Dell CPU Switcharoo Gets Legal

Dell is in some trouble after misleading is Chinese customers. One of the Chinese customers had ordered an Inspiron 640m notebook which contained a Core Duo T2300E processor when it should have been a Core Duo T2300 processor inside. The two processors are relatively alike except that the T2300E lacks Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT). That mistake is making Dell face lawsuits from 19 customers in China.

A single customer voiced his concerns to an online message boardand found hundreds of other Dell customers whom had been wrongly givena T2300E processor even though Dell's website, advertisements and customer invoices noted T2300 processors. "I tried to negotiate with Dell and simply asked them to change the CPU, but theysaid there was no difference between the two and it was unnecessary to change. My lawyer sent them a letter, demanding compensation, which Dell chose to ignore, so we decided to sue," said Zhang Min, the firstperson to file the lawsuit.

For its part, Dell has responded to the legal mess on its Direct2Dell online blog,"We have acknowledged the issue, and we have corrected the error in all materials. We have directly apologized to Dell China customers who were affected, and also informed them of the difference between the two processors. For customers who were not satisfied with these actions, we offered full refunds for returned T2300E-based systems."

Dell goes on to say that VT is aimed mainly at servers and workstations (even though Intel clearly states that it's beneficial to home and business users alike) and that by offering the T2300E they are able to provide their customers with better value. It's all well and good to try to justify a company's actions and cite that customers likely wouldn't miss the feature, but not informing customers before making the switcharoo is a big no-no in this business. News source: DailyTech