It's 15min till 6pm, 24 March 2009, and I just got hung up on by Dell Customer Service. They tried to switch me to a department which was closed and then I heard the tell-tale click of the hang-up.
My first question for Dell was directed at their technical support
department. I was curious about the partition setup. There are three
partitions initially: a 40mb one that is fat16 is the Dell diagnostic
partition; a recovery partition that was 40-60gb and the rest of the
hard drive was for the Windows Vista OS. I wiped out those last two
partitions and so Vista doesn't exist except for the backup DVD. My
question was what that first partition was...I didn't realize it was
for their diagnostic tool.
My second question was an attempt to
return the Vista operating system along with the rest of the software
"bundled" with the laptop. This attempt failed as I was put through to
some customer service representative who told me I would never be able
to return the software as it was "bundled" with the laptop. When I
asked him to point out exactly where in the software license agreement
it says this, I was told that he couldn't because he didn't have it in
front of him, yet he still insisted that I could not return the
operating system. Actually, I can, and I pointed out exactly where in
Dell's Software License Agreement I was able to do this:
This Agreement covers all software that is
distributed with the Dell product, for which there is no separate
license agreement between you and the manufacturer or owner of the
software (collectively the "Software")
...
By opening or breaking the seal on the Software
packet(s), installing or downloading the Software, or using the
Software that has been preloaded or is embedded in your product, you
agree to be bound by the terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree
to these terms, promptly return all Software items (disks, written
materials, and packaging) and delete any preloaded or embedded
Software.
As
it says in the first part,
the software is separate from the actual
Dell product! In fact, this is why the software license agreement
exists, because the software is separate from the hardware. Dell is a
hardware company that just happens to sell particular operating systems
and software with their hardware to make it more useful to its
customers. Thus, I am able to return the software without needing to
return the hardware.
Unfortunately, I will have to make a few more attempts and talk to managers/supervisors instead.
Remember...I
wanted a GNU/Linux laptop, I was forced to place the order again then I
was forced to change my order to the Vista-equipped version of the
Inspiron laptop.
I had always wanted GNU/Linux installed and I never
wanted Vista nor did I want to pay the Windows Tax.Here are two articles about the Windows Tax and how successful someone was in obtaining a refund:
