While Microsoft might be
revved up about getting people onto Windows 10 as fast as possible, if you call
your PC maker's tech support line, you might be advised to roll back to older
versions.
While Microsoft might be
revved up about getting people onto Windows 10 as fast as possible, if you call
your PC maker's tech support line, you might be advised to roll back to older
versions.
As part of its annual tech support
showdown, Laptop has uncovered that tech support agents
for Dell and HP are actively discouraging customers from upgrading to Windows
10, even going as far as recommending that customers roll back their PCs to
older versions in order to solve even simple issues.
When
quizzed as to why customers were being given this advice, the companies stated
that while they were committed to Windows 10 - what choice do they really have
other than to say that? - the job of tech support is to get people's PCs up and
running again, even if that means rolling the system back to an older version
of Windows.
And that's
exactly as it should be.
PC OEMs
already operate on razor-thin margins, and asking them to take on the job of
supporting upgrades is unreasonable, unless the PC was sold with that upgrade
in mind, as some were in the run up to the launch of Windows 10. The support
calls are an additional cost that the OEMs haven't accounted for.
And
remember, PC OEMs get nothing from the fact that you've upgraded operating
systems. Sure, they might be able to upsell you something, but the bulk of
their money comes from selling new PCs, not by extending the useful life of
your existing one.
As
Microsoft moves to a "Windows-as-a-Service" model, the support model
for PCs we buy will surely have to change, but there's no such thing as a free
lunch and someone is going to have to pick up the tab. Either the consumers are
going to be asked to pay more for extended support, or Microsoft is going to
have to start paying OEMs to offer support for migrations.
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