To Our Valued Customers and Friends:
U.S. export laws restrict the sale of technology to terrorists and to people in countries that support terrorism. These laws also prohibit computer sales to people who will use the technology in developing biological or nuclear weapons. Dell strictly complies with our country's export laws in order to ensure the safety of our customers and citizens around the world. When there is reasonable cause for concern, we carefully review customer orders for prohibited destinations and activities.
When additional follow-up on an order is required, our sales representatives ask our customers four basic questions:
1. Who is the end-user?
2. Where will the product be used?
3. What will the product be used for?
4. What type of business or industry is involved?
The answers to these questions, like all customer information we gather, are confidential and are not shared outside of Dell.
We recently received an order from a customer whose company name included the word "combat." We cancelled the order to give us enough time follow up with the customer and be assured that the sale would be in compliance with U.S. export law. However, we failed to contact the customer, and as a result, we did not deliver the order as promised, and the customer did not know why. Once we discovered our error, we apologized to the customer for this misunderstanding, as well as the inconvenience caused by the delay. This is not the service standard that we hold ourselves to at Dell, and if I were a customer who'd received similar treatment, I would be very disappointed.
We at Dell feel a strong obligation to uphold our federal law, but we have just as strong an obligation to be responsive to the needs of all our customers. I want to assure you that Dell does not discriminate against any business, regardless of the products or services they sell, nor do we discriminate against individual consumers. We do, however, sometimes make mistakes - as we did in this case.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Michael Dell
Trying to follow these laws are more than X42 did.
Not even close to a good excuse. Would they sell (or have they sold) computers to the major domestic terrorist organization, Earth Liberation Front? To ELF's major supporters? What name flags would stop these sales?
Someone in Dell, maybe Michael, maybe someone else, just doesn't want to sell to someone in the firearms industry. If it isn't Michael he needs to get rid of them. If it is him his company needs all the grief coming to them. I don't use Dell products but I'll be interested to see if they can come up with the real reason for this fiasco.
Although I have no way of knowing the details of what went on inside Dell, it looks like a relatively new system where someone dropped the ball. Now, was it a liberal salesman who has something against gun owners and businesses? If so, that person needs to be relieved of his/her duties immediately; if for no other reason, they created a lot of bad publicity for their company. Was it a procedural/training issue? If so, the Sales and Customer Service (usually under the Quality Department) Sections need review to correct the problem.
The bottom line is that customers (especially private individuals) should not have to climb any "snot-rope" looking for someone to whom they can take their problems. We, as customers (both individual and corporate), should not have to put up with such lack of service and should make it clear, through the use of our buying power, that such is not acceptable.
Mr. Dell's message sets the policy for the company. If what he writes in this message is true, then I see no problem in doing business with them. However, we should keep a sharp eye out for more instances of this type of problem. If they persist, then I know that I, personally, will have nothing else to do with their company either as a private purchaser or when making recommendations.
Take care,
Ruck
Stay Safe !