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Woman awarded $10k after suing Microsoft for sneaky Windows 10 upgrade

That's great. I imagine this is going to start a string of similar lawsuits, or even a class action lawsuit. I want to be a lawyer right now.
 
Fanatical Meat said:
I didn't read the article. What are her claims for 10k in damages?
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She's bad at computer and the new OS confused her so much that she couldn't use it to run her business anymore. MS quickly settled because 10k is far less than lawyer fees. Not much of a story, really.
 
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Ruptga said:
She's bad at computer and the new OS confused her so much that she couldn't use it to run her business anymore. MS quickly settled because 10k is far less than lawyer fees. Not much of a story, really.
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He was lazy and didn't read it, and you spoon fed him what he wanted anyway... like a sucker. I hope you're happy. :colbert:
 
Fanatical Meat said:
I didn't read the article. What are her claims for 10k in damages?
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As reported by the Seattle Times, Teri Goldstein's computer began installing the operating system without her knowledge and it had an adverse effect on her computer. This was especially egregious because she used that computer to run her travel-agency. Goldstein claimed that the machine slowed down so much that it was out of order for days.
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valid complaint.
 
Ruptga said:
She's bad at computer and the new OS confused her so much that she couldn't use it to run her business anymore. MS quickly settled because 10k is far less than lawyer fees. Not much of a story, really.
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The story comes in if 10's of thousands of people start doing the same thing.
 
gorcorps said:
He was lazy and didn't read it, and you spoon fed him what he wanted anyway... like a sucker. I hope you're happy. :colbert:
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My displeasure with the posting of a crappy story trumped my desire to be condescending to someone deserving. What MS has done with 10 is not OK, but it's shitty on its own. Pulling a story about how some idiot couldn't figure out how to make anything work on a slightly different OS diminishes the badness of MS's tactics, because it's really the idiot's fault for being an idiot.
 
Ruptga said:
Pulling a story about how some idiot couldn't figure out how to make anything work on a slightly different OS diminishes the badness of MS's tactics, because it's really the idiot's fault for being an idiot.
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The only idiot here is the one that doesn't know what really happened but goes on preening anyways.

The automatic install of Windows 10 failed, leaving her with a unstable and often unresponsive computer used to run her travel agency from an office in Sausalito, California.
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I read this and seriously am considering litigation myself. After about 8 months of my wife avoiding updating her laptop to Windows 10, they changed their 'tactic' and she got hit on the red X fiasco.

Now, the system cannot keep a connection to the Wifi and requires a reboot every hour or so to get it working again. Searching has led to basically crappy windows 10 wifi drivers of which there is no real fix for.

Now, I either have to be unhappy listening to her complain, spend however many hours trying to fix it or buy her a new laptop. I "could" push it back to Windows 7 (if there is still time) but then it'd just go through the process all over again. She's not completely computer illiterate, but...you know. Far as I'm concerned they owe me money and time. If enough people hit their wallets, maybe they would finally learn a lesson.

They should lose their asses over this whole fiasco. They are lying scum and should be treated as such. Very tired of companies choosing the "just do it and apologize and/or claim ignorance later" path.

/rant
 
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madoka said:
The only idiot here is the one that doesn't know what really happened but goes on preening anyways.
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I read the article, it said
Goldstein claimed that the machine slowed down so much that it was out of order for days.
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Which is exactly how technological illiterates describe basically everything bad. Maybe she had software compatibility issues, maybe it really was a botched install and there were stability issues, but from the article in the OP it sounds like this is just another person that knows as much about technology as a trained monkey does. Case in point also from the OP's article...
...Goldstein, who claimed that prior to this incident she "had never heard of Windows 10."
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Also, "preening" is a stretch.
 
Hmm... Maybe I should turn automatic updates back on. :sneaky:

It's the first thing I do when I set up a machine. I'd have been PISSED if I came in and all of my machines were in the middle of upgrading to Windows 10. I need them for work!

Happened to my developer and it set him back a good few days. Whoever thought OS upgrades through the normal update process was a good idea needs to be fired.
 
^^^My old job had some auto-update service. Like every damn day, it'd chug installing new things because I shut down when I left the office. Or the anti-virus would run.

Damn... I disabled my auto-update so can't sue.
 
