Microsoft pays woman $10,000 over forced Windows 10 upgrade

[kameshss]

Microsoft pays woman $10,000 over forced Windows 10 upgrade

 

The Seattle Times reports that Teri Goldstein, of Sausalito, California, sued Microsoft after a failed Windows 10 upgrade left her system performing poorly, prone to crashing, and reportedly unusable for multiple days. Given the general issues associated with performing in-place upgrades, even successful ones, it’s not surprising that some users would run into problems. Goldstein reached out to Microsoft customer service to attempt to resolve her issues, but filed suit against the company once it failed to resolve her problems. Her $10,000 figure reflected estimated lost compensation as well as the cost of a new system.

 

One $10,000 judgment against Microsoft isn’t going to make a blip in the company’s financial earnings or its overall Windows 10 trajectory. But it neatly caps a year of self-inflicted damage regarding Windows 10 and Microsoft’s free upgrade. The repeated changes to Windows 10’s upgrade policy, mandatory telemetry collection, and decisions to kill off patch notes and make all updates mandatory (plus the issues with UWP and gaming) have collectively left a bad taste in many users’ mouths. None of these are fundamental reasons to stop using Windows 10, but they speak to the company’s profound trouble communicating what ought to be a winning strategy. The Windows 10 giveaway was a great concept, and the entire process could’ve been handled in a way that made people want to switch. Instead, Microsoft has been dragging people into upgrading in much the same way you might grab a cat and drag it off for a bath.

 

Quote

Microsoft said that it is not actually an admission of guilt. They’re saying that they decided to settle to avoid a lengthy legal process and note that they’re continuing to investigate the particulars of Goldstein’s unwanted upgrade.

 

 

 

Source: ExtremeTech

[Tech_Dreamer]

FINALLY !! JUSTICE FOR THIS POOR WOMAN!!

 

[PlayStation 2]

And this is what happens when you try forcing broken shit on the consumer.

[Delicieuxz]

I wonder if there will be many more lawsuits to come, and whether there will be class-action suit. This woman's story is far from unique, and the number of people with similar experiences is massive.

[SurvivorNVL]

There is a reason I have been hoping that Apple would end up selling OS-X or whatever it is now, to consumers, and validate all hardware, and watch software support come en masse.  Windows 10 is neat to look at, and god damn annoying to use, as well as all the damn errors and issues it has on the daily.  I can't imagine the torture early adopters had before it's widespread release.

[ChrisCross]

wtf? thats the exact amount of money somebody i know got for getting 3 broken bones in his face!

america is just ridiculous.

[Zodiark1593]

Across three systems (including one with wonky switchable graphics I never expected to actually work) I have not had any major issues with Win 10 myself except for broken DirectDraw emulation. Aside from that tidbit, it behaves as expected.

[Bouzoo]

Every day I'm more and more amazed for things you can sue in America.

[Sauron]

10k$ are nothing for microsoft, even 1M would have been worth very little to them. The benefits they get from having the widest userbase possible far outweigh this nuisance.

 

Personally I am not against forced security updates and major patches, but I just wish the process was a lot more seamless. Having the reboot the computer is irritating. especially if it nags you while you are using it, and it shouldn't be necessary if the OS weren't the intricate mess it came to be.

 

With that said stubbornly holding off from the upgrade without specific compatibility reasons is a bit like refusing vaccines. Windows 10 is objectively superior to 7 and 8.1, save perhaps some aesthetic aspects.

[y_unit265]

2 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

things you can sue in America.

Don't worry. It seems that the EU is preparing to sue google for unfair competition or something with their add programs as well as forcing all android phones to come with googles services.

[christianled59]

I don't see why she needed a "new system". A clean install would have fixed the fucking problem. $10,000 doesn't fix the problem. Yes, I understand the compensation and what not, and I feel bad for her if she had some very important work on her pc, but she certainly doesn't need a new PC. 

 

It wasn't stuck in a bootloop or anything. She could still access stuff, there was just glitches and errors. She should have backed up important stuff and did a clean install. Would have costed her maybe 3 hours of her time. Much less time than an entire lawsuit.

 

Software failure is not hardware failure.

[christianled59]

4 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

It can lead to it, though.

I really don't see that being the case here though. If it were a clockspeed error with a cpu or gpu that caused extreme throttling? (or lack of throttling) Sure. In this case, this woman probably had a laptop or a mundane desktop for work purposes.

[4960X]

I have disabled the windows update service so I don't have to deal with this.

[Trixanity]

34 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

I wonder if there will be many more lawsuits to come, and whether there will be class-action suit. This woman's story is far from unique, and the number of people with similar experiences is massive.

It's better to sue individually than go for class-action when you're after the gold. A class-action lawsuit would probably give you $20 whereas if you do like this woman, you get $10K.

[laminutederire]

9 minutes ago, christianled59 said:

Software failure is not hardware failure.

That woman is a broken hardware if she can't back up her file and perform a clean install... you basically have to put a USB drive and do a few steps.

[deviant88]

well i need mony so... "Windows 10 WAS FORCED ON ME  ill sue"

 

 

[suicidalfranco]

OK guys all together, lets call them! you ready?

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, deviant88 said:

well i need mony so... "Windows 10 WAS FORCED ON ME  ill sue"

But if you lose you have to pay for the procedings

[suicidalfranco]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

But if you lose you have to pay for the procedings

do off court settlements set a precedent too?

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

do off court settlements set a precedent too?

I'm not sure, I don't know much about law

[LAwLz]

Good

 

I hope Microsoft loses more lawsuits for it. They were using the exact same tactics as malware and I am glad to see they get punished for it.

If they want people to upgrade then how about they make a new OS that doesn't have a billion drawbacks?

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, Trixanity said:

It's better to sue individually than go for class-action when you're after the gold. A class-action lawsuit would probably give you $20 whereas if you do like this woman, you get $10K.

Only this woman gets 10k. Everybody to follow would get pushed back by Microsoft. 

 

The choice is actually you are part of a highly damaging mass lawsuit that teaches Microsoft a well  needed lesson AND 20 bucks or you get absolutely nothing after all lawyers refuse to take your case individually  vs a hostile MS. 

[Virgule]

... Ms. GOLDSTEIN ? .... suing over a FREE upgade ??

 

Seems right.

 

_{just kidding}

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

10k$ are nothing for microsoft, even 1M would have been worth very little to them. The benefits they get from having the widest userbase possible far outweigh this nuisance.

 

Personally I am not against forced security updates and major patches, but I just wish the process was a lot more seamless. Having the reboot the computer is irritating. especially if it nags you while you are using it, and it shouldn't be necessary if the OS weren't the intricate mess it came to be.

 

With that said stubbornly holding off from the upgrade without specific compatibility reasons is a bit like refusing vaccines. Windows 10 is objectively superior to 7 and 8.1, save perhaps some aesthetic aspects.

Damn it when gwx.exe tried upgrading me then got stuck it's a damn shame it didn't like brick it or something. Could've sued MS for a few thousand to a couple million.  

 

I think upgrading should be optional, but they could've done the upgrade process a little better. I just did the fresh install method to upgrade so far it's working well.

 

I was holding off upgrading because I didn't really like the telemetry and spying stuff. But I figured turning off what I can during set up and making local accounts helps. I had set up Win8.1 with MSAs but won't do that again since Win10 does even more behind the scenes stuff when you use your MSA to use a Win10 pc.

[ThinkWithPortals]

2 hours ago, kameshss said:

 

This happened to me when I was doing work on a family member's PC.

Where's my $10k, MS? A cheque will do fine.