Obtaining a refund for unwanted bundled Microsoft Windows

[Legislation]

I was trying to suggest that the case to be made in terms of the EU Directive with regard to the "average consumer" is the better bet.

 

There may or may not be a case to be made with regard to the one particular purchase. If it is a contrived attempt to have a go at Dell, not so much of a genuine complaint a judge would be on to that, wanting to know what it is about the MS End User Agreement that a buyer should object to. The devil would then be in the detail, not the principle.

[edwincluck]

Dear Mr Cluck,

Thank you for your prompt response.

 

I personally recognise your right to refuse using the software but I wish you had selected a system with no OS pre-installed. Honestly speaking, since this is bundled to the system purchase there is no corresponding amount assigned to the bundled OS preinstalled.

 

I do however have a proposal which you may find acceptable.

 

I wish to offer you a refund in the amount of £50.00 + corresponding VAT as a goodwill gesture.

 

This is more than 10% of the base price of the system considering that the cost had been slashed already. Please understand that this is already my ceiling offer as the margin is already on the negative side. If you find this proposal acceptable, please let me know so I can ask my manager's endorsement.

 

Need your thoughts on this.

Kind regards,

Dell | CSMB Customer Care, UK/Ireland

 

 

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Dear Dell,

 

Thank you for your email and for your understanding.

 

I am very satisfied with your offer and I accept it.

 

The Dell laptop is excellent and to be recommended since it works very well with Debian and Ubuntu Linux.

 

Thank you once again for your customer care.

 

Kind Regards,

E.J. Cluck

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Dear Mr Cluck,

I have forwarded the request for the refund -- £50.00 + VAT or £60.00 all in.

I shall contact you this Tuesday and hopefully by then the refund has been processed.

For your update.

Dell | CSMB Customer Care, UK/Ireland

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Dear Mr Cluck,

 

Good morning.I am pleased to inform you that our finance team has processed the refund for £50.00 plus corresponding VAT.

 

Please allow 3 to 5 days for said amount to reflect on your account. Kindly inform me not later than Thursday if said amount has not been posted so I can make the needed follow-ups with our finance team.

For your reference.

Dell | CSMB Customer Care, UK/Ireland

 

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Dear [Dell],

Thank you for your email and for your phone call. Sorry I missed you again.

 

The refund of £60 has arrived and I am very happy with the outcome.

 

The customer care I have received from Dell, and specifically from you, has affirmed my respect in your company.

 

Thank you once again.

 

Kind Regards,

E.J. Cluck

 

P.S. as promised, the money has been donated to charity: the Free Software Foundation.

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Dear Mr Cluck,

 

Thank you for confirming the refund. I admire the noble act of donating said amount to a worthy cause.

 

It has been my pleasure in helping you with your query and I am happy to hear everything is now in order.

 

I will now close out this query and should you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me in Customer care.

 

Just to inform you: you will receive a survey regarding your impression of my service alone.

 

Should you find the time I would appreciate it if you could complete it as I receive feedback on what I do well and what I can improve.

 

Have you been satisfied with my service but dissatisfied with other departments etc. please detail this in the ‘Comment Box’ ONLY which you will find included in the survey.

 

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

 

Respectfully,

[Dell Customer Care Manager]

 

[edwincluck]

I don't think you have much of a case here really. Dell aren't forcing you to buy their product, you chose to buy it knowing full well that it came with a pre-installed copy of MS Windows.

 

The European Directive is on the side of the consumer. The European Parliament decided that we should not be forced into paying for bundled products that we did not need nor want.

 

It may take some hunting, but I believe there are retailers out there who sell laptops with a Linux pre-installed instead. Del themselves experimented with it a while ago, but I don't think it took off very well and I'm not sure they offer Linux any more.

Dell was forced to stop selling PCs with Linux pre-installed. Dell had little choice. Microsoft told Dell that it would massively increase the wholesale price of Windows, if it didn't immediately stop selling PCs with pre-installed Linux. Typical Mafiosi actions of the Rogue of Redmond!

 

 

What you're asking is like the equivalent of going into a McDonalds, ordering a cheesburger and then telling them that you don't want the bun and asking them to not charge you for it. Or buying a car, and insisting that they give you a refund on the wheels because you've got your own that you want to put on instead.

A better analogy would be the shenanigans in the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) industry.

 

When taking out credit, customers were fooled and bullied by underhand methods into buying bundled and often very costly insurance policies, without having the opportunity to shop around.

 

Many of those customers assumed that they had no option but to buy that bundled financial product. In fact, the law says that they did not have to buy it.

 

Not so very different for those buying a new PC.

 

On the continent, the buyer is accustomed to saying "non, merci!" when the salesmen tells him that Windows is pre-installed on a PC.

 

And that is because the courts across the Channel are correctly interpreting the European Directive.

 

Whereas, here in Blighty, the Office of Fair Trading has yet to pull its finger out and enforce the law, as Parliament intended.

Edited November 30, 2011 by edwincluck

[andydd]

So success !. Your reply from Dell seems very much along the lines of the refunds listed on the Wiki site linked to in another post, most PC manufacturers do (at a push) offer a refund in the £40-£70 region but it is starnge that despite various court rulings in the EU there is still no overall policy.

 

Andy

[Hammy1962]

'P.S. as promised, the money has been donated to charity: the Free Software Foundation'.

 

Oh plleeeeeeease. Some people really do have too much time on their hands.

 

Well done for wearing them down to a token refund. Spending it on Beer would have been more cool. Or should that be 'cooler'.

 

H

[freedom-to-choose]

The thing is that there are not that many retaillers selling OS-less laptops out there, but there are zillions who sell it with Windows pre-installed at they are very competeive so you can buy a Windows laptop often for the same price or less than one without.

 

I found this was the case when I bought mine, it came with XP which I didnt want so I just formatted it and put on my choice of OS (which was Windows 7 at the time).

 

Andy

 

Yeah, sure this isn't a problem. Course you're free to buy a laptop without windows, until: h ttp://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/5552.html It's wrong, wrong, wrong. Greater choice means better options. Just one example -- tabbed browsing. You'd never get that with the Microsoft monopoly. They don't care -- they just want your money.