'What Fresh Dell Is This?'

Bad press doesn’t get much worse than the New York state attorney general announcing publicly, “At Dell, customer service means no service at all.” Which is what Andrew Cuomo did today, after filing suit against the computer maker, alleging that its sales practices had deceived customers. According to Cuomo, Dell not only failed to deliver to customers the rebates, warranties and technical support it promised, it misled them with promises of attractive financing, only to leave them with expensive credit lines.

Dell spokesman Bob Pearson said the company denies the allegations and plans to contest the suit: “We are confident that our practices will be found to be fair and appropriate. While even one dissatisfied customer is too many, the allegations in the AG’s filing are based upon a small fraction of Dell’s consumer transactions in New York. We are committed to providing a positive experience to all of our customers every day.”

Mmm-hmm. Easy as Dell, eh?