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Mass hysteria over an alleged Dell cover up has been an ongoing thorn in the companies side for months now, but despite attempts to repair the damage using the media, it now appears as though they are simply going to pay whatever it takes to make the problem go away.
An undisclosed settlement amount will be paid to lawsuit plaintiff Advanced Internet Technologies which Dell hopes will finally put an end to the media firestorm surrounding the Optiplex brand of business desktops. Dell’s only comment was to say that “Settling the matter is better and more cost effective for the company than taking the case to trial”.
Since the case will never be fully heard out in court and the settlement details are being kept private we may never actually know the truth, however, I’m sure the monetary damages from this debacle are going to be far less punitive than the long term impact on the brand. Has this impacted your perception of Dell?
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knighttoday
September 28, 2010 at 12:05pm
It really is all realative. Dell, compared to other large corporations is doing what I expect, protecting the bottom line. Large corporations do not really give a rats a__ about the customer in spite of the PR dribble that flows out of them. So I would suggest a Dell to my customer over a Toshiba as in general I'e had less trouble with the Dell machines. But is Dell operating in the best interest of the customer, not on your life.
This story just puts another nail in Dell's coffin as they continue to prove me right. They opperate based on the bottom line, not ethicsd or moral values. And if folks think corporations don't have moral values or ethics, let me remind them that corporations are just people really.
Solarscreen
September 28, 2010 at 9:33am
I have used Dells since 1995. Overall I have been happy with their performance and durability.
My take? There are Dell haters and a lot of whiners. If your machine was past it's warranty and the cap blew, guess what? No warranty. if it was under warranty, then call them to replace. I never had a problem with warranty repairs on any Dell.
I supported the Optiplex machines that had this problem. I had some repaired under warranty and the rest I bought a bunch of the two caps affected and did the repairs myself when needed. It cost $1 and 30 minutes of repair time. Big deal.
I haven't seen this problem in a Dell in years now.
maxuh
September 27, 2010 at 7:59pm
I never ever buy Dell or HP at all any longer. Their computers are total crap.
Raymond Day
September 27, 2010 at 5:38pm
The Subject says about it all.
At lest new things for about the past 5 years now seem to not get any bad caps any more.
I seen some that exploded. Lots that puff up on top.
Herd it even heppend in satalights and that why because some one stold how to make the caps but did not get all the info. So that's why they go bad.
Unsolding the bad ones and putting news on's in has all ways fixed things. Have to have the same uf and the volts have to be at lest what it was. The volts can be higher. Because some times it hard to find the same caps and the same size. I have some were just can't push them down all the way so they stick up some. But all ways gets fixed. I guess I fixed about 20 mother boards and about 7 power supplys because of bad caps!
-Raymond Day
Navik57
September 27, 2010 at 12:48pm
The company I work for, which is non-profit, still has these Optiplex desktops. And each month, a handful die due to bad caps. Dell will not cover these, and try to charge a couple hundred to replace the motherboards. Just pure theft the way I see it. At a previous company, I had to change out 300+ Optiplex GX270s. That was fun.
In the end, Dell should own up, and replace every single PC that has this issue. I'm sorry, I know most of this happened 5 years ago, but many many companies are still using this hardware and suffering from these issues.
jihnn
September 27, 2010 at 6:59am
sure other companys have had problems with bad caps. what they didn't do is try to hide it from their customers.
dells advertising is all about great customer support and how great you will be treated if you buy their products.
if it becomes common knowledge that it is or has been their policy to avoid telling their customers that they have a defective product to avoid paying to fix the problem, they will loose masses of potential customers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/technology/13dell.html?_r=3&partner=rss&emc=rss
this link is to a new york times artical dell is being sued for $300,000,000 over bad computers sold to 1 company
JimmerSD
September 27, 2010 at 6:27am
It isn't just Dell. It's the entire electronic industry going back more than 30 years. The trend is when a manufacturer selects components for their product (especially electrolytic caps) they do not give adequate tolerances for heat, turn on surge or carry capacity. Also these components have very limited lifespans, even when they are used according to spec. Some as little as 2 or 3 thousand hours of on-time.
They make these decisions for 2 reasons.
1: Cheaper components lower manufacturing costs and increase profit.
