[Haifux] Successful Windows Vista refund!!

[Oleg Goldshmidt]

Just in case you missed it, it is the lead item on The Register,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/04/dell_windows_eula_israel/

(shall we expect a slashdot item soon, too? :). It is a reasonably
faithful account (compared to Ynet's original), but I also looked at
the comments,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/04/dell_windows_eula_israel/comments/

and there are a couple of postings describing the totally hassle-free
(an email in one case, 2 emails in another) refund from Dell Ireland.

Compared to that, Zvi's experience looks a) painful, and b) not
worthwhile except for the publicity and the precedent. I mean that the
time and effort it took to get NIS 550 back was probably not worth the
money. I am obviously speaking from the personal finance point of view
and not the "good of society at large" point of view - the importance
of the latter point is obvious.

Zvi, any comments on how much time and effort (in man-hours? :) it all
(preparing and filing the suit, negotiations, getting the refund,
depositing the cheque, etc.) took?

Another question, does anyone have experience with ordering a laptop
from a major manufacturer (Dell, Lenovo) over the Internet - from
Ireland or any other place - without an OS? Is it easier than buying
a laptop in Israel and going through a small claims court to get a
refund? It is cheaper or more expensive? Do laptops come with a
world-wide license, so that even if I buy one from, say, Dell Ireland,
Dell Israel will provide me with full hardware support? Oh, well, Dell
Israel are likely to say something like, "Since you are not running
Windows your warranty is void," and then one would have to go through a
small claims court again, attaching the email exchange and the refund
confirmation to the suit...

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | pub at goldshmidt.org