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.
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