Diff for "Activities/WindowsTaxRefund"

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<<TableOfContents>>
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Please feel free to add your own experience! Please feel free to add your own experience or links to information about attempts by others!
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= IBM/Lenovo Refund in Germany =  General information
 * [[http://www.linux.com/articles/59381|Article about refund strategy]]
 * Refund cases are also collected at http://www.racketware.info/index
 * To prevent trouble with refund there are some tipps how to buy hardware without Microsoft Tax on [[Hardware_vendors|the hardware vendor's page]].
  * Fabian Thommen ordered a Dell without XP from the very beginning (no refund necessary). His report can be found [[http://rca.snm-hgkz.ch/blog/windows-refunds/|here]]
 * Serge Wroclawski gives a [[http://community.linux.com/community/07/01/03/227237.shtml?tid=12|counterpoint for any excuses]] the vendor might have
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Michael Voigt reports a successful refund in Germany.
The refund is 30€ and this forum entry describes [[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/S-So-gehts-bei-lenovo/forum-124511/msg-13584630/read/ | how to handle the IBM/Lenovo refund]] procedure (german only).		  Information for specific countries
Please provide date, kind of Microsoft License, company you bought it, ...
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= France =
 * Racketiciel.info doing work on the refund in France: The [[http://www.aful.org/|AFUL]] (Association francophone des utilisateurs de Linux) put into action a [[http://www.racketiciel.info/|working group on the refund issue]]. See also a [[http://racketiciel.info/guide/index|detailed refund procedure guide]], a [[http://www.racketiciel.info/situation/nos-demandes/|summary of requests]] and a [[http://racketware.info/|list of similar actions worldwide]]. There's also some info about [[http://jlerhun.free.fr/detaxe/index.html|refund in France concerning laptops purchased through Lidl]].
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= Fabian Thommen ordered a Dell without XP from the very beginning (no refund necessary) = = UK =
 * [[http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/110706-dell-windows.html|Dave Mitchell (UK) gets refund from Dell UK]]
 * 2008-05-28: [[http://www.osor.eu/news/uk-educational-it-agency-microsoft-tax/ | Educational IT agency: 'Microsoft tax' unacceptable]]
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http://rca.snm-hgkz.ch/blog/windows-refunds/ = United States =
 * [[http://linuxjournal.com/article/7040|Strategy for getting a refund in the US]] (by Steve Qualline, Linuxjournal, 2003)
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= Dell_DE = = Belgium =
 * Refunding Windows-Tax in Belgium: [[Windows-Tax_Refund/Belgium|Experiences of people seeking their Windows-Tax-Refund in Belgium]]
 * [[http://wiki.open-minds.org/vente_liee:historique_remboursement_bundle_logiciel_portege_r500|Belgian attempt to get reimbursed for a Toshiba]]
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Marcus Dapp (CH) [[http://www.thealternative.ch/tiki-index.php?page=Software-Refund-en | got refund from Dell Germany]]. = CZ =
 * [[http://osor.eu/news/cz-lenovo-fails-to-silence-gnu-linux-user-on-windows-refund|Lenovo fails to silence GNU/Linux user on Windows refund]]
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= Detaxe.org doing work on the refund in France = = Germany =
We are currently gathering information. Please add information here or write an e-mail to germany@fsfeurope.org .
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(Michael Kallas, Tuesday 13 March 2007) == Lenovo ==
 * 2007-?: Michael Voigt reports a successful refund in Germany. The refund is 30€ and this forum entry describes [[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/S-So-gehts-bei-lenovo/forum-124511/msg-13584630/read/|how to handle the IBM/Lenovo refund]] procedure (german only).
 * 2008-08-17: Matthias Kirschner got 30 EUR with the same form as discribed in Michael Voigt's refund for a Microsoft Vista License
 * 2008-09-18: Björn Schießle failed with a Microsoft Vista refund and get the same response from Lenovo as Hanno Böck
 * 2008-10-?: [[http://hboeck.de/archives/658-Lenovo,-Linux-and-Windows-refunding.html|Hanno Böck failed with a Microsoft Vista refund]] with the same form as Michael, Björn, and Matthias.
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The [[http://www.aful.org/ | AFUL]] (Association francophone des utilisateurs de Linux) put into action a [[http://www.detaxe.org/ | working group on the refund issue]]. See also [[http://www.detaxe.org/spip.php?rubrique34 | specific experiences with refund]] and a [[http://forum.framasoft.org/viewtopic.php?t=20785 | detailed refund procedure]].
There's also some info about [[http://jlerhun.free.fr/detaxe/index.html | refund in France concerning laptops purchased through Lidl]].		 == Dell ==
 * Marcus Dapp (CH) [[http://www.thealternative.ch/tiki-index.php?page=Software-Refund-en|got refund from Dell Germany]].(Link not working, contacted Markus Dapp -- [[mk]] <<DateTime(2008-10-25T11:40:20Z)>>)
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= Serge Wroclawski gives a counterpoint for any excuses the vendor might have =
http://community.linux.com/community/07/01/03/227237.shtml?tid=12		 = Italy =
 * Rimborso del Sistema Operativo Microsoft Windows preinstallato. [[http://www.aduc.it/dyn/rimborsowindows/|(le iniziative giudiziarie dell'ADUC)]]
 * Rimborso per Windows: funziona anche in Italia [[http://www.attivissimo.net/rimborso_windows/istruzioni.htm|(a cura di Paolo Attivissimo)]]
 * [[http://www.linuxsi.com/|LinuxSi]]
 * [[http://paolodelbene.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html|paolo del bene's blog entry]] about refund. (Has to be reviewed.)
 * [[http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/10/29/hp_windows_xp_preinstalled_software/|Italian court rules against HP on pre-installed Windows]], [[http://www.aduc.it/dyn/documenti/allegati/sentenza_hp.pdf|court ruling in italian]] (pdf)
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= Dave Mitchell (UK) gets refund from Dell UK =
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/110706-dell-windows.html		 = Spain =
 * http://devolucion.org (please add description, summary)
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= Strategy for getting a refund in the US (by Steve Qualline, Linuxjournal, 2003) =
http://linuxjournal.com/article/7040		 = Portugal =
 * http://nao.quero.imposto.ms (please add decription, summary)
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= Refunding Windows-Tax in Belgium =
[[Windows-Tax_Refund/Belgium | Experiences of people seeking their Windows-Tax-Refund in Belgium]]		 = Switzerland =
 * The wiki's refund project from swisslinux.org (French) [[http://wiki.swisslinux.org/fr/association/projets/detaxe|wiki.swisslinux.org/fr/association/projets/detaxe]]
 * 20090318: [[http://ernstfamily.ch/jonathan/2009/03/hp-refunds-520-of-software/ | HP refunds 520$ for unused software]] (short article on [[http://www.linux-community.de/Internal/User-Blogs/Aus-dem-Leben-eines-Hardware-Redakteurs/600-Franken-fuer-nicht-benoetigtes-Windows| linux-community.de ]] about it in German)
= Else =
 * [[http://pacoriviere.googlepages.com/TornarElUindous.html|Site gathering interesting info]] (in catalan)
 * [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/04/dell_windows_eula_israel/|Israeli Linux fan squeezes Windows refund out of Dell]] ([[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3632861,00.html|more detailed original source from ynetnews.com]])

