Microsoft Cancels Rebate Offer
LOS ANGELES, Jan 07, 2000 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Microsoft Corp.
abruptly suspended a $400 rebate for consumers in California and Oregon
buying Internet access contracts after company officials found
thousands were signing up, spending the rebate and canceling the
contracts the next day.
''This is just a shame, because this simply offered consumers an
inexpensive way to get wired to the Internet,'' said Microsoft
spokesman Tom Pilla at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters.
Pilla said the program was suspended in California and Oregon,
effective today, but he stressed it was a temporary measure. The
company is reviewing the program now in order to close the loophole and
continue its rebates.
On Thursday, people waited in line as long as four hours at some
Southern California stores to order Microsoft's Internet service for
three years and use the $400 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 at a Best Buy store
to buy a breadmaker and a combination television-videocassette recorder
in Pasadena.
Some who discussed the rebate in Internet chat rooms said they were
delighted to take advantage of a company run by the country's richest
man.
Microsoft offered the rebate nationwide. In most states, anyone who
canceled service in less than three years had to return the rebate, but
company officials said loopholes in state laws prevented them from
adopting that provision in California and Oregon.
Pilla would not comment on how many people took advantage of the offer,
how many people canceled or how much money Microsoft lost.
|
