First one of the day *sigh*

[Mr. Rude]

A lovely morning. Sunny, nice cup of fresh coffee in my hand, munching on my subway deli style sausage & egger when.....

The door chimes & in strolls in our first customer of the day...

Me: Our hero
SC: Slack jawed , mouthbreathing, f**ktard

SC: Heya. I need a cheap copy of windows 98.

Me: yippee...we have some right over here.

SC: Yeah...has to be SE.

Me: *Points at "Second Edition" on the manual*

SC: How much is it?

Me: *Moves finger over 2 cms to price tag...Munches yummy sandwich*

SC: Umm...I guess I'll take it.

*Scene moves over to till where the plot ( & SC's head ) thickens.

SC *As he looks at manual, key & burnt disk* I want the original disk!!

Me: That may be a challenge as it is probably about 8-9 years old now. Most likely a coaster on some kids desk.

SC: How do I know it's not being used? You need the disk to install it & stuff!!

Me: Highly unlikely that it is in use now. It's off a consignment machine that got trashed. The total is $**.**.

SC: But what about the disk !?!?

Me: What about it? as long as you have the key *points at key on manual* you're golden. Install awayyy!

SC: Umm...Well I want a boot disk!

Me: Say what? The disk provided is a bootable CD. All ya need is right there.

SC: I want a 98 boot disk!!

Me: Ohh...A floppy...Well you can make as many as you want. Go nuts

*rest of staff give meatpie a group WTF? look*

*SC procedes to stand in front of till & think....For about 5 minutes* ... At least it looked like he was trying to come up with some sort of retort.

SC: I don't want it.

Me: OK... *takes back product & ups price by $10* Have a nice day

....Sadly, he'll be back...& rather chagrined at the fact the price went up. I love being evil.



Edit: $50 bucks says he comes back...Gets the install disk & key, then pooches the install/gets virused all to hell. Any takers?

[DarthRetard]

I wouldn't touch that bet with a ten foot pole with shaquille O'neal on Yao Ming's shoudlers.

[South Texan]

This thread is a good example of why I do not mind hiring people who know what they are doing to work on my computer. You may as well have been discussing brain surgery in front of me for all I understood of the conversation.

Like the SC, I would be hesitant to purchase a bootleg copy of any version of Windows and would be wondering if it is even legal to sell bootleg copies of it. Is there some sort of licensing agreement you have with Microsoft to do that?

[NightAngel]

Like the SC, I would be hesitant to purchase a bootleg copy of any version of Windows and would be wondering if it is even legal to sell bootleg copies of it.

I doubt highly that it is legal to sell burned copies of Windows anything.

[lordlundar]

M$ doesn't like anyone selling it, but if you can find a copy of 98 in any version that hasn't already been used, my hats off to you, considering that they don't even support it anymore.

As for that bet, no chance. That one's screaming "sucker bet" so ludly, I'm going to go deaf.

[Ree]

I had a hard time voting in the poll, so I didn't.

I don't think you're a saint. Your username makes it pretty clear that you revel in and are proud of your rudeness. (No offense.)

I don't think you are a bastard. I have a very hard time with calling a fellow CS'er a bastard.

"Son-of-a-bitch"? Again...I would never call another member such a nasty name.

The final choice?
I just said you are proud of being rude, but I would certainly never vote for "Rude bastard assed SOB".
And...finally, I don't think I would want to work for you or with you.
I have a hunch our differing philosophies of customer service would clash.

[Mr. Rude]

In reference to the "bootleg" version of windows. They're not. It's just a used license that someone was selling. The install disc means nothing...nada, it's just the program If you don't have a key to register, you can't use it. And most of the time, people never have thier old install disc, just the sticker on the side of the machine. The only thing that M$ cares about is if you have a legit license/key/sticker.

And, I'm not really a rude person at all

This guy was just being a real idiot & nit-picking....First thing in the morning when I'm not Mr. Warmthandcompassion.

[powerboy]

Well yeah he was, but you certainly didn't have to treat him the way you did.

[B&NGoddess]

Well yeah he was, but you certainly didn't have to treat him the way you did.

we're not allowed to treat SCs like SCs? where's the fun in that?

[Spiffy McMoron]

we're not allowed to treat SCs like SCs? where's the fun in that?

What Powerboy is talking about is the fact that there is a two-way street for customer service-yes, that guy was an SC, but there was no real reason to be that rude to him. (Unless you purposefully embellished the language in the OP, and that wasn't what you actually said to the customer.) OK, so the guy doesn't know much about computers-a lot of people don't. There's a difference between being sucky and not knowing everything.

[RichS]

In reference to the "bootleg" version of windows. They're not. It's just a used license that someone was selling. The install disc means nothing...nada, it's just the program If you don't have a key to register, you can't use it. And most of the time, people never have thier old install disc, just the sticker on the side of the machine. The only thing that M$ cares about is if you have a legit license/key/sticker.

So, if the Product Key is from a sticker on the side of the computer, it's a Windows OEM licensed copy.

According to Microsoft, the license is supposed to stay with the system that the sticker's on. Once that system dies, the license goes with it.

Microsoft officials at their reseller events made it clear - selling the OEM license stickers of any version of Windows is illegal, and I'm sure selling burned copies of the OS with them definitely isn't good.

Just my .

[mrtauntaun]

selling the OEM license stickers of any version of Windows is illegal

This is quite true. When a store gets called on OEM infractions, there is hell (and a HUGE fine) to pay. However, many stores do sell OEM copies like retail copies, and most managers and store owners (in my experience) don't really comprehend the difference, and the consumer certainly doesn't. They see the CD as what they are getting, or at least a part of it, so I can understand his response.

That being said, this is Win 98, and it is no longer officially supported by Microsoft. I doubt they will pitch a fit over the license, OEM or not.

[lordlundar]

That being said, this is Win 98, and it is no longer officially supported by Microsoft.

fixed it for you.

[Crazyredhead]

I am currently using Win 98se and I have a bootable CD, and it is a rescue CD also. If I need to wipe my hard drive clean, it will do that and reinstall the basic OS on it. And yes, you need the key, which is on a preprinted sticker on my CPU, without it, I am screwed.

[RichS]

This is quite true. When a store gets called on OEM infractions, there is hell (and a HUGE fine) to pay. However, many stores do sell OEM copies like retail copies, and most managers and store owners (in my experience) don't really comprehend the difference, and the consumer certainly doesn't. They see the CD as what they are getting, or at least a part of it, so I can understand his response.

Selling an OEM copy of Windows is just fine - in fact, I bought an OEM copy of Windows 98SE for my main PC a while ago, because it was $100 cheaper. I'm kind of still using it now - I upgraded the machine it was running on with an Upgrade copy of XP Home.

Peeling off the OEM sticker from a non-functional system and reselling it with a burned copy of the OS, which is what I got from the original post, is where the problem lies.

That being said, this is Win 98, and it is not officially supported by Microsoft. I doubt they will pitch a fit over the license, OEM or not.

True - because it's not detectable. They can and do with XP and Product Activation. In fact, and it burns me up, Microsoft has said that if you replace the motherboard in a system that has a OEM copy of XP with a different one, that the computer is essentially a new system and the OEM license is no good.

Then there's Vista - I don't even want to go into that...