Sometimes when you take the money, it backfires on you, just ask Dell. SemiAccurate has heard about the company making a little ‘whoopsie’ for their late 2025 lineup.
Lets start this out with a few quotes and caveats before we get into the meat of the hilarity. We will start out by saying that unlike our usual practice, Dell was specifically NOT consulted about this story. Why? When we last purchased a Dell laptop for our own use, we found a bug, a serious one in the hardware that fried SSDs. Working with Dell, we tried to debug things, work with them, and help find a cause. They made promises and we sent the questionable hardware back to them.
As soon as the hardware was received, they shunted us off to another person who denied all the written promises made by the previous contact, closed the case, and (politely) told us to get stuffed. In effect they strung us along until they got the evidence, cheated us, then cut us off. It wasn’t a huge amount of money, over $1000, but the principle of it told us what Dell is really about. While there are specific people at Dell we like and trust, the company is at the opposite end of the spectrum.
To make matters worse, before they cut us off, there was this little gem in the email. “The immediate reaction when I asked about the drives was to check if you were able to submit a warranty claim with Western Digital on them. Have you investigated that route at all here? That’s not us saying no, I’m also continuing to pursue that part of this. The main people I want to ask about it are out at the moment though, so it may be a few days before I have. But if WD is willing to take them back or exchange them, that may be the best way to get exactly what you want.” In case it isn’t clear, they are asking us directly to file a fraudulent warranty claim on another company rather than make things right themselves. While this might not be illegal, we are not lawyers, it sure as hell is immoral. Needless to say we did not cheat WD as requested.
Now on to the quote, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.’ Next quote, “Again?!?” by me. And how about, “Do they not learn?”, also by me. Why am I being so snarky? Because the practice in question is not new for Dell but the specifics definitely are. The company has a long history of, well, excluding suppliers at the behest of a larger supplier. Don’t take my word for it, ask the SEC. This time around may be different but from SemiAccurate’s point of view, it looks very similar. Until the details emerge, that question won’t be answered but for now we can say that it has already blown up in their face. And yes, SemiAccurate’s moles were very giddy when they were telling us about it, karma has a way of doing that.
So what is it this time? Grab the popcorn before you continue.
Note: The following is analysis for professional level subscribers only.
Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.
