Campaign urges laptop buyers to claim refunds for preinstalled Windows licences

A campaign called Refund4Freedom urges buyers of new laptops to demand a refund for the Windows licence that comes pre-installed on most machines. Its argument is simple: vendors do not remove the licence and charge the full price, even to users who intend to install a different operating system.

The site frames laptops and smartphones as general-purpose computers that should be neutral with regard to the software they run, and states that consumers should not have to pay for software they do not want.

Three demands

The campaign asks manufacturers and vendors to meet three conditions. First, they should not restrict users to a specific operating system or force them to pay for unwanted software. Second, pricing should be transparent: a buyer should be able to decline pre-installed software, including the operating system, and still purchase the device. Third, refunds should be hassle-free — the steps for requesting and obtaining one should be published clearly on the vendor's website and should not involve disproportionate procedures, such as sending an entire computer to a service centre just to remove software.

How the refund request is described

The site outlines a three-step procedure. Start the PC and photograph the contract clauses that mention reimbursement, or record a video scrolling through the whole contract; where possible, do not format the storage yet. Then contact the manufacturer's customer service by telephone, noting the date, time and the person spoken to, or preferably by chat or email so that the written correspondence is preserved. If the answer is negative, the campaign suggests sending its refund form to the manufacturer.

Documented outcomes

The site collects user reports, mostly from Italy, with refunds ranging from 40 to 129 euros. One company, IT for s.r.l. of Turin, took Acer Italia to a Justice of the Peace over how the licence fee was returned and received 50 euros plus 100 euros for legal costs. Other cases include 44 euros from Mediacom, 43 euros from Microsoft for a Surface device, 51 euros from Dell, 47 and 75 euros in two Lenovo cases, and 61 euros from HP covering a pre-installed Windows 10 Home and Office 365 Personal licence. One Lenovo dispute ended in the second instance with 42 euros for the licence, 1,000 euros in legal fees and an order to pay 20,000 euros for aggravating the litigation. In an MSI case the user received 40 euros, with shipping costs charged to the customer.

For readers who would rather avoid the procedure, the campaign points to the LinuxSi directory of shops selling licence-free PCs and, for smartphones, to the FSFE's Free Your Android guide.