The reader's father, who is in his 70s, has had some bad luck when it comes to buying softwarre that passes Microsoft's various tests for genuineness. "My father had purchased a computer from someone, and it turned out it had an illegal copy of Windows on it," the reader wrote. "Trying to save my father a little money, I told him I could get a valid copy for a reasonable price on Pricegrabber.com. In May last year I purchased a copy of Windows XP Pro from JomartSales through Pricegrabber for $94. The product came and I installed it on my father's computer and everything seemed to be working fine."

The reader's father used the copy of XP over six months without a problem. "In December my father called me and said that when he tried to update Windows, Microsoft returned an error stating that this was a stolen volume license and that he needed to get a new license," the reader wrote. "Shocked, I thought I should check with the seller, JoMart. Of course, the seller is long gone, e-mail bounces with no reply. So I contacted Pricegrabber since the sale was supposed to be covered by Pricegrabber's buyer protection plan. They said that the purchase was outside their 60-day window for buyer protection -- the fact that we just now found out it was not a legitimate copy doesn't matter to them."

To his credit, the reader was not going to let it stop there. He decided to contact his credit card company, even though the sale had taken place a half year ago. "The matter has been resolved, although I am not sure how," the reader wrote me back a few weeks later. "The credit card company just sent me a letter stating that they resolved the issue with the merchant and my account was credited the amount charged. What I do not know is if the credit card company resolved it with Pricegrabber or the actual merchant. I did recieve a credit so I am not out any actual cash, just the time and exasperation of having to address this whole thing."

But the reader is still quite unhappy with Pricegrabber. "My father, bless his heart, is having a tough time trying to understand why all this happened," the reader wrote. "It was not an easy reponse for him or me to accept from PriceGrabber when they said they would not assist even when the purchase was supposed to be protected with their buyer protection. I guess the net result is I am not going to do business with PriceGrabber any further. It turned out not to be worth the few dollars in savings for me."

But does all the blame rest with Pricegrabber? Obviously the apparentlly defunct JoMart deserves a lot of it. Some might argue that the reader himself should have smelled a rat much earlier with the volume license copy. But I would also point to Microsoft and its Byzantine sales system that makes it impossible to know for sure if we are getting the genuine article.

Where do you think the blame lies? Post your comment below or write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.