Zip Zoom, wtf

[kuester01]

Ok, hope this works this time

after discovering my windows xp cd is bad I tryed to get it replaced thru MS. well iktws oem, they wont replace. Now I thought I got it thuru Neww Egg, but I found a receipt that has it thru googlegear )zipzoom fly)

After contacting them they say they wont replace, as its older thatn 30 days. Now I do beleive I bought the license, not the actual cd. correct? I tryed to explain this, but after I got a bit "unhappy" and used the word hell, they said, sir Im not going to put up with this and hung up on me.

Do I have a recourse? or am I say they say, fekked.




Kuester

 

[GnomeCop]

fekked

 

[Baked]

Too bad. Your life suck.

 

[CQuinn]

You bought the media, with a license to install it.

If you had found the media was defective within 30 days after you purchased it, then they would have
been obligated to replace it under sellers warranty. As it is, its been too long for them to be
certain that the CD was defective before coming out of thier warehouse.

Was the CD defective from the beginning, and you are just getting around to noticing?

 

[kuester01]

Heh, you are to true.

If you buy windows XP, you dont own the the software, correct? just the right to use it on one system.

Now if the cd goes bad, does not that take your right away? So hence, whoever sold you this right, should indeed, restore it?

Bla, lesson learned, never buy oem software, and do or say what ya want, but this fella is done with ZZF.


Kuester

 

[kuester01]

Any again, they dont sell the cd, they sell the numbers associated with it. no?

Its not like they are giving me a freebee. Just the right to access the software I purchased.


And if this isnt tru, why would microsoft replace the cd, if it isnt OEM?


Man, I hate to say it, but I really beleive im in the right here. But I am a stubborn sob.

kuester

 

[blackinches]

blackinches thinks you should fling poo at them.

 

[kuester01]

Heh,

Me thinks blackinches is onto something.


kuester

 

[kuester01]

ok, Lets say I have to replace the software. Is there a way of knowing what cd will work with my old numbers as well as they new numbers? so this way at least I get both the numbers to work?


Kuester

 

[Ike0069]

I agree. You just want a working CD, not a new activation code. MS should be able to help you there. Call them again and explain your situation ....again. Just tell them it came with a system and the seller refuses to help. I would think they would send you a replacement CD.

 

[akugami]

See if you can borrow a copy of WinXP from someone and then enter you OEM key into it and see if it works. If it does, make a couple of copies of the WinXP CD and keep your key in a safe place with it.

If not, call MS again and explain to them the situation again. Let them know the OEM seller refused to ship a working CD to you. Let them know that you have a valid WinXP license with no way to install it. If they refuse to give you a replacement tell them you will be installing Linux then if you can't get a working replacement CD and that you will be using Linux for any future computers you build for friends/family will now be using Linux on it. If they're not gonna replace it anyways, try using FUD to get them to send you a new CD...it may not help but it certainly can't hurt. Might also say you are sending a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. Again, it might not help but it certainly won't hurt.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: kuester01
If you buy windows XP, you dont own the the software, correct? just the right to use it on one system.

No. You have the inherent right to use it, privately. If you purchased a legal, legitimate license, to a copyrighted work, that means that you, as a minimum, have the implicit legal right to possess a copy of that work on a piece of media, in tangible fixed form.

That right does not magically go away if your CD goes bad. Obtain another copy of the work, on another tangible fixed medium, under your legal right to own a copy of that work.

How you do that, is up to you. It may not be ZZF's responsibility to do so, especially if their sales terms state a limit period for exchange of defective goods. I would assume that the responsibility would then fall on the mfg, if they have any responsibility in this matter. It appears that MS has declined, which is slightly strange, but as this is apparently the version of their software sold under terms of their OEM distribution agreements, they don't have any support responsibility towards it, that falls on the OEM, and the OEM in this case appears to be ZZF, and as their terms (apparently) state, you only get 30 days.

So yes, you are sort of screwed, but you did pay for a legal license, that hasn't magically gone away. If you are ever able to obtain replacement media with a replacement copy of the work, you still have that legal right to possess a copy of it, without violating federal copyright law, AFAIK. IANAL, but this is my personal understanding of the situation.

Originally posted by: kuester01
Now if the cd goes bad, does not that take your right away? So hence, whoever sold you this right, should indeed, restore it?

It appears that under the terms of the sale, they no longer have the legal responsibility to replace the physical media. That's up to you.

