A group of Chinese consumers irked by Dell's delivery delays are
launching a grassroots campaign online and is considering a lawsuit
against the US computer maker.
"Since June, more than 150 consumers have posted complaints on
our website," said Zhou Tao, an employee at 12315.com, a local
consumer rights advocacy website. "They are now trying to gather
10,000 people to lodge complaints to local consumer
associations."
The computer maker declined to reveal the number of people
affected.
Dell launched its latest laptop models XPS1330 and Inspiron 1420
last month in China. The company says it has met with unexpected
success because of the laptops' colorful design.
But a shortage of computer parts, including LCD displayers and
built-in cameras, caused the company to postpone delivery. In the
past two months, angry consumers have posted complaints against the
company on major local websites such as Sina.com and Sohu.com.
Zeng Jin, an entrepreneur in Shanghai, ordered a Dell Inspiron
1420 on July 19 and was expecting to get it in a week, as promised
to him by a Dell sales representative. But the company postponed
the delivery date, not once but four times, to September 3.
"The sales representative has stopped replying to my e-mails
since August 7 and all my calls have been transferred to their
voice mail," complained Zeng. "If a group complaint still fails to
nudge Dell into action, we will consider legal measures."
Other consumers have similar tales. A Shanghai-based office
worker surnamed Zeng decided to cancel his order after the delivery
date was changed five times.
"I have no idea when I will get my money back," he said.
Responding to rising complaints, Dell China posted an apology to
consumers on its official blog on Monday.
"It may still take one or five weeks from now for users to get
the Inspiron 1420 models and more than 20 days for XPS1330,"
company officials said in the blog, adding that it may take about
three weeks for the refunding.
"We are now spiking up manufacturing capacity to deal with these
delayed orders," said an official of Dell China, who declined to be
named. "But it's still difficult to give a time frame for the
problem to be completely solved."
(China Daily August 9, 2007)
