Dell hid the fact that it deliberately shipped 11.8 million potentially faulty computers between 2003 and 2005
Possibly the biggest news of the month, Dell has admitted to some very shady behaviour. A company not known for its squeaky clean record, Dell’s troubles this time around are centred on recently unsealed court papers, which contained a mighty revelation within them: Dell knowingly shipped 11.8 million Optiplex PCs that were potentially defective due to a faulty capacitor, between May 2003 and June 2005.
The capacitors, mostly manufactured by Nichicon, showed a 97% failure rate in a study conducted soon after the first problems started showing up. So what did Dell do? They didn’t recall the series, but instead, told their representatives to hide the problem, and then went on to continue shipping the PCs, and tell customers that the problem was caused by them overworking the system! A way to enjoy service fees? Possibly. More likely a way to get away from the bad publicity. However, the very same unsealed court papers also reveal that in 2005, Dell apparently paid out a $300 million fine to various companies, including Advanced Internet Technologies, who was the main plaintiff in the matter.