A consumer watchdog from Australia has accused leading computer giant Dell of falsely promoting discounts related to the price of monitors.
The news is definitely a major shocker to some as Dell is globally famous for producing some of the greatest laptops that you’d ever come across. But the ACCC fails to agree with that notion.
It has booked a court date where the company would be obliged to shed light on the allegations by the ACCC related to falsely promoting discounts while inflating the costs linked to monitors.
The lawsuit says that the period between August 2019 to December 2021 was when Dell marketed monitors to consumers at a false and misleading cost in the name of discounts. Dell tried to offer it as an add-on where things were more expensive when compared to a monitor being bought separately.
The online store in Australia had shown inflated prices so that consumers would assume that they were really saving a lot of their funds. But the reality was far from just that. Meanwhile, deal markers and total savings with discounted price tags were among other tactics used to confuse others and force them into making a purchase.
The ACCC says it keeps such cases where huge retail brands end up offering consumers goods in a misleading manner as its top priority. And for this reason, it feels that this case would serve as a great example to make people aware to never trust anyone or everyone, especially in terms of discounted prices.
In the same way, the ACCC adds that it’s high time that the company was held accountable legally for such misbehavior. Others fear that so many consumers may have even fallen prey to such tactics during periods like the COVID-19 lockdown where demand was high for laptops and PCs since everything switched to online.
For now, there are no reports as to how many consumers had been misled by Dell’s deceiving behavior. But one thing is for sure. They might be in the thousands range as the firm went over and above in terms of advertising inflated discounts.
So we know about Australia’s take on this regard and how it plans on stepping up the crackdown against Dell’s malpractice. But what about other countries?
After taking a look at the recent past, Dell is definitely not the first firm to be guilty of such behavior. In August, Google was in the line of fire for misleading buyers too and that’s when it had been ordered by the Australian Federal Court to pay $60 million in terms of fines for such allegations.
After Google, it was firms like Samsung Australia that had been forced to deal with the consequences of misleading buyers about the new Galaxy range of devices being water resistant. This was closely followed up by the likes of Fitbit, a venture of Google which was fined for misleading consumers about refunds and replacements regarding its products.
There is a lot of talk of other watchdogs now taking stringent actions against the likes of other top retailers that put up fake reviews or halt any negative reviews coming their way by consumers.
We believe the step taken by the Australian watchdog was definitely necessary and one that would serve as an integral reminder to others to stop taking consumers for granted or else you’ll be forced to deal with the harsh consequences of doing so.
Such crackdowns aren’t only necessary in places like Australia but they also seemingly need to make their way to places overseas so others become aware.
Read next: Over-apologizing can lead to low self-esteem and should be avoided
The news is definitely a major shocker to some as Dell is globally famous for producing some of the greatest laptops that you’d ever come across. But the ACCC fails to agree with that notion.
It has booked a court date where the company would be obliged to shed light on the allegations by the ACCC related to falsely promoting discounts while inflating the costs linked to monitors.
The lawsuit says that the period between August 2019 to December 2021 was when Dell marketed monitors to consumers at a false and misleading cost in the name of discounts. Dell tried to offer it as an add-on where things were more expensive when compared to a monitor being bought separately.
The online store in Australia had shown inflated prices so that consumers would assume that they were really saving a lot of their funds. But the reality was far from just that. Meanwhile, deal markers and total savings with discounted price tags were among other tactics used to confuse others and force them into making a purchase.
The ACCC says it keeps such cases where huge retail brands end up offering consumers goods in a misleading manner as its top priority. And for this reason, it feels that this case would serve as a great example to make people aware to never trust anyone or everyone, especially in terms of discounted prices.
In the same way, the ACCC adds that it’s high time that the company was held accountable legally for such misbehavior. Others fear that so many consumers may have even fallen prey to such tactics during periods like the COVID-19 lockdown where demand was high for laptops and PCs since everything switched to online.
For now, there are no reports as to how many consumers had been misled by Dell’s deceiving behavior. But one thing is for sure. They might be in the thousands range as the firm went over and above in terms of advertising inflated discounts.
So we know about Australia’s take on this regard and how it plans on stepping up the crackdown against Dell’s malpractice. But what about other countries?
After taking a look at the recent past, Dell is definitely not the first firm to be guilty of such behavior. In August, Google was in the line of fire for misleading buyers too and that’s when it had been ordered by the Australian Federal Court to pay $60 million in terms of fines for such allegations.
After Google, it was firms like Samsung Australia that had been forced to deal with the consequences of misleading buyers about the new Galaxy range of devices being water resistant. This was closely followed up by the likes of Fitbit, a venture of Google which was fined for misleading consumers about refunds and replacements regarding its products.
There is a lot of talk of other watchdogs now taking stringent actions against the likes of other top retailers that put up fake reviews or halt any negative reviews coming their way by consumers.
We believe the step taken by the Australian watchdog was definitely necessary and one that would serve as an integral reminder to others to stop taking consumers for granted or else you’ll be forced to deal with the harsh consequences of doing so.
Such crackdowns aren’t only necessary in places like Australia but they also seemingly need to make their way to places overseas so others become aware.
Read next: Over-apologizing can lead to low self-esteem and should be avoided
