Vista System Buyers Still Looking for Windows 7 Upgrades
It is an ages old marketing technique when a new OS is soon to ship — offer free (or cheap) upgrades to the new OS when it launches to prevent buyers from waiting. There are not enough computer buying dollars going around as it is, and the free upgrade ploy keeps systems going out the door. We are heading into a month after the launch of Windows 7, and both HP and Dell customers are up in arms that their Windows 7 upgrades are not available yet.
Customers are frequenting forums run by both companies, detailing their horror stories of difficulty not only getting the upgrade, but in cases even getting an acknowledgment that one will be forthcoming. While it is not surprising to hear these tales of woe, you would think these companies, who have been doing this upgrade bit for years now, would have their ducks in a row. You’d think.
So did you purchase a system entitled to an OS upgrade? Did you get it yet, or at least hear when you might?
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Still waiting. Thank you Lenovo !
Confirmed by both HP and Fujitsu that I get an upgrade, order status indicates processing, not yet shipped. Still have to for my upgrade with Acer.
Bought HP DV6 in September. Have not received Win 7 yet.
Just got my upgrade kit yesterday from my Acer Aspire 1410. ….And I thought my wait was long!
You can count Toshiba in on the screw-up as well:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=431783
I am wondering if they all jobbed this out to the same firm. I know that Lenovo has outsourced this, and it has been quite a mess.
–Ken
I purchased an Acer Aspire Revo 3600 with Vista Home Premium on September 29 2009 and received my Windows 7 upgrade disks November 7th.
Best Buy purchase last Aug, still no word…
Quick update. I was reading on a Thinkpad forum that MS chose the vendor to handle all of the processing of the Win7 upgrades. I do not know if it is true, but the fact that customers from a large variety of manufacturers are having similar problems would support that statement.
–Ken
I have a happy story of the free upgrade from Sony, of all companies. I recently took advantage of the $500 off a Vaio P machine offered through SonyStyle. I knew a new version of the machine was coming, but aside from having Win7 on it, I couldn’t find evidence of any significant hardware changes. Even with the cost of a Win7 upgrade, it seemed like a sweet deal.
Come to find out when I got the Vaio that it was eligible for a free Win7 upgrade. Free. Sony. I know. I followed the instructions and ordered mine, no shipping cost at all. I got confirmation of the order in email (out of a Singapore company, must be Sony’s contractor for this sort of thing) and then about two weeks later, I got a shipping confirmation with valid tracking number.
Color me shocked and pleased.
Bought a Gateway computer at the end of June at BestBuy, one day after the eligibility start date. Received my free upgrade to Windows 7 today.
Are you serious?! I buy my computer earlier than you. I send my request earlier than you. Not only that, but you weren’t even in the qualifying dates to recieve it! And I still don’t have mine?
Fair.Real fair.
I asked Office Max for a copy of my receipt for the purchase of a 64 bit HP desktop. Not only am I still waiting for a free Windows 7 upgrade, I am also still waiting for a simple copy of my receipt. It has been 4 weeks! So glad I went for the upgradeable HP from Office Max. Not!
I was confirmed that I would recieve my windows 7 between Nov. 12 and Dec. 4 but I’m still waiting. Tried to contact various locations ie; windows , microsoft, arvato. but can’t get any reply. I’m begining to loose faith in microsoft
We got a new Dell at work in June and filled out the upgrade form back in August and haven’t heard anything since…
Send me a private message with your service tag and I can assist you with your Win7 Upgrade pirchase.
Allow me to shed a bit of knowledge I have acquired from the VISTA Upgrade program as well as the Windows 7 Upgrade program. I can attest that the same company that did HPs VISTA Upgrades is still doing them for Windows 7. Also, this company, ARVATO Digital, is also handling COMPAQ, ACER, LENOVO, E-Machines, Toshiba and Gateway that I know of. I feel SONY is not using them based on their upgrades websites appearance and system, but I have no documented proof one way or the other. As it looks to me, I think they are doing most all of the big companies and that supports the other posters comment that MS selected on firm to handle them all. Maybe SONY has the clout to say “We do it ourselves thank you!”.. I may exclude SONY as their Website and Interface looks totally different then the other sites run by ARVATO Digital.
Transaction approval and shipping times are very much varied. A friend of mine submitted his LENOVE Upgrade on 10-26 with the POP Uploaded at the same time. His Credit Card was charged less then 7 days later and he received his Upgrade on 11-8. That’s amazing. Yet I have a LENOVO Pending from 10-15, still waiting for POP approval (was sent at same time as I submitted request) and that is still waiting for approval.
