Microsoft Pays Customer $10K For Forcibly Upgrading OS To ‘Win 10’

For a lot of Microsoft’s customers, being able to upgrade to “Windows 10” for free is a great thing. However, there are those who want to keep their current Operating System (OS) for a variety of reasons, so finding out that their computer was upgraded without their permission is obviously going to cause some frustration. A recent example of this led to one Microsoft customer filing a lawsuit and was awarded $10,000 as a result.

According to Ars Technica, the customer in question is Teri Goldstein and the computer that was upgraded to “Windows 10” without her permission was actually used for her travel agency business. According to Goldstein, the upgraded caused havoc with her computer, rendering it practically unusable. This meant that her business was suffering as a result.

The upgrade occurred back in August 2015, which was unfortunate for Goldstein because her busiest times were from September to December. As a result, she couldn’t take the time to have her computer fixed and she lost revenue because of the many problems that the upgrade had caused. Not only could she not access her email to answer customer inquiries, she also could not confirm transactions.

The Seattle Times was the first to break the news about how Microsoft was forced to pay Goldstein $10,000 as a result of the problems caused by the unauthorized OS upgrade. The tech company was supposed to appeal the decision but decided that it wouldn’t be worth the cost.

The payout is a pittance compared to the overall financial wealth of Microsoft, of course, but the fallout of this win by Goldstein could include lawsuits from other disgruntled customers who were having problems with their Windows 10 upgrades as well. As such, the tech giant could be looking at a wave of lawsuits in the future.