Lenovo Requires NDA For Windows License Refund

tykev writes "A customer wanted to return the license for preinstalled Windows Vista Business that came with his Lenovo laptop. After some lengthy negotiations with representatives of Lenovo's technical support and management, he was offered financial compensation for returning the license in the amount of CZK 1950 (USD 130, EUR 78), pending his acceptance of a non-disclosure agreement that would cover the entire negotiations with the company and its results. He declined and published his experiences on a Czech Linux website. The website editors decided to reward the customer for publishing the article by paying him an author's royalty in the same amount as was the offered compensation for returning the license."

Comments

Right so now we know the minimum

[MosesJones]

So now we know the minimum we should accept. Time to start negotiating upwards to see what other numbers can be achieved.

That is probably the most effective way to start companies shipping hardware only or Linux pre-installed as the negotiation process will cost money. If 1,000 people went through this process with Lenovo (or Dell, or HP, etc) then we would probably see more progress than 5 years of bitching has managed to achieve.

Kudos to the guy

Re:Right so now we know the minimum

[MosesJones]

Or they'd publish a fixed price which means you could cost it out. Which after all is what we all want isn't it?

Re:Right so now we know the minimum

[igrutje]

Last week I got a refund of 83,30 euro's from Dell for Vista Home Premium Dutch and MS Works 9.0 (in the Netherlands we still can not buy Ubuntu laptops from dell).
After I got in contact with the right guy it was quite a smooth process.

Re:Right so now we know the minimum

[HeronBlademaster]

I tried to order my laptop without XP (since I had like six legal XP Pro licenses sitting around) but I didn't have any luck. The thick-accented Dell rep ("Michael" or somesuch, I'm sure) could not understand why I'd want to order a laptop with no OS, no matter how I explained it. I finally gave up... I guess I should have tried for a refund after the fact.

The only english story on the site

[krgallagher]

[disclaimer]I love the Czech. I have family there and have been to the Czech Republic a couple of time.[/disclaimer]

I wonder why on a Czech web portal, that one news article was in English. I did a little looking around trying to see if I could find any other pages in English but that was the only one. It was also the only one that had a /. submit script on it. Even the Czech version of the story did not have the script.

Re:Requiring NDA is changing the rules of the game

[aztektum]

Instead of going through Lenovo, I filed a complaint with my state's AG office. I wasn't lookin' for a refund, rather physical media in case the hard drive were to fail and I could no longer use the "restore partition."

Couple weeks after my complaint is filed, I get an e-mail from Lenovo asking for my model/serial number so they can send me a disk. BUT I bought an IdeaPad which they don't have disks for.

I was like "What the? Party foul." and now they're letting me return the IdeaPad sans restock fee so I can purchase a Thinkpad.

Re:Big deal

[Shadow of Eternity]

And then what? Microsoft just can't be stopped short of using actual force, military, police, or otherwise. They have too much money to give a damn about any fine short of forcing them to pay off the national debt and they're too big for the govt to just say "Nope, you can't see shit anymore".

The only real way to get at them I think would be to offer the equivalent of modern day letters of marque against microsoft and tell everyone "Pirate their shit".

Re:Requiring NDA is changing the rules of the game

[Hatta]

Why the hell is a NDA agreement required anyway? This is for a refund on a specific part of the total price. The price of Vista. Requiring a NDA for this is stupid unless you're trying to give as little away as possible - but wouldn't/shouldn't that be illegal? :P The cost of Windows on it is not subjective, it's concrete.

I think you'll find the price of vista varies quite a bit depending on who you are. A large OEM like lenovo is going to pay less than the average joe buying a box off the shelf. If you're, say, a public school system who's put some thought into switching to linux, you'll probably pay even less.

Re:Right Now, In the U.S. Vista Cost You $349

[glop]

Maybe their lawyer told them they were in a bad situation and they should settle?
Maybe the guy made the story up?
Maybe they used the street price and not the OEM price because they don't want to reveal the OEM price?
Who knows, that's the marvel of Microsoft's agreements. If there was an anti-trust trial, maybe it would shed some light on these shady practices. Oh wait! There was an anti-trust trial and we still don't know...

Re:The real question:

[KasperMeerts]

Because Microsoft doesn't want people to know how much Lenovo pays for their licenses.
That's also why corporations are so reluctant to publicly show their support for FOSS. They're afraid they'll have to pay some more "administrative" charges.