There is just no rhyme or reason how these things are being handled. As you all stated, the public is pretty much up in arms over this. The Forums run by the Manufacturers, as well as independent forums, are flooded with discontent.
It really is a shame.
I ordered a Dell laptop a few weeks before the release date of Windows 7 and they had a promotion to have Win 7 pre-installed on the system if it shipped after Oct 22nd (which mine shipped on Oct 25th). However, my Dell machine arrived with Vista OS installed. Dell support simply told me that I needed to order the Win 7 upgrade (for free) and do the install myself, which is what I wanted to avoid. I did get the upgrade DVDs after about three weeks, and spent the last day and half doing the upgrade. The worst part, was finding all the drivers and apps for the internal devices in the laptop. The Dell support site had a few listed for my machine, but I had to hunt around for Vista drivers and apps on the Dell web site until I found everything I needed. A real pain.
Bought my HP 2009M from Best Buy in Sept and waited until the release of Win 7 to send in for my free upgrade (which was promised by Best Buy when I bought it loaded with Vista). Did the order and uploaded my receipt through the processor, Avarato. After waiting since 10/22 and checking the status on Avarato’s order checking website (status has shown “Accepted” the entire time), finally called them and was told “we can not ship the Windows 7 upgrade because the disk we have for HP doesn’t contain the needed drivers – we are waiting to receive the proper disk from HP with the drivers. They had no idea how long that would take. I contacted Best Buy – they offered to install the “free” Windows 7 upgrade at their location for $39.95. The Geek Squad person there explained to me this was a very good deal since the full price of the upgrade was $129.00. If possible, I plan on contacting HP to ask their take on this. I’ll update this post as soon as I get their response.
UPDATE FROM AVARATO as of 11/12:
This is in response to your email regarding the Windows 7 Upgrade Program and we’re more than willing to provide you the status of your order. We’ve experienced a high volume of responses which we did not anticipate, we appreciate your business and do wish to keep you as a customer. We apologize about the delay and hope you will continue to be patient with us as we are diligently servicing customers around the world.
We are happy to inform you that your order has been accepted and confirmed. Be aware majority order that were submitted earlier will be sent out by this month end.
Due to the overwhelming response to the Windows 7 Upgrade Program, we can assure you that your order will be shipped as soon as possible. You will be sent a confirmation email once the order has been shipped.
For more information and to review the status of your order, please visit our website at:
https://www.hpwindows7upgrade.arvato.com/north_america/Endcustomer/TrackYourOrder.aspx
For further assistance, feel free to give us a call at 1-877-280-2279 Monday through Friday from 10AM-10PM EST and Saturday 12PM-4:30PM EST and we will be more than happy to help you with your concern.
We appreciate your business and patience during this process.
Thank you,
NO MENTION OF THE “HP DRIVER” PROBLEM THEY STATED THEY ARE HAVING WITH THE DISKS THEY CURRENTLY HAVE.
I purchased my HP Desktop with free upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit from Costco on 11-09-2009 and immediately uploaded the POP from the side of the box and my register receipt. Arvato received and took 7 days to send me DENIAL due to POP not being legible and I needed to resubmit, so I have done that. But there WAS NOT a problem with the image being legible, just seems to be a delay tactic. Maybe Arvato NEEDS A NEW COMPUTER to view the images! I am playing along with this game, but the joke is on HP and their vendor Arvato, because I have a 90 day no questions asked returned policy at Costco. But Costco will be provided documentation to let them know of the upgrade screw up with HP and Arvato. I can order a new computer from Costco online with Windows 7 already installed and have it long before this matter is resolved. So why wait any longer?
I would strongly suggest…don’t take the crap from Arvato..fight back, especially if you charged your computer on a charge card. Call your bank and file a dispute based on the item being not as described. Your bank will file a CHARGE BACK with the vendor, whom you purchased your computer. I bet the computer store will get the attention of the computer manufacturer. If enough people do this…then upgrade offers will be handled in a timely manner and as described in the purchase offer.
I will never fall for another upgrade offer again…because of this crap. Good luck….maybe Santa will deliver your upgrade for Christmas. I really feel sorry for the person (with no prior knowledge of Windows 7 upgrade screw ups) who buys the HP desktop unopened box computer with Vista Home Premium, and expects to get a free Windows 7 upgrade anytime soon from HP and Arvato.
Over a month since I sent my proof of purchase, still waiting. Put in a question via their ‘contact us’ link, automated response says I will hear from them within 10 business days.
This is enough to ensure I will not buy another Lenovo.
Never.
Not a tablet, not a netbook, not a MID, not a Thinkpad, not an Ideapad. “Not nothin’, not nohow.”
What these geniuses fail to realize is that consumers have a loooong memory.