 

[Zepper]

If one fails to read/understand/agree the terms prior to purchase and then gets bitten - well suck it up buddy.
If your license (prod. key) is an OEM license, it usually won't install with a retail (full version) CD. You will need an OEM CD. Places like http://www.9software.com , http://www.pcbase.com , http://www.glob200.com sell OEM Win CDs. http://www.pricegrabber.com usually has tons of listings for them too. That's where I got my Win2k - worked great and recently sailed thru the M$ validation process - YMMV.
. There's always Linux and you can skip all this M$ crap. Xandros makes a great product for those transitioning from Win and you can get it for 1/3 off via their http://distrowatch.com banner ad. Also there are lots of free Linux for the more adventurous. Simply Mepis is a good starting point: http://www.mepis.org .
. But if you can't break the M$ chains, I suggest considering switching to Win2k. About half the proce, and you don't have to kiss Billy G's butt every time you want to make a change.

.bh.

 

[Sqube]

While an unfortunate incident, I don't think you should let this stop you from shopping at ZZF. In my book, they've leapt in front of Newegg as my primary source for buying computer hardware.

Do some price comparisons, I think you'll be surprised. The prirmary problem with your situation is that you apparently didn't buy the software from who you thought you bought it from, and you bought it OEM.

Also, you never said how long it took you to notice that the CD was defective. If it was defective from the beginning, and you're just now getting around to it, you have no one to blame but yourself for your current predicament.

That said, I personally would have no qualms about getting the CD from whatever source I could get it from, particularly if I had paid good money for the license.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Zepper
But if you can't break the M$ chains, I suggest considering switching to Win2k. About half the price, and you don't have to kiss Billy G's butt every time you want to make a change.
.bh.

LOL. Very good advice. W2K is my Windows' version of choice (best of the worst, I say), but I don't know how long it is going to stay viable in terms of patches and whatnot. Then again, I ran Win95 gold until Win98 came out, then upgraded to Win95 OSR2, and waited until Win2K came out before upgrading to Win98se, with an abortative interim upgrade to Win98. (Rather buggy in some places. Thank goodness for Ghost.)

The whole new "validation is required for downloads" thing seems a bit intrusive to me too. Almost nearly as disturbing as if I was asked to be strip-searched, before being allowed to go shopping at the local grocery store. (Well, that might be a bit extreme. Perhaps having your bags searched before being allowed to leave a retail store, after the purchase has been made, is a more apt comparison. If I already paid good money for a Windows' license, WTF does MS think that they can search/tag/inventory my machine. After all, it's my machine, not Billy G's. Of course he thinks differently, and wants to absolutely control all desktop machines, absolutely.)

The thing that I'm even more worried about, regarding that, is that I do a lot of small-scale "computer guy" work for individuals, and I often download as many patches/hotfixes as I can from MS's site, and like to keep a sort of archival library of them. If they require validation for download, and then tag the downloaded hotfix with the GUID belonging to the "validated account" (validation cookie), much like they already do for MS beta site downloads, and I then use the hotfix that I downloaded, with my GUID attached, to patch someone else's system in the process of performing maintenance, what will happen? Will it simply refuse to install? Or could this scheme be designed to be more intrusive and more insideous, and suddenly the presence of un-matched GUIDs present in installed hotfixes on a machine, also would cause that machine to stop "validating" properly, and then stop auto-updating (if enabled), etc. Is MS working to cut all 3rd-party "computer repair guys" out of the picture? They tried something similar a few years back, they started to require signing up to access their Knowledgebase articles as well, they were (for a brief time) unaccessable to the general public. That's very unhelpful for those of us charged with the task of doing work on systems for people. So unhelpful, that it would likely cause one to start recommending that their clients move off of MS platforms, even.

Sure, pretty-much any peice of code or data can be "hacked", and so eventually, when the actual full mechanisms of this scheme are understood, it could potentially be worked around at some level of hassle and expense. What's a bit more disturbing (for my current and potential clients), is if/when MS moves Windows' to the same model as X-Box Live already is - if they detect anything out of the ordinary with the system in question, they cut it off completely. In other words, if someone has a non-MS 3rd-party do maintenance work on their computer, will MS cut them off from any and all future updates? That's a very scary thought, especially to those that derive some level of income from these sorts of things.

It gives new meaning to the "Where do you want to go today?" tagline. I assume that they will add to that, "It's either the MS way - or the highway!" or perhaps "You are no longer in the driver's seat. Thank you for choosing Microsoft, have a nice ride."

 

[Patrick Wolf]

I though the activation key is tied to work ONLY with the disk it came with.