From: Rich Gauszka 

mike wrote:
>
> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39834
>
> ===
> CONSIDERING THE widely held belief that the Microsoft Vista upgrade
> program has been an utter mess, we decided to test the system's
> abilities ourselves.
>
>

It's still a huge mess




http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070510/tc_pcworld/131722

Julie Marto of Medfield, Massachusetts, purchased a Dell Inspiron notebook running
Windows XP last October. Through a program called Express Upgrade, she was
promised a free copy of Windows Vista when the operating system became
commercially available. It's been five months since Vista went on sale
January 30. Marto is still waiting and steaming mad. ADVERTISEMENT

"I've done everything I can to get my Vista upgrade including
e-mailing a request to Michael Dell himself," Marto says. She says she
never received a reply from Michael Dell.

Marto isn't alone. Since PC Worldoriginally reported problems back in March
with the Vista upgrade program, people have continued to send us e-mail and
post complaints to our community forums citing paperwork nightmares, Vista
upgrade disc no-shows, and long hold times when trying to contact vendors
or third-party companies handling the upgrades.

One company handling the Vista Express Upgrades, ModusLink, acknowledges
some problems persist, but maintains most customers have received their
Vista upgrade discs by now. Dell complaints have been filtering into PC
World, but can also be found by scanning the company's support forum.

In one Dell support forum a company representative offers an apology and
the statement: "As of April 30, we have shipped approximately 80
percent of the upgrades. We expect the bulk of the remaining orders to ship
by May 15, and all scheduled orders to be shipped should be completed by
the end of May, barring any unforeseen additional delays." Root of the
Problem

Upgrade problems began when consumers purchased a new PC late last year.
That's when computer makers enticed people to buy new systems preloaded
with Windows XP prior to Vista's release by promising a free or
reduced-cost Vista upgrade when the OS became commercially available.

When a PC was purchased, the new owner received a Microsoft Certificate of
Authenticity number. The upgrade process was supposed to be simple: When
Vista went on sale, all a customer had to do was visit a special upgrade
Web site and enter their COA number to confirm their eligibility to receive
a Vista upgrade disc in the mail. Finally, new owners were directed to mail
or fax in their proof of purchase (Dell, however, waived this step).

"I was told it would be an easy process," says William Bond, of
Tampa, Florida. But, he says, the process has been anything but simple.
Bond purchased a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion desktop in November at Circuit
City and is still waiting for his Vista upgrade disc from ModusLink, the
company handling the program for HP.

Bond says he has been asked repeatedly for his proof of purchase. "I
must [have] e-mailed, faxed, and mailed that proof of purchase five times
by now," he says, but ModusLink still hasn't acknowledged receipt.
"I'm exasperated," Bond says.

ModusLink, which is processing Vista upgrade requests for people who bought
Acer, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, and Toshiba computers, says the company is very
sensitive to the fact that customers are frustrated. "We are doing the
best we can," says Christine Pothier, the company's marketing
communications manager.

When PC World spoke to Pothier in early April she said the issues with
handling extremely large volumes of Vista upgrade requests had been
remedied by hiring extra staff. She now says that new issues are delaying
shipment of some Vista upgrade discs.

Pothier says the remaining delays stem from customers whose Vista upgrade
orders included a declined credit card (some PC makers made their customers
pay the shipping cost of the Vista upgrade disc), address changes, and
incomplete or erroneous shipment information. Dell echoed the same issues
on its message boards.

Initially, problems delivering Vista upgrades in a timely manner, Pothier
says, were because PC vendors were four to eight weeks late in sending
ModusLink the Vista upgrade discs. "We are just the middlemen
here," she says. "There was nothing we could do."

Vendors Tight-Lipped on Delays

HP declined to comment when asked about the delay, simply offering a
statement that it had issued on February 9: "During the past few weeks
HP has received e-mails and phone calls from many customers concerning the
ordering process for the Express Upgrade kit for Windows Vista. We are
aware of these problems and are working on an aggressive schedule with the
fulfillment vendor and the software product supplier to resolve these
issues."

Richard Black, director of marketing for Acer, says most of the company's
shipping delays have been resolved. "There were some missteps on our
side and on Microsoft's and ModusLink's," Black says. "These are
the kinds of problems you do your best to resolve when you have to sort
through hundreds of thousands of orders in a matter of months," he
says.

Says ModusLink's Pothier: "Is it possible customers have had to resend
things and are still not happy? Yes, and I apologize for that." She
says ModusLink is doing the best it can to resolve issues with the
"few remaining" people who haven't received their Vista upgrade
yet.

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