Computer software consumer rights

smotsie

Greetings fellow MSE enthusiasts. I am a Linux-loving geek, and yesterday I finally got round to buying a new laptop – a lovely Acer Aspire 5810T Timeline with 8+ hours battery life. All however is not completely rosy. I bought it from Comet, and the sales assistant who sold it to me told me I am entitled to an upgrade to Windows 7. Well, anyone who knows me will be well aware that I am not fond of anything Miscrosoft, and indeed I am a big fan of Linux, in particular the wonderful Ubuntu operating system, so I said as much to the assistant. He then stated that if I did that, it would invalidate the warranty. I laughed, thinking “oh poor chap, he doesn’t understand consumer rights”. He then called over to an older, lady assistant asking if he was right. Amazingly, she agreed with him. As I was in a bit of a hurry, I just smiled and bought the computer.
So… upon getting home I start up the computer and it is as sweet as I thought, but running Vista. I decided to email Comet to make sure that the sales staff in Taunton get educated away from their obviously incorrect beliefs. I just received their response:

Dear Mr West
Thank you for your e-mail
I can confirm that on installing a different operating system on your laptop this would invalidate your guarantee.
I would advise contacting Acer for further advice.
If you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact me using the Ask a Question facility on the website or by telephone on 0844 800 9595.
Regards,
Nicole Bingham
Comet Customer Services

Words almost fail me. I will not be letting this go. How on earth can installing an alternative O/S invalidate my warranty? It certainly does not invalidate my consumer rights. I shall be contacting Trading Standards first thing on Monday, and if anyone reading this cares at all about consumer rights and FOSS, then please let others know about this!

Esqui

It's also an offence to mislead consumers about their rights.

I also notice the irony of them saying that installing another OS will invalidate the warranty when they are offering a free upgrade to Windows 7....meaning you'd have to, um, install another OS.

Ask them if installing Windows 7 would invalidate the warranty..and if not, why not?