My friend bought a new iMac from Future Shop and tried to do the Up-to-Date program to upgrade it to Leopard.

When she hit Qualify System... guess what... Serial Number already in use for an upgrade.

I wish I was in Edmonton to help her raise hell at Future Shop over this issue. Completely unacceptable, may or may not be Future Shop's fault but this is really low. I hope no one in ehMac did this...

Who should she complain to, Future Shop or Apple?

I'm not sure i understand the issue... her leopard has a serial thats already in use?

No she has TIger on her system and is trying to do the up-to-date program to upgrade to Leopard. Apparently someone already used the system's serial number to get their Leopard disc.

Complain to FutureShop, but Apple is the one who needs to resolve the theft of the Serial Number. (Complaining to Apple about it will do nothing.)

That really sucks. Brand new too eh? I got my macbook at futureshop, they arent the sharpest tools of the trade. Asked me if I wanted to buy all this extra crap, I said I would use open source tools, and he asked me what that was. I paid then left, avoiding more dumb questions.

So was the machine she purchased one that was bought and returned already or did they say it was new (ie: did an employee use the number)?

I hope no one in ehMac did this...

I see no reason to make that insinuation.

My friend bought a new iMac from Future Shop and tried to do the Up-to-Date program to upgrade it to Leopard.

When she hit Qualify System... guess what... Serial Number already in use for an upgrade.

I wish I was in Edmonton to help her raise hell at Future Shop over this issue. Completely unacceptable, may or may not be Future Shop's fault but this is really low. I hope no one in ehMac did this...

If Future Shop isn't willing to assist, I'd return it for a refund (you have 14 days) and order from Apple.ca.

Hey, let's try this:

1) Don't jump to conclusions. We don't know the real reason why the serial number isn't working.

2) Download the mail-in form: http://images.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/pdf/Mac_OS_UTD_2.pdf

3) Fill in the form, photocopy the receipt, mail into Apple.

Done!

I hate it when people's first step is always "Who should I complain to" and not "How can I fix the problem".

sorry guys but could someone please explain this serial number thing to me?

I wasn't aware that the OS has a serial number, if that is what we're talking about.

sorry guys but could someone please explain this serial number thing to me?

I wasn't aware that the OS has a serial number, if that is what we're talking about.

People who buy new machines that come with Tiger qualify for a free upgrade to Leopard. You go to Apple's site and punch in the serial number of the computer to see if it qualifies.

Apple Canada - Mac OS X Leopard - Up-to-Date (http://www.apple.com/ca/macosx/uptodate/)

I hate it when people's first step is always "Who should I complain to" and not "How can I fix the problem".

Sorry by "who should I complain to" I meant "How can I fix the problem". :)

.

Well here's the scoop, the Future Shop they purchased their iMac from was aware of this issue so my friend walked out of the store with a free copy of Leopard as a goodwill gesture.

What if the problem is that employees are copying down serial numbers and sending them off to Apple for their up-to-date OS?.
Actually it doesn't need to just be the employees, anyone (customers), only have to casually look into The System Profiler of any of the Macs on display, and take note of the serial number.
Then send away for the up-to-date.
I would think that Apple should be able to track the address that these updates were mailed to, (if they cared).

jb.