Microsoft Anytime Upgrade Rip-Off

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Kevin Young

I'm quite happy with Windows Vista and have it on 4 machines. I recently
bought a new HP mini note and was going to upgrade from the OEM Vista
Business that came on the machine to Vista Ultimate, that is until I checked
out the Canadian pricing for an Anytime upgrade. Microsoft wants us to pay
$179 to move from business to ultimate which seems like a ridiculous amount.
In checking out alternatives I noted that I can buy OEM Ultimate here for
$209 or OEM Business for $165, so one would expect to pay some where around
$45 more to upgrade not 4 times that amount. Even at retail pricing the
price for full Vista Ultimate with SP 1 here is $329 and Vista Business with
SP 1 is $299 a difference of $30, so how does Microsoft get off on charging
$179 to upgrade from Business to Ultimate. I could see a small up charge
say charging $60 but $179? This pricing is a total rip off! Needless to
say this install will not be getting upgraded.
 
I'm quite happy with Windows Vista and have it on 4 machines. I recently
bought a new HP mini note and was going to upgrade from the OEM Vista
Business that came on the machine to Vista Ultimate, that is until I checked
out the Canadian pricing for an Anytime upgrade. Microsoft wants us to pay
$179 to move from business to ultimate which seems like a ridiculous amount.
In checking out alternatives I noted that I can buy OEM Ultimate here for
$209 or OEM Business for $165, so one would expect to pay some where around
$45 more to upgrade not 4 times that amount. Even at retail pricing the
price for full Vista Ultimate with SP 1 here is $329 and Vista Business with
SP 1 is $299 a difference of $30, so how does Microsoft get off on charging
$179 to upgrade from Business to Ultimate. I could see a small up charge
say charging $60 but $179? This pricing is a total rip off! Needless to
say this install will not be getting upgraded.
Click to expand...


I understand your frustration, but I suggest that you complain to
Microsoft about it, not us. None of us here can do anything about
Microsoft's pricing, and all you are doing is cluttering up a
newsgroup which exists for the purpose of helping people with Vista
technical problems.
 
Ken Blake said:
I understand your frustration, but I suggest that you complain to
Microsoft about it, not us. None of us here can do anything about
Microsoft's pricing, and all you are doing is cluttering up a
newsgroup which exists for the purpose of helping people with Vista
technical problems.
Click to expand...

I may in your view be cluttering up a newsgroup with my message but at least
it might alert others to the scam that Vista Anytime Upgrades appear to be.
This is the Vista.General newsgroup not the Vista.General.TechnicalProblems
newsgroup so I would suggest my message is on topic since it refers to a
general issue about Vista. Don't worry, my concerns will certainly be voice
directly to Microsoft but don't kid yourself that MS doesn't monitor
messages in these groups. They may not respond but they do read them.
 
Yet you weren't scammed, as you didn't do the upgrade.
You need to look up the word "scam".
Some may find value in doing the upgrade from the convenience of their PC.
 
You can't do the upgrade from the convenience of your PC since SP 1 was
released you can only order it. They ship you the media now when you do an
Anytime Upgrade so the convenience is? Perhaps taking 4 times the amount
that they should be from you? As for the term "scam" I concede they are not
doing anything fraudulent but is this pricing what others would consider the
way you would fairly charge the very customers that are supporting you and
your products? Charge them 400% more than the difference between OEM or
Retail pricing of the two versions.
 
You can't do the upgrade from the convenience of your PC since SP 1 was
released you can only order it.  They ship you the media now when you doan
Anytime Upgrade so the convenience is?  Perhaps taking 4 times the amount
that they should be from you?  As for the term "scam" I concede they arenot
doing anything fraudulent but is this pricing what others would consider the
way you would fairly charge the very customers that are supporting you and
your products?  Charge them 400% more than the difference between OEM or
Retail pricing of the two versions.






- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

It might not be a rip off . Your Vista business is a OEM version and
to upgrade to the Ultimate is it a retail or OEM ? If its OEM ? Then
it's a rip off but if it's a retail ? Then that a good price . Brand
name computers are so cheap regardless what OS they have on it . They
get those OEM OS so cheap and that why the price to upgrade is like
that .
 
Yet you weren't scammed, as you didn't do the upgrade.
You need to look up the word "scam".
Click to expand...

