Horrible Dillema

[lost-and-found]

Guys, I really need your help on this one.

A customer, a friend of my friend, brought her compaq laptop in for repairs. Basically an OS upgrade. She bought her own Windows XP Pro, and brought it to me. She also told me that her laptop was a piece of crap...and being a Compaq it is. Basically the cd-rom drive is malfunctioning cause the thing that holds the cd on the spindle is loose. Anyways, I formatted the drive, and began installing Windows XP. Well, the drive keept on doing evil things to me and the disk got stuck in the drive. In an attempt to get the disk out I managed to put a scratch in the surface of the disk . Now, I still have my windows xp disk, and am installing from that and consider it legal, since she still has her own cd-key. However, what do I do about the scratched disk??? What do I tell the customer? Should I pay for the damage ($79) ? Could I still make a copy of my Windows XP disk since she legally has her own disk...just in an unusable state???

[Blazer06]

Yup you can copy a disk, because she has a COA.

Somoen, correct me if im wrong...

edit: m$ might send you a new one, since you can pretty much prove its legal.


Blaze

[The Real Bingo]

Well, since you are doing repairs and upragdes for her now, I would just tell her what happened, and if she ever needed Windows to be re-installed, you can do it for her. But that leaves the $79 she paid for the disk...See if she wants the money back. Can't hurt.

[lost-and-found]

yeah, I need to clarify, she didn't buy the disk from me. She already brought in a bought disk...should I still give her $79 bucks damage payment?

[Blazer06]

I would see about getting another disk.

It is not illegal to get another disk. Its illegal to install it without another liscense.

However, if you cannot, for some reason, YES give her the $79 / a new copy of windows xp. but your going to just waste money...


Blaze

[OuTpaTienT]

How in the heck can you scratch a CD that badly as to make it inoperatable? That must be one hell of a scratch. I have CD that are physically broken, cracked from the center out to the edge, that still work. How did you manage to do this to a disk?

Why don't you give her your copy of XP and you keep the scratched one and attempt to fix it. Buff out the scratch.

[The Real Bingo]

It's not a waste of money to be a truthful person, Blaze. One wonders where your morals are at.

[RedFury]

No, you had a CDROM that she didn't pay to have replaced, used it and had an issue ( if I read that properly ).

Tell her that you can Make a legal copy of her disc so she has a working one. Have her keep the original with the CD KEY. She can contact microsoft for a replacement disc, and if there is a charge, refund her the amount for the replacement disc ( should be nominal ).

That's what I'd do. She's either going to go through the trouble herself, or just say the heck with it, she has a working copy anyway. Just make sure to label the replacement disc well enough for anyone else to recognize it for what it is.

[lost-and-found]

Out: the metal surface is scratched...the top of the disk...teh shiney thing.

I'll call MS and see if they'll let me have a replacement disk.

[Blazer06]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Real Bingo

It's not a waste of money to be a truthful person, Blaze. One wonders where your morals are at.

You are saying that purchasing another license, when you already have a perfectcally legal one is not a waste of money, when you can purchase just the media? He doesnt even have to copy the cd, just tell her a new one is in the mail. I have seen them (microsoft replacement cds... i.e. same thing as the regular but with no liscense) for about $15. Im sure m$ will send him one too, they do have a weird way of validating it, you have to read them somes numbers off it or something.

Im not saying give her an illegal version, everything is legal. Business wise thats the cheapest replacement.


Blaze