misled with windows 7 upgrade

Question

I ordered a 537 Inspiron Desktop which I received on the 16th of June. I spoke with a Dell representative the day I ordered it. He led me through the specs on my order and confirmed each item. I made sure that the monitor I chose was the one being sent. Then at the end our conversation he asked if I had any other questions. I told him that I was aware that Windows 7 *free* upgrades were coming up on systems ordered within in a certain time-frame and asked whether this system ordered at this time would qualify. I wasn't asking if it was *possible* to upgrade, but whether the upgrade would be free and was quite clear. He said yes. Of course, now the information has changed. Because the system wasn't ordered on the 26th it is not eligible. The 537 models in question weren't even available until the 1st of June the way I understood it, and the shipping was put off by an additional week.

Now, I had assumed that my order would be ok for the upgrade. And I would have been wrong. But I spoke with someone from Dell who said that the upgrade was in the clear. This is my issue.

Were Dell folks not correctly informed? Did Microsoft surprise Dell with the June 26th date? Obviously Dell wouldn't tell a customer, "Hey you might want to hold off on this because if you order this in 4 days, you can upgrade to 7 for free!" So I'm assuming MS just up and chose some date. But when a customer asks specifically and is given the wrong information, what can be done?

fireberd · Answer

In the US, you have 21 days from the date the PC was shipped (actually the date on the Invoice) to call Dell and request a return. That may be a good option and then when you get the refund/credit, order again and this time it will be covered by the "free" Windows 7.

Or just pre-order Win 7, which is $49.99 for the Home Premium edition if pre ordered at places such as Amazon. Considering it will cost you the shipping charges to ship it back, maybe the best option is to just keep it and pre-order Win7.

There was probably a lot of confusion until the "final" date was set and it sounds like you ordered during the "confusion" timeframe and the person could have very well misunderstood and was responding that it would run Windows 7. We are not Dell employees, just users helping users so we can't speak for Dell on what really happened.

quidpro · Answer

Point taken.

I've already pre-ordered Win 7 for myself and my pcs at the reduced price. the machine in question was ordered for a friend so I'd have to go to his place, disassemble it, pack it, return it...probably better off just pre-ordering the upgrade as you say.

I definitely ordered during the "confusion" time-frame, heh.

fireberd · Answer

I suspect other companies had the same 'confusion' factor until their management got the correct word to everyone.

mshipon · Answer

Did I miss the boat on the Windows 7 pre-order for $49?  Looks like the price has gone up to $119 for Windows 7 Home Premium Edition.

ejn63 · Answer

July 10 was the cutoff date.

Windows General

misled with windows 7 upgrade

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