|
Sins of the Past (4/4/98)
|
 
|
| | |
Wintel manufacturer Dell made history on Thursday, as they were slapped with the largest fine the Federal Trade Commission has ever ordered against a mail-order company. The $800,000 fine is punishment for a 1995 violation of the Mail Order Rule, when the company sold software that didn't exist. A ZDNet article has more.
Apparently, back in 1995, Dell advertised Dimension computer systems as being bundled with a "Dell Software Suite," which didn't actually ship with the computers themselves. Customers instead found a coupon for the software which they could trade in for the goods when they actually became available. The FTC frowns on mail order companies advertising a product that it doesn't expect to be able to deliver on time. "There has to be a reasonable expectation that you can ship it to the customer," says an FTC staff attorney.
We at AtAT wonder how that applies to all these mail-order catalog resellers who regularly advertise products that don't exist yet. For instance, most of them have been selling the Mac version of the game Diablo for literally months now, despite the fact that the game still hasn't been released. (Whenever you ask the companies about such a product's availability, they routinely answer that the product is "on backorder" and will be available in "two weeks.") Just something to think about.
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (597)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/4/98 episode: April 4, 1998: The Q2 numbers draw nigh, and the world watches and waits to see whether Apple can continue the profit of last quarter. Meanwhile, the FTC has made an example of Dell, by serving up a hefty fine for 1995 vaporware charges, and Digital might just make a hearty meal for Compaq...
Other scenes from that episode: 596: What Color's That Ink? (4/4/98) The day draws ever closer-- in a few weeks, Apple will announce its Q2 financial figures, and we'll all see just how they did in what is historically their worst quarter of the fiscal year. Despite Apple's insistence early on that people should not expect a profit this quarter to follow the surprise black ink from Q1, many analysts seem to be ignoring that advice and are in fact predicting a small profit this quarter... 598: Chomp Chomp-- Bye, DEC (4/4/98) In other Wintel news, it seems like Digital Equipment Corporation may go the way of the dodo, following its recent buyout by big hungry customer Compaq. Originally it looked like Compaq planned to run DEC as a wholly-owned subsidiary, which probably would have allowed DEC to run things pretty much how they wanted to on a day-to-day basis-- think of the relationship between Apple and the erstwhile Claris corporation...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
