Really Steamed!

S

Stilton A. Cheese

Boy, am I steamed!

A few weeks back, a customer bought a nice Samsung notebook (not from me,
but that doesn't matter, I *try* to support all of my customers needs).
Nice computer. It came with Windows XP Home, German (we're in Germany). My
customer is from New Zealand, and like most new comers, isn't very good at
German at the moment. I installed, as to her wishes AOL v7, in English,
which is what she wanted. She expressed a desire to have XP in English as
well. I tell her I'll check into it and get back to her.

First call is to Samsung, Germany..No, they can not provide us with an
English restore CD. Fair enough.

Second call is to Microsoft, Germany, technical support. Can I upgrade
German XP Home with English XP Home Upgrade? No.....But I can upgrade
German XP Home with English XP Professional Upgrade....The technical support
person said this would be a true upgrade from Home to Professional and this
would work.

So I look at the cost of English XP Professional Upgrade, and here in
Germany, it's pretty expensive. So then I go to eBay, UK, and find XP
Professional Upgrade at a very fair price.

I call my customer, tell her to purchase the software on eBay, make sure the
seller will ship to Germany, and call me when it shows up. Which she did
and XP Professional showed up Monday. I made an appointment and went to her
house this morning and tried to install the XP.

XP Professional Upgrade will not install, because the language is different
than the of the original OS.

So I visit MS online support and find this little gem:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;282089

Apparently the Microsoft, Germany, technical support person was totally
wrong.
Oh, I waited on hold for about ten minutes to get to talk to him and was
charged 0.12 Euro / minute.
 
N

Nicholas

How long have you been servicing computers? No version of Windows ever
permitted changing the language version by attempting to upgrade using a
different language version.

Can one upgrade a Poodle to a German Shepard by feeding the Poodle
Brockwurst?

--
Nicholas

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Boy, am I steamed!
|
| A few weeks back, a customer bought a nice Samsung notebook (not from me,
| but that doesn't matter, I *try* to support all of my customers needs).
| Nice computer. It came with Windows XP Home, German (we're in Germany). My
| customer is from New Zealand, and like most new comers, isn't very good at
| German at the moment. I installed, as to her wishes AOL v7, in English,
| which is what she wanted. She expressed a desire to have XP in English as
| well. I tell her I'll check into it and get back to her.
|
| First call is to Samsung, Germany..No, they can not provide us with an
| English restore CD. Fair enough.
|
| Second call is to Microsoft, Germany, technical support. Can I upgrade
| German XP Home with English XP Home Upgrade? No.....But I can upgrade
| German XP Home with English XP Professional Upgrade....The technical support
| person said this would be a true upgrade from Home to Professional and this
| would work.
|
| So I look at the cost of English XP Professional Upgrade, and here in
| Germany, it's pretty expensive. So then I go to eBay, UK, and find XP
| Professional Upgrade at a very fair price.
|
| I call my customer, tell her to purchase the software on eBay, make sure the
| seller will ship to Germany, and call me when it shows up. Which she did
| and XP Professional showed up Monday. I made an appointment and went to her
| house this morning and tried to install the XP.
|
| XP Professional Upgrade will not install, because the language is different
| than the of the original OS.
|
| So I visit MS online support and find this little gem:
| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;282089
|
| Apparently the Microsoft, Germany, technical support person was totally
| wrong.
| Oh, I waited on hold for about ten minutes to get to talk to him and was
| charged 0.12 Euro / minute.
|
 
D

David Jones

I agree, the support person you talked to gave you
incorrect information. I'm not sure what you can do at
this point, especially because you purchased off EBay
instead of from an official channel, but if you have a
record of who you talked to, you can always try
contacting Microsoft again and seeing if they can do
anything.
-----Original Message-----
Boy, am I steamed!

A few weeks back, a customer bought a nice Samsung notebook (not from me,
but that doesn't matter, I *try* to support all of my customers needs).
Nice computer. It came with Windows XP Home, German (we're in Germany). My
customer is from New Zealand, and like most new comers, isn't very good at
German at the moment. I installed, as to her wishes AOL v7, in English,
which is what she wanted. She expressed a desire to have XP in English as
well. I tell her I'll check into it and get back to her.

First call is to Samsung, Germany..No, they can not provide us with an
English restore CD. Fair enough.

Second call is to Microsoft, Germany, technical support. Can I upgrade
German XP Home with English XP Home Upgrade? No.....But I can upgrade
German XP Home with English XP Professional
Upgrade....The technical support
 
D

David Jones

While your point is true, support personnel should not be
handing out false or misleading information such as he
received.
-----Original Message-----
How long have you been servicing computers? No version of Windows ever
permitted changing the language version by attempting to upgrade using a
different language version.

Can one upgrade a Poodle to a German Shepard by feeding the Poodle
Brockwurst?

--
Nicholas

--------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------


| Boy, am I steamed!
|
| A few weeks back, a customer bought a nice Samsung notebook (not from me,
| but that doesn't matter, I *try* to support all of my customers needs).
| Nice computer. It came with Windows XP Home, German (we're in Germany). My
| customer is from New Zealand, and like most new comers, isn't very good at
| German at the moment. I installed, as to her wishes AOL v7, in English,
| which is what she wanted. She expressed a desire to have XP in English as
| well. I tell her I'll check into it and get back to her.
|
| First call is to Samsung, Germany..No, they can not provide us with an
| English restore CD. Fair enough.
|
| Second call is to Microsoft, Germany, technical support. Can I upgrade
| German XP Home with English XP Home Upgrade? No.....But I can upgrade
| German XP Home with English XP Professional
Upgrade....The technical support
 
J

Jamie

Ebay did nothing wrong. You should never purchase software over Ebay. My
recommendation and here is a perfect reason why. The other question would
be if Microsoft would even accept that as a valid license. I don't know if
you have the right to resell a license. In other words making his license
invalid. You may you may not. Common sense would say you do but licensing
is very tricky and you don't own the software you own the right to use it.
Which would make me wonder do you own the right to resell.

You also have to question if this is even a legal copy or a pirated version.

For these reasons I would never risk it by purchasing software on Ebay.
 
I

I'm Dan

Jamie said:
Ebay did nothing wrong. You should never purchase software over Ebay. My
recommendation and here is a perfect reason why. The other question would
be if Microsoft would even accept that as a valid license. I don't know if
you have the right to resell a license. In other words making his license
invalid. You may you may not. Common sense would say you do but licensing
is very tricky and you don't own the software you own the right to use it.
Which would make me wonder do you own the right to resell.

You also have to question if this is even a legal copy or a pirated version.

For these reasons I would never risk it by purchasing software on Ebay.

Well, then, that's a completely different -- and debatable -- issue. Ebay
had nothing to do with Stilton's problem.
 

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