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Roy Schestowitz notes:
Today I learned something somewhat shocking. A policy which I believed was some kind of controversial fringe policy from way back in the days of Vista is still in place, and it's in place right here in the UK. Currys/PC World is totally overzealous with its GNU/Linux-hostile policy, which is almost definitely dictated by non-technical management, maybe in collusion with Microsoft.
[...] an old desktop of mine died on me and I sought a replacement immediately (within the hour). [...] Currys pretty much devoured the competition [...and] has an outrageous policy regarding warranty.
As it turns out--and this was confirmed to us by multiple people (in multiple PC World stores) after arguing for more than half an hour--once you install GNU/Linux (even if it's dual boot with Windows) no damage to hardware would be covered by the warranty (keyboard, screen, and so on). One of the sellers, who follows the Linux Action Show, regretted this but also defended this policy because it's imposed from above.
No matter how ridiculous a policy it is, changes to [zeros] and ones on the hard-drive (to remove spyware), according to Currys, would void the warranty on what clearly is not connected to [the pre-installed] software. [...] we decided we just couldn't do business at PC World. The company is inherently GNU/Linux-hostile. Avoid Currys.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Saturday October 25 2014, @08:34AM
I'm pretty sure that that's illegal. If you mentioned at time of purchase that you intended to run Linux, then it's definitely illegal and you can return it as not suitable for the purpose for which sold (sale of goods act) if they later claim that doing so would void the warranty. Even without that, I believe that it's up to them to prove that any software changes affected the hardware. There's a strong argument that running an off-the-shelf general purpose OS on a general purpose computer is sufficiently within the realms of normal use that, unless they explicitly say at time of purchase that doing so would void the warranty, your statutory warranty still applies. Even if they do claim this, you'd probably need a court to decide.
Usually the simplest thing to do is talk to the manager, explain that he has two options:
I've get to encounter a store manager who thinks that option 2 is better for his long-term career prospects...
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Saturday October 25 2014, @08:52AM
Since the UK still is in the EU, the EU consumer protection rules apply. And according to EU rules you have a two-year legal warranty from the seller. Moreover, in the first year, the seller has to prove that you broke it, not the other way round. Good luck proving e.g. that installation of Linux caused the screen joint to break ...
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by greenfruitsalad on Saturday October 25 2014, @04:13PM
unfortunately, you're wrong. UK is (probably) the only EU country that does NOT have a 2 year warranty on all non perishable goods. I've been repeatedly bitten by this in the UK. then again, by law, goods must be fit for purpose. if a computer breaks 1 day after warranty expires, it wasn't fit for purpose and you can still return it (often with a nudge from 'small claims court')
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mojo chan on Sunday October 26 2014, @09:04AM
Even under the UK Sale of Goods Act this would never stand up. It's a general purpose computing device, and clearly if installing a non-Windows operating system breaks it somehow then it wasn't fit for purpose to begin with. No Small Claims Court judge would ever allow the installation of software to void the warranty on the hardware.
It's obviously just PC World trying to wriggle out of the warranty. I used to do computer repairs years ago, during the great Nvidia chipset failure plague. They would always try to get out of honouring the warranty since about 80% of the laptops they sold during that period were failing inside 18 months, but the moment you started quoting the Sale of Goods Act and mentioning Small Claims Court they would fold. Their entire strategy is based on hoping you are ignorant of the law and your available remedies.
Also, if you paid for the laptop on credit card (or even paid 1p on card and the rest in cash) you get Section 75 protection, meaning that the bank is equally liable as the vendor for warranty issues. It could be worth contacting the bank and getting them involved. If you have a Visa credit card you can also do a chargeback for the full amount. The rule on chargebacks is you have to do one within 120 days of discovering the problem on Visa, but if it is Mastercard it is 120 days from purchase.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Saturday October 25 2014, @09:13AM
3 more words: Small Claims Court.
Agree, this is so obviously against the sale of goods act that they haven't got a leg to stand on. The computer willingly ran every single opcode that was fed it. It installed linux, you only provided it the medium from which it read the bytes.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by Whoever on Saturday October 25 2014, @04:37PM
Don't forget Trading Standards.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 25 2014, @05:54PM
Did AI get invented while I was asleep? Computers aren't sentient and don't have a will. They're basically slaves without the capability to say no. The computer didn't "willingly" do anything, the user forced it to. Thus, it is on the user if they run incompatible code.