2: Planned obsolescence. The public have been conditioned to buy newer, shinier more cool products without attempting, or even considering repair. And the manufacturers would much rather sell you a newer, shinier allegedly more cool gadget than support a viable service industry.
Both tactics are highly successful and the public at large never questions the motivations. They just pull out their credit cards and buy away.
So the next time your 1 year old $250 LCD TV craps out and it isn't fixed, just remember; You are doing your part as a consumer to bolster the economy of China. And you reinforce the business practices of an already greedy electronic manufacturing industry.
Good on you.
DogPatch1149
September 26, 2010 at 8:33pm
IIRC, the vast majority of the Optiplex problems with bad caps occured between 2005-2007, usually with the GX260 and GX270, though there were others.
It wasn't just Dell - any manufacturer that used Nichicon capacitors from that era (and that would be basically all of them) was likely to have the same issues. I fixed a lot of Dells back then, but also some IBM and HP/Compaq units as well. Same issue, and the common factor was always Nichicon capacitors.
greylord
September 26, 2010 at 5:48pm
I dont know how dell will survive in the long term with these cheap components in systems. Is trying to cut expenses having cheap parts but I personaly think that they should be aware about the present situation and probably they have found no other option or at least they haven't find it at this time.
I wander if the other company manufacturers have the same or similar providers of cheap components. If so, how they deal with the issue.
Havok
September 26, 2010 at 5:28pm
The most OEMs that seem to have bad PR are the ones that like to make el-cheapo computers (eg: Dell, HP), all for the sake of a quick buck. My advice: don't buy cheap piece of crap notebooks that are 500 bucks! Go for something a little more substantial, like the 7-900 dollar price range and you won't get stuck with a dud...
True story: A guy walks into a PC retailer, complaining that his 500 dollar HP notebook (that he claims to have spent more on) has a dead battery after 8 months of use.
Geob1kenobi
September 26, 2010 at 4:46pm
I once had a Dell Inspiron about 8 years ago and the AC connector on the mother board fell apart 1 week after the warrenty expired. I still owed 2 more years payment on it but I stopped paying on it and sent it back. Then they tried to sue me but I showed the judge records of all the Dell Inspiron's with the same problem and showed proof that they had recieved the returned laptop. The judge threw the case out. Later on he told me that his family has had alot of trouble with Dells. Dell is making them so cheaply and the profit is big enough to just "Pay to Shut them up" and continue using misleading commercials and deals to bait the unknowing customers. Buyer Beware! I bought a Toshiba Tecra M3 and its still working great, I'm about to buy another Toshiba and continue using thier great customer service.
stinger608
September 26, 2010 at 3:54pm
personally I would no purchase any of the Dell desktops! I have repaired more Dell systems than any other for customers. In reality most of the Dell problems are from bad capacitors. I have 4 motherboards at the moment out of customers systems with this issue. It is not just in the Optiplex systems either!
NeilOMalley
September 26, 2010 at 3:22pm
I have had a mixed experience with Dell. Some machines go forever. Some die quickly. I work at a school district and we have a replaced quite a few machines because of this capacitor problem.
Kodess
September 26, 2010 at 3:19pm
My experience is far from the other comments.
In my class I am one of the few Dell Laptop users, and our laptops survive the longest of them all.
The other laptops have cracked tops or faulty batteries, haven't had any problems yet and im in year 3 of usage
Lord Omega
September 26, 2010 at 3:00pm
Because of some bad experiences and outsourcing that Dell has done, I really never even looked at Dell the same. I use to have a couple of old Dell laptops but all of them failed me in about a year or 2... and their customer support sucked!!!!! I asked several times from someone who spoke good english to talk to and never got it.
This is just another nail in the coffin for me. Personally, I only buy ASUS laptops now and I build my own desktops. Although that does not say I have had my fair share of wonder experiences with Lenovo and IBM (I had an old IBM T43 before their laptop area was sold off or bought or whatever happened) and it is still running to this day. My brother has a Lenovo T60 that is folding 24/7 and it has been so for the past 2 years or so and never turned off.
big_montana
September 26, 2010 at 2:56pm
no,as my perception of Dell has been that they have made crappy products for at least the last 8 years, with their quality severly declining year over year. This si why my company has making the switch to Lenovo, at least with Lenovo you can set it and forget as they just work.
