No More Fair-Price Refund For Declining XP EULA 339
mark0 writes "Getting a fair-price refund from Amazon or Asus after declining the Windows XP EULA appears to be a thing of the past. In contrast to reports from the US and the UK from earlier in the year, Amazon simply refuses and provides information to contact Microsoft. Asus is offering US$6. Despite being confronted with publicly available information about the real OEM price of Windows XP Home Edition being $US25-US$30, Asus replies, 'The refund price for the decline of the EULA is correct in it being US$6. This price unfortunately is not negotiable. I do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please be assured that it is not ASUS intentions to steer you away in any which way.'"
Might not be their intention (Score:2, Interesting)
"Please be assured that it is not ASUS intentions to steer you away in any which way.'"
but they've definitely steered me away from Asus. I probably wouldn't have even bothered with trying to get a refund, but their dishonorable actions disgust me.
Re:Old OS (Score:1, Interesting)
As far as laptops go, that is a bold statement. Some web shops sells laptops without Windows but finding an actual shop selling laptops without Windows is, in my experience, impossible.
Re:Markups (Score:3, Interesting)
Or to put it another way: suppose the consumer returned the entire computer. Should he be only given the wholesale price of the entire computer back? Or should he get what he paid for it?
Obviously he should get what he paid for it. Returning a component of the computer should work similarly. Just because the retail-price-as-a-component of Windows is hidden within the price of the whole thing doesn't make it equal to the wholesale price. If the components of the computer cost $500 wholesale and he paid $1000, he should also get twice the wholesale price of Windows if he returns it.
Re:Old OS (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, there is something similar that occurs in software, called "bit rot". The older a piece of software is, the more security vulnerabilities have likely been found in it, making it a bigger and bigger target so long as it is in continued use (obviously, now that Windows 9x's user base is about 3 dozen people, they're not much of a target anymore).
This is true of MacOS X, Linux and Windows. If you install a new copy of Fedora 8, you are going to have a ton more security patches to apply than a recent Fedora 12.
Re:Old OS (Score:3, Interesting)
You misread me. I never said you'd still be able to use Windows after getting a refund. Rather I was pointing out that no material goods change hands. They don't resell your license per se. They just invalidate it. Then they go on to sell XP on another machine for the full prices. So it's not like they are buying back an old license and then trying to resell it at some used market value. There is no used market involved at all.
So if the full price really is $45 today, then a refund should be just that. $45. Not $6. Depreciation has nothing to do with it.
Small claims (Score:5, Interesting)
Take them to small claims court instead. They'll quickly learn that it's cheaper to provide a full refund than to pay someone to show up in small claims court.
Re:Markups (Score:5, Interesting)
If I buy a new car, when I first put the key in the ignition, does a notice pop up saying: "you must agree to the terms of use of the engine before you can start it"?
Re:Why reject just one component? (Score:3, Interesting)
Surely Microsoft's license doesn't apply to all the components, but it specifically says you can get a refund from where you purchased the software. Companies don't want to honor the Windows EULA? Don't sell computers with Windows.
Re:Old OS (Score:2, Interesting)
$6 is a good deal (Score:4, Interesting)
At a conference on the west coast, an industry insider told me that MS basically gave ASUS XP for free (as part of a deal to FUD Linux). That means that ASUS may be loosing money on this "refund".
Oh, and it also means that ASUS will sell out easily, which makes me interested in ignoring their products.
Too bad you can't build your own laptop/netbook (Score:2, Interesting)
Think US$6 is right? Another way to calculate: (Score:3, Interesting)
But Windows is NOT sold with the computer! (Score:1, Interesting)
If the add-on were sold, with no additional restrictions beyond those imposed by copyright law, it wouldn't be a problem. I'd take the unwanted component (Windows, optical drive, whatever) and sell it on e-bay. Not the seller's problem.
The point is that the seller is very specifically drawing a line around a component of the system and saying "this is sold under different terms than the rest of the computer". In particular, there is an entirely separate contract which must be agreed to in a separate step.
Now, I am a customer who enters into a standard retail sale contract to buy a computer. I'm not even shown the second contract at the time of sale.
When I see the second contract, I say "fuck that," and reject it. But it's too late for the seller to have second thoughts about the first contract; it's been agreed to and goods exchanged and can't be voided without my consent.
Now, if the seller tells me "sorry, you're fucked" and doesn't offer a refund, then they've agreed to let me keep the copy of Windows without agreeing to the contract. Which puts us right back in the first situation (I legally own a copy with no restrictions on disassembly, reverse-engineering, modification, resale, renting, etc.), which Microsoft wants to avoid.
Re:Old OS (Score:3, Interesting)
That is entirely not what bit rot means. The canonical definition is here [catb.org]. You may be referring to software rot [catb.org], but it doesn't really mean that either, since both refer to software that hasn't been used for a while and obviously does not apply to Windows.