Toshiba: "Don't Delete Bloatware If You Know What's Good For You"

Chris Walters — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:28:45 EST

A reader writes in to report that when he bought a new laptop direct from Toshiba in November, he triggered a blue screen of death as he was uninstalling the always-useful bloatware that came pre-loaded. He called a Service Rep, got the usual "reinstall everything" run-around, and then finally got escalated to a level-two tech, which is when things got ridiculous.

the techs put me through to a level-two tech who, and I quote verbatim (because I asked him to repeat the line to me multiple times) accused me of "breaking my computer by attempting to uninstall bloatware." I said, "do you even know what bloatware is," and he said "yes, and it may be your fault that your computer is broken because you tried to uninstall it." I asked if I was supposed to check with Toshiba every time I added or removed a program from my computer. He had no answer for that.

This wasn't the only bad experience the reader reported. Toshiba also refused to price-match the laptop to their Black Friday discount, because the discount was "we'll pay your sales tax" and, according to the CSR who promised the original price-matching, it isn't technically a price reduction.

Oh, and after the bloatware incident, Toshiba sent our reader a new hard drive—to the wrong address. And they "forgot" to schedule a tech to come install it.

Toshiba does not sound like a good direct-sales destination.

(Thanks to W.!)

Dell To Offer Crapware, Bloatware Free PCs

Meg Marco — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:39:59 EDT

Attention those who hate bloatware and crapware: Dell is offering PCs that are free of everything except Google Toolbar.

The new line, named Vostro, is aimed at the small business market and consists of 4 laptops and 2 desktops.

From Computerworld:

"Customers really hated trialware," said Michael Dell, the company's CEO, during the Vostro rollout in New York. "It was the most frustrating thing for customers in setting up a new computer," he added, citing a recent survey the company commissioned of small business users. "Our new Vostro line comes with no trialware, none at all."

It does come with Google Toolbar, according to Computerworld, but so what. Life is demonstrably not perfect. More companies should offer this.

Dell lets small business customers decline 'crapware' on PCs [Computerworld]

Consumerist: Bloatware

Toshiba: "Don't Delete Bloatware If You Know What's Good For You"

Dell To Offer Crapware, Bloatware Free PCs