sorry for the long post, i dont have the link to where this story came from, it was emailed to me and i thought it was interesting.
edit:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/22/tech....reut/?cnn=yes
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Dell Inc. is being sued for allegedly pushing consumers into high-interest financing schemes, as well as other aggressive sales practices, the plaintiff's law firm said Tuesday.
The suit accuses the world's largest personal computer maker of false advertising and bait-and-switch practices, fraud and deceit in its sales and advertising representations, and breach of contract by unilaterally modifying terms and conditions of sales and financing.
The suit was filed on Feb. 14 in San Francisco by Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP.
The lawsuit can be broken down into two separate consumer rights violations, said Jeff Friedman, a lawyer with Lerach Coughlin.
First is the bait-and-switch accusation. A statement from the law firm given to Reuters said the suit was filed on behalf of a San Francisco nurse who claims that in 2003 she was led to believe that she was buying a Dell notebook computer listed at $599 and an $89 printer, but was later billed $1,352.
Dell is also accused of switching parts in the computers it sells. "The customer will order a computer with certain parts, but will not receive the machine they think they're getting," said Friedman. That includes installing lower end equipment in machines that a customer has been told will have better quality parts.
Second, the computer maker and its partners CIT Bank and Dell Financial Services (DFS) are accused of using false promises of low-cost financing to trick buyers with installment payment hikes.
"Dell promises 'easy' credit but no one qualifies. It then charges unconscionable high interest rates," Reed R. Kathrein, a Lerach partner who filed the suit, said in a statement.
At the urging of a Dell sales person, the nurse financed her purchase through DFS at an undisclosed interest rate that turned out to be 27.74 to 38.82 percent, the statement said.
"Customers are urged to finance their order through Dell and given special promotional offers like no payments for a year," said Friedman. "But they are told after the purchase is made that they don't qualify for the terms of the promotion and are stuck with higher rates and terms than what they had agreed to."
Dell (Research) could not be reached for comment.
The firm, known for its aggressive Silicon Valley securities class action lawsuits, is led by William Lerach, a lead player in many of the biggest shareholder class action suits of the past two decades.
Dell is being sued 
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