Consumers in Australia who were talked into running House Parties to spruik the official launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 are now claiming that they have not received the software that they were promised and have been embarrassed by Microsoft.
The consumers claim that calls and emails to the organisers of the event housepart.com are not being returned or answered.
In an email to SmartHouse, one consumer stated: “About a month ago I became aware of a promotion Microsoft was running for the launch of Windows 7. It involved signing up with a website called House Party (http://uk.houseparty.com) and volunteering to host a party at my house for my friends and family to promote Microsoft’s new operating system, the reward for me being a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. I signed up and on the 22nd September I was emailed a confirmation of my status as a party host”.
“Two weeks ago the House Party website informed everyone that we would be receiving our Party Packs via courier which would contain our copy of Windows 7, amongst other items”.
“On Tuesday 6th October I received my Party Pack via DHL Couriers and opened it to find that I had been sent everything I was supposed to have been sent, except my copy of Windows 7”.
“It seems to me to be a completely ridiculous situation. Microsoft is one of the biggest companies in the world, I am sure they have spent hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars on this promotion, and they are sending packs to people without the Windows software that was promised to them. I find this situation pathetic”.
A search of an online forum linked to the House Party revealed that several other consumers in Australia had been approached to run a Windows 7 party on the basis of getting a free version of Windows 7 and that to date none had received what they had been promised.
Microsoft has so far not responded to our request for clarification on this issue.