Contents

  1. France
  2. UK
  3. United States
  4. Belgium
  5. CZ
  6. Germany
    1. Lenovo
    2. Dell
  7. Italy
  8. Spain
  9. Portugal
  10. Switzerland
  11. Else

A knowledge and experience repository on how to reclaim your "Windows Tax"

The "Windows Tax" has artificially increased hardware prices for users of GNU/Linux by a mandatory payment to Microsoft even though no Microsoft software is being used on these machines. The reason: Almost any computer and laptop is bundled with a Microsoft Windows licence. Most vendors will not sell computers without it because apparently their terms with Microsoft do not allow it.

The only way to counteract that "Windows Tax" on PCs and laptops is to ask for a refund, but details on this process are not easy to find, and there is no central repository to allow people gather and share their information with the process.

Changing that is the purpose of this section in our Fellowship page.

Please feel free to add your own experience or links to information about attempts by others!

Please provide date, kind of Microsoft License, company you bought it, ...

France

UK

United States

Belgium

CZ

Germany

We are currently gathering information. Please add information here or write an e-mail to germany@fsfeurope.org .

Lenovo

  • 2007-?: Michael Voigt reports a successful refund in Germany. The refund is 30€ and this forum entry describes how to handle the IBM/Lenovo refund procedure (german only).

  • 2008-08-17: Matthias Kirschner got 30 EUR with the same form as discribed in Michael Voigt's refund for a Microsoft Vista License
  • 2008-09-18: Björn Schießle failed with a Microsoft Vista refund and get the same response from Lenovo as Hanno Böck

  • 2008-10-?: Hanno Böck failed with a Microsoft Vista refund with the same form as Michael, Björn, and Matthias.

Dell

Italy

Spain

Portugal

Switzerland

Else

Activities/WindowsTaxRefund (last edited 2021-09-09 18:50:34 by bittner)