Amazon customer gets hassle free refund for unwanted Windows

Now and again a buyer of a computer with Windows pre-installed will go through the usually lengthy battle to get a refund for the cost of the operating system and instead switch to Linux. But a British Amazon customer appears to have got one of the most-hassle free refunds ever seen.

When computer buyers first switch on their Windows PC, they’ll have to click to say they’ve read and agreed to a lengthy document known as the End User License Agreement (EULA). This includes a clause which varies slightly in wording across different editions of Windows but says pretty much the same as this extract from the XP license:

If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, you may not use or copy the SOFTWARE, and you should promptly contact Manufacturer for instructions on return of the unused product(s) for a refund in accordance with Manufacturer’s return policies.

People have occasionally been taking advantage of this for around a decade, but it’s rare that people either think of doing so in the first place, or make it through a barrage of bureaucracy to do so. Last year we reported on an HP laptop buyer who went through a two-month battle to eventually get a $200 refund for an unwanted copy of Vista.

Around six months later an Israeli man had to take Dell to court to get a refund for Vista. Eventually Dell agreed to an out of court settlement for the full $137 price, likely to avoid losing a court judgment and setting a precedent for future claims.

Now Alan Lord, who blogs under the name The Open Sourcerer (which should be a clue to his feelings on Windows), reports that he bought an Asus netbook from the British Amazon site. Other than a minor logistical problem involving his Amazon account details, he was able to simply ask for a refund and had an e-mail confirming it had been granted less than a minute later.

As word of this spreads, it could be a major benefit for people wanting to ditch Windows. Where a seller offers straightforward refunds, buyers wanting to run Linux will have a much wider range of machines to choose from, regardless of whether they are “Windows-only” models.

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