To this day, I refuse to buy anything Apple-branded because of their rude cancellation of the Newton project…..
I have an HP and am still waiting although I have been in the so-called “Accepted” status at Arvato for weeks.
Many of our HP tales of woe can be found on HP’s Support Forum that they don’t appear to monitor or participate in themselves. It would be a real service if they would drop a note in there from time to time at least trying to explain what has transpired.
I would invite anyone who would like to see the particular thread I have been involved with to drop on by:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=OS&message.id=24745#M24745
Ordered a hp dv6 from best buy 8/14 submitted pop on 8//15. Arvado accepted pop a week later. Window 7 upgrade shipped today(11/20) out of Hebron Kentucky. Wow, talk about fast service! I’ve been patiently waiting but this is ridiculous. That said I’m excited(hoping) to recieve my upgrade next week, over a month after the release. WOW!
UPDATE 11/25 – Arvarato updated my status to “In Process” which is supposed to mean “Preparing for Shipment (typically 3-5 business days)”. So far, over a month since the original order. What upsets me the most in all of this is no reaction nor help from Best Buy or HP. Did they forget Christmas season is coming up? Guess who won’t be spending their money at Best Buy or on an HP product this year? It’s amazing how dumb they think we are and that we just forget. I’ll also bet each company has monthly meetings where they give lip service to giving their customers the “Best In Service” and “Being Competitive In a Shrinking Economy”. I intend to do everything in my power to shrink their economy this year and next.
Still waiting for my upgrade from Arvato.
In the order status it says shipped, yet I have not received any email confirmation that it has been shipped. I do have a tracking number but it returns no results.
Still waiting…I ordered my Windows 7 upgrade kit which was offered with my new Notebook (Sony VAIO) from Best Buy Oct 29th, 2009. The sony site was kind enough to have a page you can check your status of the order. No surprize the thing is useless, current status is ‘Fulliment in process’ (what does that mean?)
After my first order for my HP Win7 upgrade sat in “shipped” status for over 2 weeks with a FAKE “tracking number” and a tracking link, I finally sent a complaint email to Arvato themselves. The very next day, I get a call from someone I’m assuming lives in the Philippeans (an Arvato rep) asking me if I’d received my Windows 7 Upgrade kit yet.. I replied “No”, of course. Then this dude verifies my shipping address and tells me that my kit will be shipped within 24 hours due to the inconvenience. About 2 hrs later I get an email from Arvato (Windows 7 upgrade program) with an NEW order number, tracking link etc, but it has, once again, been in the accepted status for a few days and no Win7 DVD is to be found.
Why on earth didn’t Microsoft/HP/Arvato just issue us a code to type into a website where we could obtain a product key and get a link to an ISO to make our own bloody OS DVDs? I guess that would have been too easy and wouldn’t have been a “make work” project!
NEW UPDATE 12/1 – Received this email from Avarato Digital today:
SHIPMENT CONFIRMATION
Dear Mark,
Thank you for your Windows® 7 Upgrade from HP order.
Your order was shipped via DHL and should arrive in approximately 5-7 business days. Please wait to Contact Us until 7 days after the order was shipped.
Order #: (number removed)
Order Date: 10/23/2009
I love the part that states “Please wait to contact us until 7 days after the order was shipped”; from everything I’ve read so far, what good does it do to contact them at all since most of the information they supply you is false anyway. At least I’m thankful to get an email from them but I’m still not impressed with this entire process and I trust HP will contract this out to someone else in the future.
I faxed and received confirmation with proof of my purchase and received confirmation. I am now told that you need another copy of my purchase. I have scanned it and I was told to come to http://www.hpwindows7upgrade.arvato.comnorth_america/endcustomer/ and then click onview trackorder which I have done and this is the screen which has come up. I don’t see any place on this site that ask for my order ID whichis 2220290157. I see no place on this site to view my order. I see no place where I can attach a message. Please help me. I am a senior citizen that does not know too much about computers and I need all the help I can get. evelyn olsen at aoreolsen@yahoo.com or aoreolsen1@netzero.net
Bought Toshiba from Costco in July 09. Did all the paperwork etc. Have heard not a word.
It’ll be two months Sunday. No update on the order. No response to the web form that they said they would respond to “within 10 business days.”
NO WAY TO CANCEL THE ORDER
That about does it. When I receive the DVD (expecting it sometime around October 22nd 2011 at this point), I will mail it directly to some bigwig at Lenovo, inviting them to figure out why I will be buying future machines from other vendors.
The “free” upgrade costs USD $30, and is so late that I will end up paying CDN $119 or so for the upgrade at a retail outlet.
