linuxmafia.com 2016/linuxmafia.com.tar/linuxmafia.com/refund/pressrelease

Text File | 1999-01-26 | 4KB | 79 lines

            Windows refund sought:

Microsoft to be asked to return price of unused software on February 15,
"Windows Refund Day"

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Tuesday, January 26, 1998

Contact: Nick M. Moffitt, [phone], or [e-mail]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Why should we pay for a product we didn't ask for
and don't use?  That's the logic motivating a group of Bay Area
computer users, who next month plan to seek refunds for copies of
Microsoft Windows they've never used, but received along with their
new computers.

The copies of Windows in question came bundled with the sale of new
computers.  Microsoft's operating system is frequently pre-installed
by computer vendors (original equipment manufacturers or "OEMs") in a
practice called "preloading."  OEMs claim that preloading Windows is a
service to consumers, while non-Windows users have maintained that
being made to pay for software they don't use is a needless expense.

Typically, customers are charged for a preloaded copy of Microsoft
Windows for each computer they purchase from an OEM, whether that copy
of Windows is actually used or not.  This fee has been described as
the "Microsoft tax," from the implication that Microsoft collects a
"tax" on virtually every new computer sold anywhere in the world.

Although many alternatives to Microsoft software exist, most major
OEMs still refuse to ship a computer without a preloaded copy of
Windows or other Microsoft software.  But OEMs are theoretically
allowed to give customers a choice of whether or not they want to buy
Windows with a new computer; for instance, OEMs could offer a refund
to customers who chose not to use Windows.

And Microsoft's "End-User License Agreement" (EULA), a document
listing the terms under which software is licensed to customers,
contains a provision for just such a refund.  A current Microsoft
EULA advises customers who decline to accept Microsoft's terms
that "you should promptly contact Manufacturer for instructions
on return of the unused product(s) for a refund."

Geoffrey Bennett, an Australian computer user, reported last week that
he had persuaded a computer vendor there to give him a full refund for
his unused copy of the Microsoft Windows operating system.  But users
here who tried to request such a refund from their computer
manufacturers said that the manufacturers claimed unfamiliarity with
the refund offer.  And a report by David Chun, then an intern at Ralph
Nader's Consumer Project on Technology, said in June that not one of
the 12 OEMs he contacted was willing to sell him a computer without
Windows or to provide a refund for Windows if he used another
operating system.  As a result, computer professionals here who don't
use Windows have decided to ask Microsoft why American OEMs won't
honor the offer, and whether Microsoft will make good on the refund
clause in the EULA.

Since the manufacturers were "acting as agent for Microsoft," said
Rick Moen, a San Francisco computer professional, "we feel it's in
Microsoft's, the OEM's, and the users' interest to have this refund
handled efficiently, directly through Microsoft, and we are estimating
they will agree."  Moen added that the Microsoft EULA doesn't merely
allow consumers who don't agree to its license terms to return Windows
-- it requires them to do so.

To substantiate the legitimacy of their requests, those seeking
refunds at the event next month are being asked to bring detailed
proof that they have been using some operating system other than
Windows on their new computers.  "People who really want Microsoft
software should pay for it," said Don Marti, an event organizer.  "We
will have nothing to do with helping them rip Microsoft off."

The group expects to make a formal request for refunds to individual
members in a February 15 meeting at Microsoft's offices at 950 Tower
Lane in Foster City, CA.  Members of the public and the press are
invited; exact meeting times for the event will be posted on the Web.

For more information, please consult the Bay Area Windows Refund Day
web site at "http://hugin.imat.com/refund/".