finally, closure. Susan Bradley, writing for Windows Secrets, covered the disappearance of IE7 in an article today Internet Explorer 7: missing in action or not?. Susan says "We honestly don't know why IE 7 was gone for nearly a week." It re-appeared Sunday October 14th. As noted above, this is yet another case of bad documentation.
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