Dell misquotes price again, angering Taiwan consumers

Jul 5, 2009, 13:44 GMT

Taipei - Computer manufacturer Dell elicited outrage from customers and consumer groups Sunday when it was revealed that the company had incorrectly posted cut-rate prices on its Taiwanese website for the second time in 10 days.

Like the first time, the move prompted customers to place rush orders, sometimes in bulk, for the drastically underpriced wares, raising questions of whether Dell should take a financial loss and deliver the goods or void the sales.

'This is unbelievable. Dell should deliver the goods to buyers, but certainly not to those who have placed large orders,' You Kai- hsiung, secretary-general of the Consumers' Foundation, told reporters.

The Cabinet's Consumer Protection Commission said it would probe the incident and would ask the Economics Ministry to enact online sales regulations to protect consumers' interests.

In the latest incident, which came to light Sunday morning, Dell's Taiwan website advertised incorrectly low prices for its Latitude E4300 notebook. Customers opting for a black casing were shown a price of 60,900 Taiwanese dollars (1,845 US dollars).

But by choosing a red or blue casing, customers were shown a price of 18,558 Taiwanese dollars.

Before Dell corrected the error at 10:40 am (0240 GMT), multiple orders had been placed for the mispriced notebook, local press said.

This is the second mispricing by Dell's Taiwan arm within 10 days.

On June 25, Dell advertised two liquid-crystal display monitors at around one-tenth of their normal price. Dell later said the prices had been incorrectly advertised.

Within eight hours, 26,000 orders for 140,000 monitors were placed. The Consumer Protection Commission suggested that Dell should complete orders to customers who had only ordered one monitor, and those who had ordered more than one should receive diminishing discounts on the second and further monitors.

But Dell agreed only to give each buyer a single coupon with a value of 1,000 Taiwan dollars. In response, some buyers have opted to file a lawsuit against the company.