How to get a refund for the ‘Microsoft Tax’
Thursday, November 9th, 2006Getting a Windows Refund in California Small Claims Court
Getting a Microsoft Windows refund from a manufacturer is seldom easy to do. In this article, I describe some techniques you can use to get your refund, including how to deal with the manufacturers (and all their excuses) and going to small claims court.
The first step to getting a refund is to ask for one. In most every case, you immediately hit a wall of stupidity and evasion when you do this. Dealing with this part properly is important, though, because you are building a record for the court case that may follow. Your job is to be as reasonable as possible and to make them look as dumb, inflexible and unreasonable as possible.
Personally, at this point, if I were going to buy a new computer, I would go for a System76 or something similar. Windows is practically useless to me now (and at any rate I have one Windows install, so why would I need another?) and I’d much rather have a computer that I can use right out of the box rather than having to format over all the OEM crap, install Linux, and then try to get a refund for all the software they sold me that I have no intention of using. Plus System76 computers look damn sexy. 
