Dell has opened up a
March 1, 2002
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Posted by Aubrey Turner
Dell has opened up a can of worms with America’s firearms owners. It all started when they cancelled an order for a laptop from Jack Weigand, owner of Weigand Combat Handguns Inc.
Their reason? The word “Combat” in the name of his company.
Dell claims that due to export restrictions they must screen all potential buyers. They claim that their only mistake was failing to contact Mr. Weigand to confirm that he wasn’t going to use the laptop for nefarious purposes. However, this event has exposed their profiling scheme and how it is being used against law-abiding Americans.
However, it appears that the problem runs much deeper. Another case has just surfaced on tx.guns where a potential customer was told that he was on Dell’s “undesirable customer” list because of his membership in pro-rights (NRA, TSRA, etc) and pro-hunting organizations (Trophy Game Records). This leads to some troubling questions. What does Dell consider to be a desirable customer? How did they determine his membership in these organizations? What business is it of theirs anyway?
Links:
- Jack Weigand’s Dell page
- Article from Newsbytes
- Article from Wired
- tx.guns posting concerning Dell’s “undesirable customer” list
- Armed Females of America’s Boycott Dell Page
I fired off an email about this to Dell. Their response fails to answer a single point that I raised in my original email. It is a perfect example of how not to handle a response to this kind of problem.
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 Mr. Jack Weigand, whose company
name, “Weigand’s Combat Handguns Inc.” included the word “combat.” We
cancelled the order to give us enough time to 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 Mr. Weigand, 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 Mr. Weigand 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.
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. We want to assure you that the company 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,
Dell Computer Corporation
Categories: What the heck?