I’ve been saying for years that there’s no such thing as a cheap PC, but now a class action lawsuit against Dell is claiming the same. According to ArsTechnica:
It accuses Dell of bait and switch tactics along with breach of contract, fraud and deceit in sales and advertising, and false advertising. The computer manufacturer is accused of advertising low-priced computers to consumers, but when consumers try to to buy the advertised machines, they find they are not available at the specified price.
Two examples cited by Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, the law firm filing the suit, include:
One plaintiff received a different, lower-quality PC that the one he had ordered, and had difficulty getting Dell to take care of the problem. Another was billed $1,352 for a laptop and printer advertised for $688 on Dell’s site.
Maybe this explains Apple’s reluctance to get into the cheap PC space, but the Mac Mini seems to be doing the right things at the right price.