Dell facing slew of Chinese lawsuits over CPU switcheroo

What a difference an "E" makes. Chinese owners of Dell's Inspiron 640m laptop are apparently furious over the fact that the company misleadingly equipped their new machines with Intel's Core Duo T2300E processor instead of the T2300 chip that had been advertised, and are lining up to sue over the alleged defrauding, according to news site China Daily. Since the only real difference between the T2300 and T2300E is the former's support for Intel's Virtualization Technology, the average consumer probably wouldn't even be affected by the cheaper processor, but customers are still understandably peeved that they're not getting all the functionality they paid for. The discrepancy was first discovered in early June by a single owner, who by way of an online bulletin board, learned that hundreds of other unhappy customers were afflicted with the same problem. The owner filed suit against Dell in late July after having apparently been rebuffed in an attempt to get the CPU swapped out (""I tried to negotiate with Dell and simply asked them to change the CPU, but they said there was no difference between the two and it was unnecessary to change," claims the owner); now 19 more customers have joined together for their own class-action suit, with many more waiting in the wings, according to lawyers handling the cases. For its part, Dell claims the mix-up stems from a failure to update its Chinese marketing materials, and has issued affected customers both an apology and an offer to refund the full price of returned machines -- but at this point, that doesn't seem to be enough for many of the folks involved. It's unfortunate that it took a big public stink for Dell to own up to its mistake and attempt a resolution, but as with the just-announced, historic battery recall, this incident proves just how powerful a determined group of individuals can be.

Read- Chinese lawsuits [Via Ars Technica]
Read- Dell's response

[Keef @ Aug 15th 2006 5:57AM]

gutted......

[Anonymous @ Aug 15th 2006 6:20AM]

This is what happened with the 2007WFP monitors that had the banding issues. Dell KNEW about the problem, and was hoping that noone would notice and not only did they blatantly lie about it for awhile, they then admitted it and still waited awhile to say "Ok, you can have replacements or a refund" (To keep themselves from getting the class-action lawsuit that was EXTREMELY close to happening. A lawyer was amoung those of us trying to get a replacement/refund and he was at his wits end when they finally came around).

A warning to all; Do NOT do business with Dell. Any problems you have require speaking to outsourced (Indian) customer support that barely understands English, and shipping your stuff back to Dell (at your cost). Buy from a brick and mortar, I don't care what brand you get, but DEFINATLY buy from somewhere that if you have a problem you can drive and take the thing back.

This is ridiculous in the year 2006 to be going through this crap again and again.

[major @ Aug 15th 2006 6:59AM]

Wow! Dell certainly has taken a nosedive into the stink tank as of late. Too bad. They used to be such a well-respected company. Guess that's what happens when you get too big for your britches.

[Kraska @ Aug 15th 2006 7:09AM]

thanks for this information.

[tk. @ Aug 15th 2006 8:17AM]

"A warning to all; Do NOT do business with Dell. Any problems you have require speaking to outsourced (Indian) customer support that barely understands English, and shipping your stuff back to Dell (at your cost). Buy from a brick and mortar, I don't care what brand you get, but DEFINATLY buy from somewhere that if you have a problem you can drive and take the thing back."

India was once a British colony, they speak English.

Their support always came to my door to fix my problems, as well as a family member while she was at college.

People read to much into things, and try to find the dumbest things to sue big companies over.

Everyone should buy an HP, no wait Compaq, no wait, Mac. Alienware? E-machines?

Oh yes, Gateway because you know, they quit using cheap ass parts in their machines back when they were Gateway 2000.

Blue Sucks.

[PEZ @ Aug 15th 2006 8:20AM]

Not a good week for DELL. They are starting to look anr react more like APPLE everyday.

Haha.

[JinKazama @ Aug 15th 2006 8:29AM]

Gotta disagree tk, I think the current gripes against Dell are legit. No difference in processor, defective monitor....those folks did not get what they paid for and Dell should have replaced the item or given a refund no questions asked.

Just because your experience was different don't discount anothers.

[noobs @ Aug 15th 2006 8:34AM]

As bad as dell quality is it still beats the crap out of compaq/HP, toshiba and other major manufactuers.

Their warrentee plans are VERY generous to make up for their questionable build quality.

The only people who kick the crap out of dell is leveno (ibm thinkpads)

[Kyle @ Aug 15th 2006 8:36AM]

The E really is a big deal especially for Linux users and the rising star in virtualization, Xen. Xen 3 does not support Windows as a guest OS without the Intel Virtualization.
http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/OSCompatibility
I love Linux but sometimes you just have to use Windows. I personally like Dell but this torrent of bad news through the quickly spreading blogosphere will have a serious effect. I wonder if these lawsuits and recalls are raising their prices.
http://www.macworld.com/2006/08/features/macproprice/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

[Finished.Law.School @ Aug 15th 2006 9:23AM]

There's no reason to feel bad for a company that is going to lie to its customers. They deserve to suffer for this in conjunction with the battery issue - although I think Dell should direct more of the fire regarding the battery issue at Sony since Sony manufactured the batteries in question...

