New York State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Teresi ruled against Dell yesterday, declaring the company had engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business and abusive debt collection practices.
The judge slammed the company for luring customers with ads that offered "no interest" or "no payment" financing options, but its financing arm would charge customers higher rates than those promised.
The company was also slammed for a sustained pattern in which Dell deprived customers of technical support that they bought or were eligible for under warranty. Cited cases included extremely long waits for tech support to answer calls, repeated transfers of calls and frequent disconnections of support calls.
Dell also often failed to provide onsite repairs for customers who bought contracts for such suppor
