The Windows Vista Nightmares Begin

Columnists have been writing about the hypothetical problems that Windows Vista's onerous copy protection scheme would cause for the software monolith for nearly a year now. Now, it appears all those chickens are coming home to roost.

I purchased the Ultimate copy via Amazon for my Macbook Pro at work ($400) and then when I got home, I purchased one additional license ($50) for Home Premium through the Microsoft web site for my iMac at home. That's $450 that I gave Microsoft.

The online sale went fine and I was issued a license key for my second machine. The problem was that the key didn't work. I re-entered and double-checked it at length with no luck. Time to go to support. In the email I received it had a web link to follow if you need help, so I clicked. It goes to a non-existant page at microsoft.com, and still does today.

So, next I called the toll-free number in the email. It turns out that this is a Microsoft number, but for a different project...He told me he hoped that someone would get back to me "within a few days" and that he's very sorry but has nothing more to offer.

Microsoft does not offer refunds for purchases made through their web site and they are sticking to that policy, leaving users like me who already paid them hundreds of dollars with no recourse and unable to affect the remedy to this horrible situation.

This is merely the first place I read about this. It is being reported all over the blogsphere by various victims of this problem.

I am guessing while this will be a bad weekend to be working Microsoft Support, it will be equally bad to be working for ANY creit card company as you walk customers through thousands of credit card disputes.