Dell Lawsuit
Information for Consumers who have a Complaint against Dell or Dell Financial Services
In May 2007, the Attorney General’s office filed suit in Supreme Court, Albany County against Dell and Dell Financial Services (“Dell”) alleging that Dell engaged in a number of deceptive and illegal practices in connection with its sale, financing and servicing of computers and other electronic goods and accessories. On May 23, 2008, the Court found in favor of the Attorney General on many of his claims, including the Attorney General’s claims that Dell misled consumers about the terms of the financing for which they had been approved, engaged in false advertising in connection with its promotional financing offers, failed to honor its warranties and service contracts and failed to provide consumers with rebates to which they were entitled. The decision also authorized the Attorney General to apply to the Court by December 1, 2008 for restitution (compensation) on behalf of consumers who were harmed by Dell’s practices.
This past Fall, the Attorney General notified certain consumers by mail and email and posted information on the Attorney General’s website about the opportunity for consumers who were harmed by Dell’s practices to submit a special complaint form if they wished to be considered for restitution. The Attorney General’s office reviewed all of the complaint forms submitted by New York consumers and submitted many of those complaints to the Court in December in support of the Attorney General’s application for restitution. That application is now pending before the Court and we expect that it will be several months before we receive a decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still file a claim for restitution under the Attorney General’s lawsuit against Dell?
No. The Attorney General was required to file his application for restitution by December 1, 2008. The application has been submitted and the Attorney General cannot submit additional claims to the Court at this time.
How can I find out if the Attorney General submitted a restitution claim on my behalf to the Court?
If you filed a special complaint form with the Attorney General’s office this past Fall describing a problem concerning a rebate, service under a warranty or service contract, or promotional financing, you should receive a letter from our office in early March, 2009, advising whether a restitution claim was filed by the Attorney General on your behalf.
If a claim was submitted on my behalf when will I be notified as to whether I will receive restitution??
We expect that it will take several months before we receive a decision from the Court. Once we do, we will notify consumers promptly of the Court’s decision.
I heard about a settlement against Dell involving many state Attorney General’s Offices, can I file a claim for restitution under that settlement?
No. The New York Attorney General’s office did not participate in the multistate settlement because the Attorney General had already filed a lawsuit against Dell involving similar claims and had obtained a judgment that requires Dell to pay restitution to consumers who were harmed by the practices found by the Court to be deceptive.
Can the Attorney General’s Office provide me with any other assistance with my problem with Dell?
Yes. If you have not previously filed a complaint with our office concerning your problem with Dell, we may be able to assist you through our mediation program. If you are interested in attempting to have our office mediate your complaint you must complete and submit our general complaint form, which can be downloaded from the Attorney General’s website (from the Homepage, scroll down to the Resource Center and click the Consumer Frauds link, then choose “Filing a Consumer Complaint”). If we determine that your complaint is appropriate for mediation, we will send a copy of it to Dell and ask the company to respond. In many cases, we are able to resolve consumer complaint through this process.
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