Get a free $400 from Microsoft if you live in California or Oregon..
theregister.co.uk
MS gives Californians $400 each to buy computers
Microsoft is giving Californians a $400 gift to help them buy computers, according to the estimable San Jose Mercury. Of course, this isn't happening by design - it's just a strange coincidence of MSN incentivisation and Californian consumer law.
It works like this. When shopping at Best Buy and a few other stores, you sign up for a three year MSN contract and get your $400 discount voucher. Elsewhere in the US (excepting Oregon) you have to give the $400 back if you cancel, but Californians, as we all know, are different. The $400 qualifies as "purchase credit," says the Mercury, which is covered by a California law which says you can't be forced to purchase anything in connection with taking out a loan.
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AP Online, Jan 7, 2000 05:26 hrs
Microsoft Cancels Rebate Offer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Microsoft Corp. has canceled a promotion that allowed hundreds of people to sign up for online access, spend their $400 rebate on merchandise and then cancel their Internet service.
``Unfortunately a few people are abusing a program designed to help people access the Internet,' company spokesman Tom Pilla said in today's Los Angeles Times, confirming that the Redmond, Wash.-based company had canceled the program in California effective today.
People lined up for as long as four hours Thursday at some Southern California stores to order Microsoft-provided Internet service and use their rebates to purchase merchandise. Many said they planned to cancel the service the next day.
``It doesn't feel immoral,' said Jenny Ives, a 20-year-old California Institute of Technology student who used her rebate to buy a breadmaker and a combination television and VCR.
Some people who discussed the rebate in Internet chat rooms said they were delighted to take advantage of a company run by the world's richest man.
``I pondered the moral implications,' wrote one. ``But perhaps it boils down to Bill Gates paying for my 27-inch Sony TV. And I don't mind letting Billy subsidize me.'
Microsoft offered the rebate all over the country with the condition in most states that people must return it if they cancel service early. But the company said loopholes in state laws prevented them from putting that provision into effect in California and Oregon. |