You need to look up the word jackass. Alternatively just go to Goggle
and read back some of the crap you recently wrote. THAT is being a
jackass.
 
It might not be a rip off . Your Vista business is a OEM version and
to upgrade to the Ultimate is it a retail or OEM ? If its OEM ? Then
it's a rip off but if it's a retail ? Then that a good price . Brand
name computers are so cheap regardless what OS they have on it . They
get those OEM OS so cheap and that why the price to upgrade is like
that .
Click to expand...

Unlike OEM you can transfer the Anytime Upgrade (Business to Ultimate) to
another PC but in order to do so you need to have a Vista Business license
on the other machine. You are essentially giving up a license to Business
when you do an Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate. What essentially MS is doing
is charging you a price as though you never bought a machine with Vista in
the first place. For example the Anytime Upgrade where you give up your
license to Business costs $179. An upgrade to Ultimate from XP or an
earlier version of Windows only costs $199. So under this scenario they are
giving you $20 for your license to Vista Business. The full OEM version of
Ultimate is $209 here so in effect under that scenario they are giving you
$30 for your OEM version of Vista Business. Yet go to buy Vista Business
OEM through computer shops and it is $165. If it is worth $165 when I go to
buy it why is it only worth $20 to $30 when I go to upgrade it. On the
other hand maybe what they are saying is that is all it is worth, scary
thought! I actually bought a Vista Business to Ultimate upgrade in the
past when it was priced right around $100 but now it is just about double
that and at the same time the retail prices of Vista have been dropping. I
would like to be able to give MS the benefit of the doubt but in this case I
think they are way over charging the very customers that support them. With
all the bad press that Vista has received surely you'd think they would want
to keep their supporters happy not over charge them and even turn them off
the company.
 
Colin Barnhorst said:
Unfortunately, this is not Microsoft. This is only a user-to-user
self-help group. You need to share your thoughts with Microsoft on
microsoft.com. You might give feedback here:
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/outreach/ideas/ideaSubmit.mspx
Click to expand...
Colin,
I shared my feedback with MS already and what I received back was an email
from a customer service rep in India suggesting I call some number for full
pricing information on Anytime Upgrades. In other words the polite but
regular run around. This is an NNTP news group and my feed is coming from
the Microsoft hosted servers at msnews.microsoft.com. Since I've seen
reply's similar to yours made by other MVP's to other folks that happen to
have a beef with Microsoft, perhaps you could tell us how MVP's are
selected? Could it perhaps be from someone within Microsoft actually
reviewing the postings in these groups and identifying active folks such as
yourself assisting others? If that is the case wouldn't you conclude that
Microsoft does in fact monitor the postings to these groups? If you've been
watching this group have you also noted messages being removed from this
group recently, in fact the ones from Ringmaster and Frank in this very
thread were both subsequently removed. Doesn't that again seem to indicate
that someone in Microsoft must be actually reviewing the postings here?
You might also want to search the group for messages from anyone with [MSFT]
in their name and you would see Zachd {MSFT] posting to this very group the
past two days.

I'm not trying to be rude but it seems like whenever anyone has a beef, some
MVP's seem to jump in and attempt to stop all further discussion of the
issue. If you do not want to hear complaints don't read them but this is a
general group about Vista so questions, complaints, positive and negative
feedback should all be expected. Since trying to actually get through to
someone within Microsoft who will actually listen is next to impossible for
the average Joe this type of very public forum is one way to try to make
Microsoft take note. If Microsoft gets enough heat from folks in a very
public forum they might actually do something positive to resolve a concern.
 
Kevin said:
Colin Barnhorst said:
Unfortunately, this is not Microsoft. This is only a user-to-user
self-help group. You need to share your thoughts with Microsoft on
microsoft.com. You might give feedback here:
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/outreach/ideas/ideaSubmit.mspx
Click to expand...
Colin,
I shared my feedback with MS already and what I received back was an email
from a customer service rep in India suggesting I call some number for full
pricing information on Anytime Upgrades. In other words the polite but
regular run around. This is an NNTP news group and my feed is coming from
the Microsoft hosted servers at msnews.microsoft.com. Since I've seen
reply's similar to yours made by other MVP's to other folks that happen to
have a beef with Microsoft, perhaps you could tell us how MVP's are
selected? Could it perhaps be from someone within Microsoft actually
reviewing the postings in these groups and identifying active folks such as
yourself assisting others? If that is the case wouldn't you conclude that
Microsoft does in fact monitor the postings to these groups? If you've
been
watching this group have you also noted messages being removed from this
group recently, in fact the ones from Ringmaster and Frank in this very
thread were both subsequently removed. Doesn't that again seem to indicate
that someone in Microsoft must be actually reviewing the postings here?
You might also want to search the group for messages from anyone with
[MSFT]
in their name and you would see Zachd {MSFT] posting to this very group the
past two days.