It’s not about the dollars and cents, though, my biggest beef is about the total contempt toward the consumer.
As an individual consumer, I don’t have a lot of impact. What I can do, unlike these OEMs, is stick to my word and never touch another Lenovo again.
But I’m not bitter: just another chump, scammed by an Internet rip-off that happened to come with a fancy brand name.
Update on my status – the “track your order” shows my Win 7 update was shipped and I have a tracking number. I used the tracking number (they also supplied a direct link to check the progress) to check the shipping status and it actually worked. Last status was received in Hebron, KY (apparently originated in Louisville, KY) on 12/3. We’ll see how long it takes to get from Hebron KY to Baltimore. If I get it by week’s end, I’ll be slightly impressed. I do have to give Avarato credit for one thing, they did send me an email when it was shipped. Maybe after all the complaints and calls they’ve gotten they are trying to get better at this. Still upset that both HP and Best Buy take no responsibility for all of this and they are the ones who should be ultimately held responsible. Best Buy should have offered to do free “in-house” upgrades (they will currently charge you approx. $50.00) once they were made aware of the problem; they could have charged HP for the expense of having to do this just to appease their customers.
LAST UPDATE – Received my Win 7 upgrade today. Have to admit that once it appeared “shipped” on the Avarato “Track Your Order” site, I was pretty impressed that I was able to track it the whole way (by DHL and US Postal Service). Actually arrived within the 7 days promised from the ship date.
One funny note however – one of the labels affixed to the package contains the following statement – “Time Sensitive Material” – yeah, guess it does become time sensitive after taking over a month to process for shipment.
Best of Luck to the rest of you still waiting.
I bought an HP laptop from Costco back in July 09 & signed up for the upgrade kit right away. I received my upgrad kit on Nov. 13. Ran the first dvd did all the updates for the bios and restarted and then asked for the second win 7 disk. I put it in & after a few seconds it spit it out. & a window came up saying put the right media in. So I pushed it back in & it spit it out again. Then I looked at the disk & realized they send me the 32 bit version instead of the 64 bit like my serial number should have given them the idea it was 64 bit. Long story short I have been dealing with Arvato ever since then with over 12 phone calls just to have them lie to me that it is being reshipped out each time I called. First on Nov. 13, then got an email saying on the 20th it went to there escalation team. Well called on Dec. 2cd & was told it was shipped out on the 27 of Nov. Called again on Dec. 3rd & was told it was never processed. He reassured me it would get done through him. Called again today Dec.7th & was told again it was never processed. What the bleeping is going on with Arvato. Called Hp & was told they can not do anything to help me. Well boo on them cause my Desktop just crashed and I bought another one & it was sure was not an HP.
Wish they would get there crap together and get this problem totally solved.
Thanks
Richard
I bought my HP notebook PC October 3, 2009 from Best Buy. Completed everything online, registered etc. for my free Windows 7 upgrade….waited…waited…STILL WAITING…and today is MARCH 30th, 2010!!! I am so absolutely disgusted with companies who promise service & items and never come through! I spoke to an HP representative who now tells me, sorry, you can no longer receive that free upgrade, the program ended March (cant remember the exact date, my mind was exploding!! I have been attempting to receive this item since OCTOBER, they’ve never sent it, and now they say sorry, too late??!!??
I went BACK to Best Buy and they actually were able to print
me a duplicate receipt, however the person who did so could not tell me any other information other than call HP when I got home…who of course instructed me to call Arvato…who of course handled the whole thing like a politician and talked around the problem. Now that we moved in February who knows if they can handle the extra information? Obviously the “free Windows 7″ was a false offer that only a few were lucky enough to receive so the company could claim it was real!
I wish just once I could call a company and talk to someone who actually knows what they are doing, not to mention I wish I could actually do business with a company who is honest, AND knows what they are doing! Why is it that there is no longer anyone who have the knowledge to do their job right, and no company who has the integrity to follow through on their offers.
This message is for T. Parker
Try contacting this lady at HP
She was a big help in getting my free upgrade after 4 months. It was shipped straight from HP overnight Federal Eexpress.
Her name is eClaire
Win7_Upgrade_Option_Program@hp.com
Send a copy of your receipt
& any other info you can provide to help her expidite
the order.
Take care & good luck
Richard
Curse you Lenovo!
bought 2 desktop fujitsu computers from argos,done all the
forms, sent upgrade coupon codes,back in january,sent emails
telephoned,fujitsu ,just told to wait,you will get your upgardes,end of march,fujitsu sent email,(sorry shop now closed)told that argos manement,due to the amount of complants
buy there customers are,(looking in to this)but ill still have to wait,or spend £200 for the upgrades.