A while back, we told you how Amazon revealed its ability to delete a book from all Kindle devices, even after customers had purchased it. In a somewhat poetic twist, the deleted book that brought this to everyone's attention was George Orwell's 1984, and bloggers were quick to liken Amazon's activities to those of 1984's Big Brother. Now, to smooth things over with customers, Amazon is offering anyone who bought 1984 a redelivery of the book or $30.

If you're one of the affected customers, you can take your payoff as Amazon store credit, or in the form of a check. For those who choose to get their books back, all notations made on the books will also be restored. This is noteworthy in light of the recent lawsuit Amazon was facing from a high school student who lost his class notes on 1984 as a result of the incident. Amazon can't really unring the bell of letting users know it can delete their purchases, so promising not to do it again and offering compensation is as close as they'll get to regaining trust.

[via slashgear]

Google recently caused something of a commotion with their announcement that Google Video would be shutting down, and that videos would no longer be playable. In return, Google was offering Google Checkout coupons, which many people were (quite understandably) displeased with.

Thankfully, Google appears to have listened to peoples concerns, and has had a change of heart with their policy. According to the Official Google Blog, Google Video customers will receive a full refund via their credit card (once you've confirmed or updated your credit card details), any existing Google Checkout coupons can be kept as a way of saying "sorry [Google] goofed", and Videos will remain playable for another six months.

Of course, this whole saga could have been avoided by not shutting down the service (and perhaps by not using DRM, depending on your point of view), but it's good to see Google owning up to its mistakes and trying to make right on them.

You know there's something wrong with the market when it's news that someone managed to get a refund for a product they didn't want in the first place. Dave Mitchell of Sheffield, UK will go down in history as the first guy to get a refund from Dell--or any major PC vendor, for that matter--for the "Windows tax," i.e. the $100 or so almost every major PC manufacturers will make you pay even if you never intend to use or even activate the copy of Microsoft Windows the machine ships with. Of course, Dell isn't the worst offender when it comes to the Windows tax, and has for several years now allowed you to buy desktop machines without Windows, but laptops have been a different monster entirely--until now. The license agreement for the OEM version of Windows Mitchell received read, "If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, you may not use or copy the software, and should promptly contact manufacturer for instructions on return of the unused product(s) for a refund in accordance with manufacturer's return policies," and historically most manufacturers have only accepted returns if the customer returned the PC as well. After sending a letter to Dell UK's offices on November 1, Mitchell received his refund today, which seems alamingly prompt to me. Mitchell was diligent in collect proof that he had not used the product, saying, "I booted the laptop, then photographed every step of the boot process up to and including clicking on the XP 'no I don't accept' button. I also scrolled through each page of the EULA, taking a photo of each page."

While Mitchell's success, the story of which is rather anticlimactic, isn't exactly earth-shattering, it may well embolden a whole generation of would-be Windows-returners. Maybe 10 years from now the "Windows tax" will be but a hazy memory.

[Via Slashdot, natch]

Update: Reader thewildman points out that it's been done before. Anybody got any other Dell return stories?

We've seen a couple round-up reviews of tax software, and while features and ease-of-use matter, a question that shouldn't be neglected is: which will give me the biggest refund? AP's Ashley Heher pitted H&R Block's TaxCut, Intuit's TurboTax, and 2nd Story's TaxAct against eachother to find out. She found that while TaxCut and TurboTax had similar results $600 versus $588, TaxAct, somehow, came up with figure tiny by compare: $175. Of course YMMV with these things, but that $425 discrepancy is enough to give anyone pause.