I'm not trying to be rude but it seems like whenever anyone has a beef,
some
MVP's seem to jump in and attempt to stop all further discussion of the
issue. If you do not want to hear complaints don't read them but this is a
general group about Vista so questions, complaints, positive and negative
feedback should all be expected. Since trying to actually get through to
someone within Microsoft who will actually listen is next to impossible for
the average Joe this type of very public forum is one way to try to make
Microsoft take note. If Microsoft gets enough heat from folks in a very
public forum they might actually do something positive to resolve a
concern.
Click to expand...

I view this forum thru aoie.org ... ringmaster(Albright) post are
deleted from there too.

A vengeful sheep is getting even with him. :)

I agree you should be able to gripe here...it a forum for general vista
discussion. It doesn't say technical help only.
 
Hobbes said:
I view this forum thru aoie.org ... ringmaster(Albright) post are
deleted from there too.

A vengeful sheep is getting even with him. :)

I agree you should be able to gripe here...it a forum for general vista
discussion. It doesn't say technical help only.
Click to expand...

I "scam" corrected Hobbes! ;-)

This will be my last post to this thread so if others want the last word
feel free to jump in. This little adventure in to Anytime Upgrade land
has made me realize that I can no longer do business with a company that
in my opinion is screwing it's own customers with it's pricing. I don't
expect that my departure will have any impact on a multi-billion dollar
corporation like MS but if enough people eventually come to the same
conclusion it may have some small impact. If not, that will be fine as
at least I will be doing what I believe is right.

I was going to upgrade to Ultimate on my latest machine and would have
also purchased a license for Office 2007. Instead what I did today was
removed the Office 2007 trial from the mini and installed OpenOffice. I
also transfered all of my email accounts off the MS WLHotmail servers
and now have them hosted on Google Apps. I'm switching back from
Outlook\WLM to Thunderbird and Firefox is now my default browser. MS
will not be seeing another dollar from me so Windows 7 will not be in
the cards and eventually I will do a total migration to Linux. I've ran
Vista and Ubuntu in tandem for several months so I know what to expect
and I am not making this decision blindly. I hope that someone in MS
reads this and really thinks about how they are running the Company and
treating their customers. If not, so be it.

If others are happy with MS all the power to you but for me this has
been the last straw. My decision was not based on the quality of their
products like some but rather business practices that to me seem
unethical.
 
Kevin said:
I "scam" corrected Hobbes! ;-)

This will be my last post to this thread so if others want the last word
feel free to jump in. This little adventure in to Anytime Upgrade land
has made me realize that I can no longer do business with a company that
in my opinion is screwing it's own customers with it's pricing. I don't
expect that my departure will have any impact on a multi-billion dollar
corporation like MS but if enough people eventually come to the same
conclusion it may have some small impact. If not, that will be fine as
at least I will be doing what I believe is right.

I was going to upgrade to Ultimate on my latest machine and would have
also purchased a license for Office 2007. Instead what I did today was
removed the Office 2007 trial from the mini and installed OpenOffice. I
also transfered all of my email accounts off the MS WLHotmail servers
and now have them hosted on Google Apps. I'm switching back from
Outlook\WLM to Thunderbird and Firefox is now my default browser. MS
will not be seeing another dollar from me so Windows 7 will not be in
the cards and eventually I will do a total migration to Linux. I've ran
Vista and Ubuntu in tandem for several months so I know what to expect
and I am not making this decision blindly. I hope that someone in MS
reads this and really thinks about how they are running the Company and
treating their customers. If not, so be it.

If others are happy with MS all the power to you but for me this has
been the last straw. My decision was not based on the quality of their
products like some but rather business practices that to me seem unethical.
Click to expand...

If you're that broke then linux is for you!
 
