Circuit City Wont Fix Their Mistake Acer, Laptop, Aspire 5100, Circuit City, Customer Support, Firedog Canton Ohio
These emails explain it all:
To Circuit City Customer Care Website:
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I recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 laptop computer from your store, i have had it for a few months.
The computer came with Windows Vista. Recently Vista crashed leaving me without a computer. I was able to get my files(luckily) and still cannot recover vista. My system backup was done as soon as i got the computer out of it's box and now won't recover.
The copy of vista on my laptop seems to have been installed as an upgrade to XP.
I am not satisfied with windows vista, nor can i get it to run. I would like to get the original copy of XP running. To do this i would need a new key and a copy of the program. You may cancel the Vista activation if necessary, as it doesnt work anyway.
I appreciate your response.
The Response i got was this and it was after two weeks of what would have been without a computer:
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Dear Kyle,
Thank you for contacting www.circuitcity.com. We offer several options for technical support with computer related issues:
If you have Circuit City's Advantage coverage, please call 1-800-555-4615 for technical support and troubleshooting of hardware-related issues.
If you do not have warranty coverage, please contact your local Circuit City store and ask for the firedog PC services technician. We will assist with questions and guide you in selecting the best service for your needs. Thank you for your inquiry!
Sincerely,
Luis A.
Customer Support Coordinator
Contact ID # 13136764
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In response i sent this:
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Well, thank you very much for you "Speedy" and completely relevant response that in no way addresses my problem.
I appreciate the fact that you are just the distributor, but i also understand that computer distributors were strong-armed by Microsoft to update all computers sold to Windows Vista. Rather than doing it the right way from scratch, it was upgraded. This update completely screwed up the machines because windows vista is not made to run with a Registry like XP was. Not to mention that modern computers are not ready for this disgrace of an operating system, especially laptops. Minimum requirements in no way reflect upon what you need to run the computer with actual applications. and to do it smoothly on 1GB of ram, 256MB of which is dedicated to a shared video card, you should know better. But, you get an A for effort.
Also, i checked my BIOS version, and it was completely out of date, this explains the error i got every time i booted up the computer successfully.
This situation let me know just how much you care about your customers. Sell them a heap of crap, then when it comes time for it to break, you know that you can just respond with a three-paragraph email, two weeks after they contact you, telling them that if they did not pay the ridiculously large sum of money for your extended warranty plan, their only other option is to pay a ridiculously large sum of money to a firedog PC Technician. Thanks, but no thanks.
I have already fixed it myself, with windows XP. That's right, it was fixed before CUSTOMER SUPPORT GOT BACK TO ME!
You have no idea how many times i had to hit the backspace key to refrain from swearing and stay in your good graces.
You Suck!
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and this:
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and TWO is not several, TWO is TWO!
So now i await a response. I am quite upset with the way they handled this.
Kyle
Kent, Ohio
U.S.A.
6 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Buffalo,New York,
U.S.A.
XP extended
#7Consumer Comment
Sat, September 29, 2007
Microsoft has recently announced that they have extended the period that OEMs may offer new machines with Windows XP (OEM version) installed. The original cut-off was January 2008. It has been extended.
OEMs MAY offer new machines to consumers with Windows XP installed rather than Vista. Retailers who claim they cannot offer a new machine with XP are not being fully forthcoming. A retailer may CHOOSE not to offer a machine with XP installed, but that is the choice of the RETAILER, not Microsoft.
Also, for those of us with XP, Microsoft also extended the period of support for XP. This seems to be in direct response to the consumer (and enterprise) customer reaction to Vista. Sales of Vista are not what Microsoft had hoped for.
Robert
Buffalo,New York,
U.S.A.
XP extended
#7Consumer Comment
Sat, September 29, 2007
Microsoft has recently announced that they have extended the period that OEMs may offer new machines with Windows XP (OEM version) installed. The original cut-off was January 2008. It has been extended.
OEMs MAY offer new machines to consumers with Windows XP installed rather than Vista. Retailers who claim they cannot offer a new machine with XP are not being fully forthcoming. A retailer may CHOOSE not to offer a machine with XP installed, but that is the choice of the RETAILER, not Microsoft.
Also, for those of us with XP, Microsoft also extended the period of support for XP. This seems to be in direct response to the consumer (and enterprise) customer reaction to Vista. Sales of Vista are not what Microsoft had hoped for.
Robert
Buffalo,New York,
U.S.A.
XP extended
#7Consumer Comment
Sat, September 29, 2007
Microsoft has recently announced that they have extended the period that OEMs may offer new machines with Windows XP (OEM version) installed. The original cut-off was January 2008. It has been extended.
OEMs MAY offer new machines to consumers with Windows XP installed rather than Vista. Retailers who claim they cannot offer a new machine with XP are not being fully forthcoming. A retailer may CHOOSE not to offer a machine with XP installed, but that is the choice of the RETAILER, not Microsoft.
Also, for those of us with XP, Microsoft also extended the period of support for XP. This seems to be in direct response to the consumer (and enterprise) customer reaction to Vista. Sales of Vista are not what Microsoft had hoped for.
Robert
Buffalo,New York,
U.S.A.
XP extended
#7Consumer Comment
Sat, September 29, 2007
Microsoft has recently announced that they have extended the period that OEMs may offer new machines with Windows XP (OEM version) installed. The original cut-off was January 2008. It has been extended.
OEMs MAY offer new machines to consumers with Windows XP installed rather than Vista. Retailers who claim they cannot offer a new machine with XP are not being fully forthcoming. A retailer may CHOOSE not to offer a machine with XP installed, but that is the choice of the RETAILER, not Microsoft.
Also, for those of us with XP, Microsoft also extended the period of support for XP. This seems to be in direct response to the consumer (and enterprise) customer reaction to Vista. Sales of Vista are not what Microsoft had hoped for.
Wouldnt
Hell,Michigan,
U.S.A.
OEM info on Windows XP
#7Consumer Suggestion
Sat, September 29, 2007
This is a link to an article explaining the legalities of Windows XP being sold on new PCs, They lied to you!
pcworld.com/article/id,137826-c,xp/article.html
D
Springfield,Virginia,
U.S.A.
I too bought an Acer but got mine from MicroCenter
#7Consumer Suggestion
Thu, September 06, 2007
I purchased the Aspire 3680 which also came with Vista. I did invest in the extra memory bit since I noticed the bare minimum requirements for Vista would take up almost everything from the laptop to work.
When I questioned the rep at MicroCenter as to why I cannot get XP on it, I was informed that Microsoft has removed XP from even being used on new computers anymore. This was told to me by both reps from BestBuy and MicroCenter. One rep actually claimed it is now illeagal to sell XP on new computers. I do not know if this is true or not, but I have not checked into it any further. I do not know if you contact Microsoft direct if you can obtain the software, but so far I have not had any problems with mine.
Perhaps if you do speak directly with Microsoft corporation, they may be able to assist you since I have heard from others a similar problem concerning Vista. Let us know since mine is still working, I would like to know your result in the event this one does the same.
Hope this information helps. Good luck.
D