The Hindu News Update Service
Sci. & Tech. Long delays for promised Windows OS upgrade London, (GUARDIAN NEWS SERVICE) By Kate Bevan Thousands of customers worldwide are still waiting for the replacements offered for Windows XP Nearly three months after the launch of Windows Vista, thousands of people are still waiting for their promised upgrade to the new version of Microsoft's operating system. Vista finally launched on January 30, missing the vital Christmas sales period. In order to boost sales of PCs over the festive season, Microsoft and OEMs - computer manufacturers who sell PCs with Windows pre-installled - agreed to offer a scheme under which people who bought PCs with the XP operating system between October 26 last year and March 15 this year could upgrade to Vista for a nominal administrative charge. However, fulfilment of this huge "Express Upgrade" scheme has left many people still waiting for their upgrade. Internet forums are abuzz with complaints about the delays. Larry Wallis' story is typical. "I sent the request for the upgrade disc on December 29 - knowing that Vista was due out in late January, I didn't rush! They first asked me for proof of purchase, which I emailed to them, but that was it: I didn't get anything to say they had accepted it. Following the threads [on internet forums], I realised there was a huge delay but thought I'd send a chasing email with another copy of my proof of purchase on March 4. No reply. "On March 15 I got an automated email saying that validation was complete and that I'd have to wait another four to six weeks. The upgrade finally arrived on April 5." Wallis's three-month wait is a long way from the four-week period that Microsoft says getting these upgrades to customers should take. "It's getting a lot better now," says Robert Epstein, Microsoft UK's Group OEM Manager. "We're getting them out of the door now - they should be shipping within four weeks." So where does the blame lie? ModusLink, the fulfilment company handling the scheme for Microsoft and the OEMs, is pretty clear that it's not with them. Christine Pothier of ModusLink is at pains to point out that it is just the facilitator of the scheme. "The PC manufacturers set the time frame of four to six weeks, but we did not receive the product from them to ship until early March - and some were later than that." In other words, it's not ModusLink's fault, it's the OEMs'. Even if you ordered back in January, chances are the company you bought your PC from didn't get the upgrade DVDs out to ModusLink until last month. "The minute we get them, we're shipping them," says Pothier. And this is a huge scheme. Everyone is coy about the actual numbers involved, but ModusLink says it's handling the upgrades for more than 50 OEMS in 23 languages in 142 countries and territories. However, the process of ordering through ModusLink has been painful for many. TacomaSailor, posting on hardforum.com, describes how the US website denied his American Express payment. He says: "I entered the correct AmEx card info - the site then told me 'credit card authorisation failed'. I just talked with AmEx customer support and they told me that they did approve the $12.50 payment to ModusLink. I tried two other cards and the site said those authorisations failed." His story is echoed by that of Ian Hobkirk, who posts on the UK-based PC Advisor forum (pcadvisor.co.uk). ModusLink told him that it had not been able to get authorisation from his bank and gave him account details so that he could transfer the funds via internet banking - but "the sort code they gave me has too many digits. So I emailed them hoping I could just give them another credit card number. Twice. No reply. So I ended up phoning them, to be advised that they couldn't take another credit card number and that the bank details were indeed wrong." He is still waiting for his upgrade to arrive. ModusLink is defensive, saying: "We don't own the communication with the customer - we do not set costs, we just post the numbers the OEMs tell us." So have Microsoft, the OEMs and ModusLink been caught on the hop? "The uptake was higher than we had anticipated," says Epstein. In the meantime, if you're still waiting, take heart: ModusLink says it's doing its best to get your upgrade to you. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
