The tech press has documented for months the continued pushy behaviour on the part of Microsoft to get people to upgrade PCs to Windows 10, including forced upgrades. Well, now the other shoe has dropped, and Microsoft may regret its decision.
The Seattle Times reports that Teri Goldstein of Sausalito, California, sued Microsoft after an unwanted Windows 10 upgrade left her system unusable for days and prone to crashing. Other times, her computer, which she needed to run her travel agency, slowed to a crawl.
“I had never heard of Windows 10,” Goldstein told the Times. “Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update.”
Goldstein turned to Microsoft customer service to resolve her issues, but Microsoft customer service proved unable to help her. So she filed suit against the company, asking for $10,000 (€9,030) in estimated lost compensation, as well as the cost of a new system — a reasonable request.
Goldstein won, and Microsoft appealed. But last month, Microsoft dropped the appeal and Goldstein collected the judgment from the company. A Microsoft spokesperson told the Times Microsoft halted its appeal to avoid the expense of further litigation.
Obviously Microsoft will not feel financial pain from this decision, but what kind of floodgates will this open? Wait until the rest of the tech press gets its hands on this and the whole world knows. Now, granted, Goldstein had a solid case. The computer used to run her business was rendered unusable. That is a significant qualifier. It was not just an unwanted upgrade that went smoothly on a home PC.
Still, how many more Teri Goldsteins are out there? We will probably find out soon enough.
Violation of trust
The whole Windows 10 upgrade has been something of a debacle from day one. This is evidenced by the reaction of one of its vocal supporters, Paul Thurrott.
“The violation of trust here is almost indescribable,” he wrote last month. “My God, Microsoft. Just stop.”
The pushy upgrades will stop in a month when Microsoft ends its free upgrades to Windows 10. Then Windows 10 Home will cost $119 (€107), while Windows 10 Pro will be $199 (€180), although the prices are the same for the downloadable and USB versions of the operating system.
IDG News Service
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