After the scandal of Gateway's bigotry last month, this month it's the turn of PC World in the UK to don the black hat, and refuse to honour warranties for hardware simply because the customer installs GNU/Linux.

In this case, as in most cases, there is absolutely no question whatsoever that the software has anything to do with the nature of the fault - a broken laptop lid hinge - but that glaringly obvious fact seems inconsequential to the bigots at PC World, who believe they can only repair a broken piece of plastic if Windows is installed. If PC World's arrogance and ignorance wasn't so shocking, it'd be hilarious.

Fortunately in the UK we are blessed with the Sale Of Goods Act to protect consumers against criminal retailers. Let's hope the victim of this outrage has the determination to use it to remind PC World of their legal and moral obligations.

UPDATE! ... It seems that PC World have been embarrassed into backing down, after being brutally humiliated by a torrent of condemnation in Blogs and news articles across the Internet. After being grilled by El Reg over this scandal, PC World have agreed to honour their customer's warranty after all, and fix the laptop hinge.

Blog Power!

UPDATE #2 ... Oops, no they didn't. Even after being grilled by staff at both El Reg and PCPro, and giving repeated assurances that they would honour the warranty, they're still not capitulating.

It seems that the problem is an ignorant bigot called Guresh Tank, who is the manager at PC World on Christchurch Road, Colliers Wood, London. This goon is stonewalling their intrepid customer's attempts to get a Laptop repaired, with anti-Linux bigotry. Tank is also rude, dismissive, unprofessional, and completely indifferent to consumer rights and the law. I sincerely hope that both PC World, and he personally, gets well and truly crushed by the law.

Bastards.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE #3 ... Finally this tragic tale seems to have come to an end. PC World eventually capitulated, but the best they could offer was a refund.

I find it incredible that PC World would rather lose a sale, than just repair a broken hinge, simply because GNU/Linux is installed on the laptop. Despite their eventual concession, they are undoubtedly still a bunch of bigots.

Meanwhile, a completely separate company called Computer Care in Lancashire has offered to fix the laptop for free, after the owner heard about PC World's bigotry.

Good to know that not every company is as bad as PC World.