[Gllug] Laptops?

[Christopher Hunter]

On Wednesday 29 Oct 2003 4:46 pm, Richard Jones wrote:

> [Spent a few more exhaustive days trying to find a reasonable laptop
> without Windows, to no avail]

I bought a Dell Inspiron from their "Factory Outlet", which they insisted came 
with Windoze.  On delivery, I contacted their "customer services", and 
explained that it had been supplied with the wrong operating system.  They 
offered to "upgrade" my system to WinXP Pro "at no extra charge".  I 
explained that It already had XP Pro on it, but I didn't want it.  The Dell 
salesperson told me that they couldn't help me further, so I asked for his 
supervisor.  

I explained the situation, and that the computer was defective straight out of 
the box because I couldn't use it without agreeing to the M$ EULA.  After 
some confusion, I was told that I could reformat the hard drive, but then I 
wouldn't get any "technical support".  I asked for a refund for the cost of 
the "operating system" I wasn't going to use.  I was told that it was 
"included free".  I asked how many "free" copies I could have.  The 
"supervisor" then said that it was "included in the price".  I persisted in 
demanding my refund!

After a total of almost three hours on the phone (at their expense!), they 
finally agree to refund £60 if I returned the "rescue disk" and deleted the 
contents of the hard drive.

Installation of Mandrake 9.1 was quick and easy, and my £60 was refunded a 
couple of days later to my Credit Card account.

The moral is - you might have to be irritatingly insistent, but you can get a 
laptop without M$ on it!

Chris 

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