Please read the article below and if you feel unjustly treated there is a link at the bottom for a petition to Tony Blair! Make a difference!
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/VistaOvercharge/
To be precise, however, it is a new online petition submitted to the 10 Downing Street website, which has quickly been gathering signatures.
It was submitted by one Paul Milne with a deadline of 20 April 2007 for signatures, and so far 2,199 people have put their name to the petition, which is almost double Friday’s figure.
‘I can see no reason for there to be such a huge difference in prices between the UK and the US other than Microsoft’s belief that the UK customers will pay more than their US counterparts,’ writes Mr Milne, to support his petition. ‘I ask people to sign this petition in the hope that the Prime Minister will bring pressure to bear on Microsoft over their pricing as it is my belief they are simply overcharging the people of the UK and therefore are ripping us off.’
To add your name to the petition you simply have to give your email and home address.
It was flagged to us by a reader, Mr Russell, highlighting another instance of ‘Rip-off’ Britain – he was flagging the difference between Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, when it came to US and UK versions of Windows Vista Home Premium Edition (Upgrade). It costs $153.99 in the States (approx £78.50 ) and £144.99 in the UK. ‘Spot the difference!!,’ he writes, ‘and it’s not VAT.’
We had also flagged the fact that Brits have to pay 70 per cent more for Office 2007, back in November 2006.
He also points out: ‘You can buy a Dell Desktop in the UK with Vista pre-installed for £279 including a processor, box, memory, hard drive and a fan, plus lots of other bits. Upgrade to Premium for £18. OR walk into Comet and pay £220 for the operating system in a box with the corner missing.’
The ‘e-petitions’ system was launched in November 2006 and is still in beta status. According to the site, it has already attracted more than 3,300 petitions that have garnered around 2,555,000 signatures. You can read an FAQ here.
‘There is a long-established tradition of members of the public presenting petitions at the door of No 10 Downing Street,’ states the website. ‘The e-Petitions service has been designed to offer a modern parallel, which is more convenient for the petitioner. Unlike paper-based petitions, this new service also provides an opportunity for No 10 to respond to petitioners via email.’