This is an article from the Consumerist, in which a Dell Kiosk manager writes about some consumer tips to help people get the best of a good thing.
Some of these items I know about as a corporate consumer and long time advocate of Dell products (the Axim isn't their only winner)
Some of these tips are very logical if you think them through, but may be considered to "abuse" the system.
I have always advocated to people to buy as much of warranty as they could manage on laptops, if anything has to be repaired on a laptop the first occurrence would usually pay for the cost of the warranty, and likely the value of the laptop itself.
There are a few other things I suspect Dell does in the realm of PC model design, but as I'm not an insider I can only suspect them of it from what I've seen. While none of it is actually negative against the company, it might conceivably modify a consumers choice in their purchase. Specifically, it is in the realm of intentionally handicapping lower end systems or rebranding the same/similar system for sale at a higher markup.
That being said, I wouldn't accuse Dell of being the only company to uses similar tactics.
There is an update to the story as apparently a Dell representative tried to get the Consumerist to pull the article, which tends to somewhat validate the contents
Original Article here:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/insiders/22-confessions-of-a-former-dell-sales-manager-268831.php
Follow up Here:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/backend/dell-demands-takedown-of-our-22-confessions-of-a-former-dell-sales-manager-269127.phpView Original Blog Post