How legal this is? It's like buying a toy whose packaging says "Batteries Not Included", then having the clerk at the check-out counter tell you that you have to buy a specific brand of batteries from them. Is Bong Dizon or any other lawyer on this list?
As an aside, I've sworn off Octagon. Nice to browse, but I've had some doubts about their reliability since my cousin bought a Compaq top-of-the-line notebook for his son some three or four years ago. It cost over 100K at that time, 3GHz Intel single-core (wala pang dual-core noon). It broke down, within the warranty period IIRC, he sent it to HP's Service Center, waited months only to be told that they couldn't honor the warranty because it was purchased in Brazil (!?!?!) and didn't have the international warranty. My cousin was obviously furious, but he misdirected his ire toward HP, when it was Octagon that apparently sold him a gray-market notebook. As to Microsoft's bullying tactics, if you'll recall from the antitrust trial, they weren't afraid of even IBM. They were pricing Windows 95 at, IIRC, 5x the OEM price they were charging the other manufacturers. Pressuring IBM to drop OS/2. Some things never change. Paging the US DOJ! On 7/26/08, jan gestre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Carlos, > > Our company purchased three(3) Compaq laptops from Octagon SM Megamall > branch some four (4) months back and all the laptops came with DOS. They > didn't give us any hassles whatsoever. Maybe now MS is forcing them to do > this bullying tactics but hey MS was able to bully even the big > manufacturers like HP to have Vista pre-installed on their Mini-Notebook coz > if they won't follow what MS wants then MS won't certify their drivers. > > Jan > > On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 6:54 PM, Carlos Yu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> Just wanted to share a true story with PLUG members. One of CYWare's >> programmers' laptop wouldn't power up yesterday and since we were >> chasing a deadline for a project, I decided to purchase a new one right >> away. I went to Octagon in Park Square 1 Glorietta and found a decent >> Compaq laptop reasonably priced at 40K PHP. The laptop box said it came >> free with the DOS operating system which didn't matter to me since we >> were going to install Linux on it. >> >> I called the sales guy, handed him my credit card, and told him I wanted >> to purchase the machine. He then told me that they were not allowed to >> sell the laptop unless I purchased an operating system with it. I told >> them that my company, CYWare, sells primarily Linux based products and I >> would be installing Ubuntu on it. The sales guy insisted that a >> licensed operating system had to be installed on it and told me I had to >> purchase Vista with the machine. I then asked for the manager and >> explained what I was trying to do. The manager instructed the sales guy >> to make a phone call and after the phone conversation, they re-iterated >> the same policy: Windows Vista had to be purchased with the machine. I >> then asked the manager if he was willing to give up the sale because >> there was no way I was going to pay for something I really didn't need. >> To my amazement, he said he was. >> >> Needless to say, I took my business elsewhere. After visiting a few >> stores, I realized that the nice laptops all came with Vista. I ended >> up going to WellCom and buying a more expensive laptop that came with >> Windows Vista installed. Of course, once it got back to the office, the >> hard drive was reformatted and Vista was replaced with Ubuntu. >> >> I know I could have researched the purchase more carefully, but >> unfortunately, I was in a rush and foolishly assumed that a laptop >> purchase would be simple. Go figure... -- Daniel O. Escasa independent IT consultant and writer contributor, Free Software Magazine (http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com) personal blog at http://descasa.i.ph Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/silverlokk If we choose being kind over being right, we will be right every time. _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