Ruptga said:
I read the article, it said Which is exactly how technological illiterates describe basically everything bad. Maybe she had software compatibility issues, maybe it really was a botched install and there were stability issues, but from the article in the OP it sounds like this is just another person that knows as much about technology as a trained monkey does. Case in point also from the OP's article...
Also, "preening" is a stretch.
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How about this quote from the late and disgraced Vice President Spiro Agnew...

A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.
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Regarding the technical difficulties, you say maybe this or maybe that was her problem. But the court heard the facts of the case and made a decision. Then Microsoft decided not to appeal.

Microsoft makes a bundle of money training business users to use Windows 10, as do hundreds if not thousands of other training companies. I'm not referring to Windows 10 certification, but basic usage of the product. Microsoft would be a shell of the company it is, if all users were required to be experts, as you claim to be.
 
My sibling runs a one man business, and did not want to interrupt his work to upgrade from W7 to W10. He was talking on the phone with a client and had an 'oh shoot' moment, when the upgrade started occurring. His first problem he discovered was that the laser printer no longer responded. So he wasted his billable time trying to fix the problem which he concluded had to do with the print driver not being compatible.

I sent him a copy of the original Seattle Times article. I'm 99% positive that he'll tell me that he doesn't have the time to waste suing Microsoft. He was a bit PO'd at me for not informing him that Microsoft was forcing users to upgrade, after I told him that I read about this.
 
Eli said:
Whoever thought OS upgrades through the normal update process was a good idea needs to be fired.
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That is the industry standard:

-OS X (soon Mac OS) updates through its app store. And it bugs the crap out of you to take that upgrade until you do it . Many OS X apps require newer versions of the OS, unlike many Windows app that work back until XP, so it's harder to refuse an update.

-All iOS updates, minor or big, are done the same way. The phone bugs the crap out of you to do it, many people have to delete apps/games to get it done because the phones have less storage space than modern PCs do, and many iOS apps refuse to install unless you are on the newest version.

-Android puts a update notification in your way that you can't dismiss, and sometimes will even sneak upgrade your device if you leave it plugged in all night. Yet people don't really complain about forced updates in Androidland, they complain they don't get updates fast enough.


Given all this Windows isn't special in methods of update delivery. Microsoft just has to deal with the fact that every curmudgeon left in the industry stayed tied to their platform and didn't move onto these other platforms that are more aggressive about updates.
 
Doesn't say whether she tried to hire a professional (as anyone running a business would do) to fix her issue - is that why it lasted days as opposed to... forever?
 
red X fiasco

So thats how they got me, I was holding off on the upgrade on my laptop for the past few months then one morning" upgrade complete. I thought I made a mistake and clicked yes somewhere..

This is pretty sneaky and similar to how Malware, Virus people trick you into clicking a link.

How did they get away with this.
 
poofyhairguy said:
-OS X (soon Mac OS) updates through its app store. And it bugs the crap out of you to take that upgrade until you do it . Many OS X apps require newer versions of the OS, unlike many Windows app that work back until XP, so it's harder to refuse an update.
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Still much better than happening automatically or tricking you into upgrading.

poofyhairguy said:
-All iOS updates, minor or big, are done the same way. The phone bugs the crap out of you to do it, many people have to delete apps/games to get it done because the phones have less storage space than modern PCs do, and many iOS apps refuse to install unless you are on the newest version.

-Android puts a update notification in your way that you can't dismiss, and sometimes will even sneak upgrade your device if you leave it plugged in all night. Yet people don't really complain about forced updates in Androidland, they complain they don't get updates fast enough.
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Most people just don't view their phones and tablets in the same way they view PCs. They're not as dependent on third party apps. So long as the main stuff they use the device for - phone, text, browser, maps, etc it's not a huge problem, and because the apps themselves are mostly installed through the same store they're better equipped to deal with auto-updating themselves to fix compatibility issues.

Meanwhile a lot of people are using Windows machines with critical third party software that they need to do their jobs and when it's all disrupted by a big update process that breaks this software it's a huge deal. It's not like people ever really had a realistic option to "move on" from some Windows machine where they do actual work with licensed software to a phone.
 
Microsoft has previously defended its practices by stating that upgrading to Windows 10 is optional, and users have 31 days to uninstall it and go back to their previous operating system. Ostensibly this option was not clear to Goldstein.
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The reversion process still does not leave the system exactly as it was. The bottom line is if people have a working system, don't break it. I'm glad somebody took steps to knock MS for their tactics.
 
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