Dell, one of the world’s top suppliers of personal computers, was pronounced guilty of false advertising and fraud by a New York judge. State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi ordered the PC maker to more clearly disclose that the majority of customers do not qualify for free financing or get next day repair service. It is uncertain whether customers receive any compensation.

“Dell has engaged in repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and failure to provide warranty service and rebates,” said the judge Joseph Teresi.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Albany County Supreme Court by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo, charged that Dell and affiliate Dell Financial Services LP have engaged in fraud, false advertising and deceptive business practices. The suit alleged that Dell, among other things, misleads customers with promises of attractive financing only to leave them with expensive credit lines, besides, Dell was accused of denial of promised rebates, and failed to honor warranties and service contracts by misleading customers and making it difficult to get technical support, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The attorney general's office had 700 complaints against Dell when the lawsuit was filed in May 2007 and has received more than 1000 since, according to a spokesperson quoted by Associated Press news-agency.

According to Dell, it had six million transactions in New York between 2003 and 2006 and while only about 7%, according to attorney’s claims, of customers were qualified for certain promotions, only a small fraction of clients who did not get lower pricing, free upgrades or advanced services complained about that.

“Dell certainly has knowledge of the relative numbers of customers who qualify for various promotions. It is therefore determined that Dell has engaged in prominently advertising the financing promotions in order to attract prospective customers with no intention of actually providing the advertised financing to the great majority of such customers. Such conduct is deceptive and constitutes improper ‘bait advertising’,” said judge Teresi.

Still, the judge did not order Dell to provide compensation to customers and said that there are many more of unsatisfied customers in New York alone, who did not sue the computer maker.

“It appears likely that there are many more New York consumers who are entitled to restitution who are not included in the complaints,” judge Teresi wrote.

Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn said in an interview with AP that the company disagreed with the judge’s decision and would be putting up a vigorous defense of its position, although it had not decided yet whether it would appeal.