[christopher @ Aug 15th 2006 10:09AM]

This is why I own a mac... you know what you are getting when you shell out your hard earned dollars. I gave up on Dell 7 years ago. For the same reason I love mac is the reason I hate Dell. Propriatary parts, mac machines use mac part that work like a mac. Dell machines use windows parts, but windows parts built for Dell, but don't try to hot swap with parts not OEM. Yeeeeow I don't even want to think about the can of bug that will get released from that action.

[Will @ Aug 15th 2006 10:46AM]

Hey guess what? You buy from Dell which is now a cut rate computer supplier, and you get cut rate, discount service. I buy Dells for the office, but I know that if anything goes wrong it is up to me to fix it. Bottom line, you get what you pay for.

Advertising one thing and supplying another is wrong, and Dell should have fixed it.

[TotalJim @ Aug 15th 2006 10:46AM]

Hmm never knew they allowed courts in China, thought they just defaulted to the firing squad...

[desolate @ Aug 15th 2006 11:01AM]

how can china have a lawsuit arent they a communist country???

[Warhorse @ Aug 15th 2006 11:16AM]

Well if dell has done anything this is finaly out.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060815/1331233.html?.v=1

[Matt @ Aug 15th 2006 1:20PM]

"This is why I own a mac... you know what you are getting when you shell out your hard earned dollars. I gave up on Dell 7 years ago. For the same reason I love mac is the reason I hate Dell. Propriatary parts, mac machines use mac part that work like a mac. Dell machines use windows parts, but windows parts built for Dell, but don't try to hot swap with parts not OEM. Yeeeeow I don't even want to think about the can of bug that will get released from that action."

That is just a stupid statement.

Oh yes, forget the fact that Apple will charge you $300 for a 160GB hard drive.. Dell really is a group of scammers.

Mac parts made for a Mac work like a Mac?

But Dell parts ("windows parts") made for a Dell don't work like a Dell?

You know Dell really is such an evil company, they use children to mop the floors of their offices. You know, them building their machines with proprietary parts and all... I don't know why anyone would buy a Dell over a Mac...

But wait, I guess that Apple does pratcially the same thing, right? Aren't their motherboards proprietary? Aren't their cases? Aren't their power supplies? Their operating system? Aren't those all proprietary? Yes, yes they are. But then again, mac parts work with a mac (big suprise, right?) but Dell parts hate everything.

Dell is really such an evil company for building proprietary machines. Everyone should switch to a Mac, because when Apple makes it, it is OK to be proprietary!

And as a side note: I have always had a good experience with Dell in the past. And I have upgraded pratically every part in a Dell, with the exception of the mainboard. I took a 2.0GHz P4 up to a 2.8, RAM from 256 up to 1GB, the video card from a GF440 to a 9800pro, swapped out the power supply after we had a lightning storm, upgraded the CD-RW to a DVD-RW, added in two more hard drives ect. You'll find most of the parts in a Dell aren't proprietary at all, the only things that really are (case and the mainboard).

Oh, and Dell's mainboards have always conformed to ATX and BTX standards. You can take a dell mainboard and use it in a standard ATX or BTX case.

[Adam @ Aug 15th 2006 3:56PM]

I'm surprised that the Chinese government lets Dell sell their laptops in their country. And I thought only frivelous Americans participated in class action litigation.

[LostToys @ Aug 15th 2006 4:52PM]

tk. -

"India was once a British colony, they speak English."

Yes, they speak English, but there is a big difference between "American" and "Indian English". Depending on how thick someone's accept it, it can be impossible sometimes to have a quality conversation with their tech support. Try watching a British comedy and tell me that you don't sometimes wish you have subtitles to follow.

It is all about being able to understand the individual on the other end of the phone, and if something gets in the way of communication, then you will walk away with a very bad customer service experience.

[Allusion @ Aug 15th 2006 6:44PM]

I have to agree on all the negative comments on Dell. I used to have the utmost respect for them, their service was top-notch and the build quality was great. Now, however I have had my share of bad experiences:

Indian techs who can't understand you and you can't understand them.

Techs whose first reaction is "Format and reinstall windows pretty much."

Techs who have no clue about how things actually work. For example I was having problems with my system (turned out to be a bad RAM stick) and they first told me that having my swapfile on a dedicated first partition was bad. Second they wanted me to reinstall windows. I finally downloaded memtest myself and figured out the problem and got a new set of RAM.

Etc. etc... I won't buy a desktop from them ever again. I will in all probability buy my next laptop from them (or alienware) since they generally have the best game oriented laptops.

[Hoon @ Aug 16th 2006 2:46AM]

The outdated information about T2300E wasn't only in China. Couple months ago I ordered inspiron e1405 with a T2300, and got a T2300E.

Also Sonystyle.com sold SZ240's with a T2300E, while the website shows it is a T2300. I even confirmed with the technician to make sure it is a T2300. I ordered it, and got a T2300E again. Talked with 2nd level technician, that guy told me T2300E is a BETTER one because it is a revisioned. Bulls**t! I had to explain to him what the differences were, and how T2300 is better than T2300E.

I'm pretty sure it's not only for Dell or Sony having T2300E sold as T2300.