Letter From Michael Dell

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 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 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