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Few Takers For Microsoft's Settlement Cash
Makarand writes "According to this article on SiliconValley.com very few claims have been received
to claim money from a Microsoft
antitrust settlement in California. Only about
4% of the estimated 14 million eligible California consumers have bothered to file a claim till now.
The deadline for filing claims is officially April 28 but is likely to be pushed back into May or June.
Either, consumers have found the claims process too confusing, time-consuming and discouraging
to keep them from making a claim or they are waiting till the last minute to file(like taxes).
According to the settlement one-third of the unclaimed money will be kept by Microsoft and the rest
will be given to Californian schools."
Weren't these guys going to make it easier?
... to say that "the rest of the 'money' will go to California schools".
What will go to "California Schools" is 'boxes of Microsoft product', valued at the $-value for the settlement, by a team of accountants, lawyers, and auditors.
This settlement is a sham. It is nothing but an easy seeding program for Microsoft market-share harvests in the 6-month to 1-year time frame, among a vulnerable and naive market (education), and Microsoft know it.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Ahem. Say what you want, Bill gates does, has, and will continue to, give vast quantites of money to charities and schools. Try reading his will sometime.
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
Last I checked, between February 18, 1995 thru December 15, 2001 you were able to buy Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4 and NT5 (Aka Windows 2000). None of which have manditory registration.
As a result, Microsoft is completely incapable of having a record of who purchased their product.
Moreover, even if they did have such a list, they don't nessicarily have a list specifying the state in which the user resides, and as this rebate only applies to users in California...
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."
- Seneca
Don't you recognize Microsoft exerts some kind of monopoly in many software markets ( OS, office suite, media player, browser, etc. ) right now ? Of course people can write better software - hell, many do :) - but having a better product doesn't mean the top rank in market share because many other variables have to be taken into account, one of the most important being the monetary assets of the companies involved, another being the political power corporations can gain to twist societal tendancies into their favor. Microsoft have massive monetary and political power to help them stay on top, which isn't fair for any startup company. I'm not saying it's impossible to topple Microsoft as a monopoly by having better products alone, but the defacto-monopoly right now is definitely not a good thing for competition, and hence for consumers.
<rant>
We do not live in a classic-capitalism utopia where companies are ethical and let competition strive ; we live in a world where giant corporations enjoy being on top to gain huge piles of money, namely because of the underlying "greed" capitalism is based on. I've always found strange that on one hand, capitalists explain their position with a greed-as-human-nature argument while on the other hand assuming that this greed will be refrained for some Common Good. Greed has never been a matter of common good, it's about gaining and preserving power. Capitalism is not concerned with morals and ethics, and that's why it cannot stand alone as a worldview. So defending Microsoft on a strictly economical dimension isn't very much relevant at all.
</rant>
And actually I think MacOS X surpasses WinXP hands down on usability, as long as you're not glued up in WinLogics as a user.
United States of America, good ol' backers of world peace.
does anybody happen to know how much money microsoft had donated to various schools over the years? im just curious
If you mean money as in cold, hard cash, I suspect the answer is close to zero. All the school donations I have seen from Microsoft involve Microsoft products and occasionally some hardware that can be used to run Microsoft products. Of course, that doesn't stop Microsoft from deducting the cash-equivalence from their taxes. I suspect Microsoft profits from these "donations."
bp
Have you seen the claim form? My brother-in-law was mailed one because he actually registered a copy of Windows while he was living in California. It assigns a certain voucher value to each Microsoft product (something like Windows - $16, Office - $26, DOS - $13, I don't remember the exact values), and you can claim up to $100 worth of vouchers without any proof (i.e., product ID's or license keys). Then, if you have license keys, you can list those on the form and claim vouchers for those too.
Also, the vouchers you get are not for Microsoft products -- they're for any PC hardware or software. So once you get the vouchers, you can, for instance, buy a PC (for more than the total amount of the vouchers), then send the vouchers back to the claims adminstrator along with receipt and proof of purchase for the PC. Then they send you a check for the amount of the vouchers. (You can also use it for hardware/software you already bought, within a certain timeframe.)
It's a pain in the ass, of course, but you can actually get a fair amount of money back from them. Especially if, hypothetically, you claim a fictional combination of products which comes to exactly $100 (and don't need proof of purchase), then claim whatever additional products you can dig up license keys for (as long as you've got the CDs in their original cases or envelopes sitting around the house somewhere in boxes -- the CD cases usually have the license key on them.) If one were to do that, one might wind up getting $200-300 back from them.
Wow, It's not that hard to file. I got maybe 4 forms sent to me already in the mail. I thought the deadline was long ago (mid-March), but it seems to have been extended to April 28.
As long as you are filing for less than $100 reimbursement, you do not need to provide any product keys or proof. You just have to provide a list of what you bought, and most consumers will easily fall within the $100 limit and qualify for the standard (easy) form.
In other words, fill out a form saying "I bought Windows 98 on or about this date" and you get a voucher.
That's it. No proof necessary if your filing is under $100 and fewer than 5 products purchased. So get your forms, because time is running out! Go to the web site and request a standard claim form now.
California Schools all ready get free copies of Windows 2000 for donated computer equipemnt. As long as the equipment is less than a Pentium III and better than a Pentium 1. (Which is a fine computer for learning how to type on.)
They also get deep discounts for Microsoft products. That's why none of the schools were elegible for this refund. They pay (approx) $45 for a full version of Microsoft Office 2003 Pro. And $52 for a full copy of Windows XP...
What more can Microsoft do for the schools, that isn't all ready amazing?!
How could you? They don't give you Windows refunds anymore. You have to send back the entire system.
Keep your eyes to the sky.
It's because to get the claim, you must have your windows 95 or 98 sales receipt, and cd key. It doesn't apply to windows XP. Who in the heck still has a sales receipt for windows 95?
Scott
Like The debacle of Dieppe?
I filed my claim in December and have yet to receive anything.
in bed.