I dunno man, I think she kinda has a point. It certainly is deceptive to have stickers that are that vague about a product’s features/capabilities. Being a retailer myself I could very easily see many consumers making that same mistake and would never intentionally label any of our products in that manner. Especially since I don’t think many consumers are aware that there are multiple versions of Vista available . It’s a fine line retailers walk. You want to highlight any products strengths and probably minimize any of its’ flaws but you don’t want to ( and can’t if you’re ethical) mislead the consumer on what the product actually can do for them.

That being said this shouldn’t be a lawsuit at all , if she noticed this after she bought it and was unsatisfied (which obviously she was) she get a refund and an apology and that should be the end of it. Class Action Lawsuit profiteering like this is wrong.

I see your point, but I honestly don’t see how MSFT is being misleading. I mean, it’s pretty clear they have different versions of Vista. Just look at their product page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/capable.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx

They had different versions of XP, so doing this with Vista isn’t anything new. I don’t see how anyone could NOT know, or at least assume, that there are different versions of Vista. Maybe I’m just not attuned to how non-techy people see the world. :)

I see what you mean. You’re absolutely right MSFT is pretty forthcoming about the multiple versions existing and what they entail, my impression was that in tv ads and other media it wasn’t very clear. Perhaps I’m wrong about general public awareness of the different versions existence.

Still there are a couple of key assumptions I think you’re making about a consumer that in my experience aren’t necessarily true.

I think you’re assuming for one that consumers do the due diligence and research you do when you make a purchase. In my experience a large % of our customers don’t do any research on an item before walking in the door of the store. They go only by the product description on the item itself and often not even that. Sometimes it’s only through small talk that I discover the customer picked the wrong item for the job they are trying to do.

The other assumption I think you’re making is that consumers will take the time to look through the product selection thoroughly or even go to multiple stores before making a purchase. In my experience a good portion of people will grab the first item they see that looks close to what they want, whether it’s right or not.

Certainly these are behaviors smart consumers (like yourself) would not do on a large purchase like a computer (or even small ones), but not every consumer is smart and is willing to be thorough.

The reason I think it’s MSFT fault is the fact that they took the trouble to create separate “premium Ready” stickers for some Pc’, so clearly they wanted to make a distinction. But the phrase “Windows Vista Capable” is certainly interpretable in two ways if you assume the customer has no outside knowledge of the product (which is how you have to operate when labeling products to prevent mix-ups).You can’t say that about the phrase “Premium Ready”. So clearly MSFT knew that there is a perceived difference in customer preference. It would not have killed them to label the more misleading inclusive sounding “windows vista capable”, “Basic Capable” or something similar. Also if the “premium ready” stickers didn’t exist I think their decision would be more defensible.

I think MSFT may have done this to appease some of the big box retailers who wanted to unload these less desirable less capable PCs and were upset by Vista’s late launch. But as a retailer myself I can tell you this sort of experience is not what you want your customers to be having when they shop at your store. Customer loyalty is extremely important, very hard to gain very easy to lose. One bad experience generally loses you a customer for life and will sometimes spill over to others. That’s why honesty is absolutely essential to retail, you just can’t afford to have customers feel tricked.