Kevin Young said:
I "scam" corrected Hobbes! ;-)

This will be my last post to this thread so if others want the last word
feel free to jump in. This little adventure in to Anytime Upgrade land
has made me realize that I can no longer do business with a company that
in my opinion is screwing it's own customers with it's pricing. I don't
expect that my departure will have any impact on a multi-billion dollar
corporation like MS but if enough people eventually come to the same
conclusion it may have some small impact. If not, that will be fine as at
least I will be doing what I believe is right.

I was going to upgrade to Ultimate on my latest machine and would have
also purchased a license for Office 2007. Instead what I did today was
removed the Office 2007 trial from the mini and installed OpenOffice. I
also transfered all of my email accounts off the MS WLHotmail servers and
now have them hosted on Google Apps. I'm switching back from Outlook\WLM
to Thunderbird and Firefox is now my default browser. MS will not be
seeing another dollar from me so Windows 7 will not be in the cards and
eventually I will do a total migration to Linux. I've ran Vista and
Ubuntu in tandem for several months so I know what to expect and I am not
making this decision blindly. I hope that someone in MS reads this and
really thinks about how they are running the Company and treating their
customers. If not, so be it.

If others are happy with MS all the power to you but for me this has been
the last straw. My decision was not based on the quality of their
products like some but rather business practices that to me seem
unethical.
Click to expand...

if all you're doing is e-mail and a couple of notes to the wife linsux is
for you. If you want to do anything productive you will be back.
 
It's worth remembering that in terms of pricing as regards your OEM initial
license it is almost like you say " as though you never bought a machine
with Vista in the first place" the average larger OEMs pay something less
then $20 for the licenses of Vista as it is a bulk sail based business. So
it is not really relevant to even compare the prices to those of the OEM
products you see for sale these days - the cost to the PC manufacturer is
tiny. As an example the hinge on a Toshiba laptop/Tablet costs more than
certain OEMs pay for Windows licenses per device.
So your upgrade from OEM to Retail Ultimate via Anytime is actually still a
good buy.
 
Kevin Young said:
I "scam" corrected Hobbes! ;-)

This will be my last post to this thread so if others want the last word
feel free to jump in. This little adventure in to Anytime Upgrade land
has made me realize that I can no longer do business with a company that
in my opinion is screwing it's own customers with it's pricing. I don't
expect that my departure will have any impact on a multi-billion dollar
corporation like MS but if enough people eventually come to the same
conclusion it may have some small impact. If not, that will be fine as at
least I will be doing what I believe is right.

I was going to upgrade to Ultimate on my latest machine and would have
also purchased a license for Office 2007. Instead what I did today was
removed the Office 2007 trial from the mini and installed OpenOffice. I
also transfered all of my email accounts off the MS WLHotmail servers and
now have them hosted on Google Apps. I'm switching back from Outlook\WLM
to Thunderbird and Firefox is now my default browser. MS will not be
seeing another dollar from me so Windows 7 will not be in the cards and
eventually I will do a total migration to Linux. I've ran Vista and
Ubuntu in tandem for several months so I know what to expect and I am not
making this decision blindly. I hope that someone in MS reads this and
really thinks about how they are running the Company and treating their
customers. If not, so be it.

If others are happy with MS all the power to you but for me this has been
the last straw. My decision was not based on the quality of their
products like some but rather business practices that to me seem
unethical.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you are having so many problems with Microsoft, it would be
better for YOU in the short term to ditch Microsoft software and install
Ubuntu and their OpenSores Office. That is just about your speed. I'm sure
Microsoft won't be missing your money. There are always people who can't
get MS Office or Vista to work. they just don't have the brains for that.
 
Bill said:
Sounds like you are having so many problems with Microsoft, it would be
better for YOU in the short term to ditch Microsoft software and install
Ubuntu and their OpenSores Office. That is just about your speed. I'm sure
Microsoft won't be missing your money. There are always people who can't
get MS Office or Vista to work. they just don't have the brains for that.
Click to expand...

There you go again, posting about Ubuntu and Open Office. How long have
you had this hateful obsession?

Alias
 
There are always people who can't get MS Office or Vista to work.
they just don't have the brains for that.
Click to expand...

There is always an abundant supply of morons that blindly worship
Microsoft and are actually stupid enough to think their endless
ranting, whining and juvenile attacking of posters having problems or
pointing out problems is beneficial and appreciated.

You seem to be on a campaign to surpass Frank as the most stupid
poster here. Give it a little more effort, and you just might succeed!
 
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