Windows Vista Laptop came with HOME BASIC,even though ULTIMATE was ordered!?

Alright, I'm not happy. And neither is my friend who this is all for.

I ordered a new Thinkpad with a 15.4 WUXGA screen, 160GB HDD, 4965AGN card, 2GB RAM, DVDRW multi-burner drive, etc., etc. Think high-end and costly (almost $2,500!!). I also chose Vista Ultimate as the operating system per his specific request...so when we turned it on, it said, gulp, Window Vista HOME BASIC!??!?!?!?!?!

I even paid extra postage, so I would have it by THIS weekend at the latest.

I called Lenovo immediately, and of course they were very apologetic, and assured me that they'd overnight a recovery set with the correct OS today, and that I would have it by Monday...MONDAY? What about adding Saturday delivery????? No, "our systems are not set up that way ". #@$%^&*(

The screen is actually not as bad as I had thought, and while the lack of Flexview is noticeable, it looked good. I asked him about the screen, and he said "No, it's great, I love it! ", which I was happy to hear. My friend is going out of town for TWO MONTHS on a job assignment!!!!!! I am LIVID!!! And so is he! For obviously good reason.

Please, let's fix this for him. I have two Vista Ultimate keys. They're totally LEGIT! One is for my T60p, the FULL version with the box, DVD's, etc.

The other one is an OEM key, that came with a laptop I bought that included an upgrade key. I was going to use the latter for a dual-boot x86/x64 setup. However, I suppose I could give it to him, and then get his, once his recovery (and hopefully Ultimate this time ), but whatever. My dual boot is not that important. What is IMPERATIVE is that I get this fixed.

How am I going to accomplish this? He doesn't know much of anything about computers, which is why I am hoping someone will be able to help me or steer me in the right direction before Sunday.

I've done as much as I can with calling Lenovo about the correct set and the overnight part. I've also tried the recovery option, but it also contains, big surprise, Vista Home Basic.

Out of curiosity, I checked as to how big his Windows folder was, and it is 7.74GB. This is pretty much what my Vista Ultimate was before I started using it, installing applications, etc. Would I be able to click on "Change Product Key" and put mine in, as I have never used it??? Oh, one more thing, I tried to activate the Home Basic and it wouldn't even let me do THAT. The next problem: It says 3 days remaining until it apparently will go into a state of uselessness. THREE days??? What happened to 30 days??? That's besides the point. It's just one more additional annoyance.

I remember that I read somewhere that every Vista CD contains the entire OS, and it is only the key one purchases that determines as to what features will be "activated ". Is this true? The size of his unused Vista Windows folder would be consistent with that, as mine is now over 9GB, but I made it a point to check the size immediately after I changed to my new T60p and reinstalled it. I did that out of mere curiosity. Well, I didn't write down exactly what it was, but it was LESS THAN 8GB, but OVER 7GB!! And sure enough, his is also in the high 7-something GB range. So is that theory correct?

Please help! He was so looking forward to his new Thinkpad and he LOVES it, except he wants the Ultimate version. And he PAID good money for it. And Home Basic? What a slap in the face. lol...He paid for the most expensive, and got the LEAST expensive that a lot of stores don't even carry, as virtually nobody wants it, and which a lot of people make fun of as being useless.

I don't want to mess anything up, so besides hitting activate, and guess what, not even THAT worked, I haven't touched his machine and I told him to hold off on doing anything with it either. I promised I would do my best to help him resolve the issue, as it was I, who talked him out of buying anything in a store, and I was successful in convincing him to get a Thinkpad. I got Lenovo a good customer. I got Microsoft a good customer. He works hard for his money. And now this.

Please help me(us) make this right. What can I do?

 

Look for the program folder, "Extras and Upgrades ". From there select, "Windows Anytime Upgrade ".

 

Interesting...However, I deleted the bloatware-ridden OEM version and used my full CD. Now I have this problem:

http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?p=381453#post381453

I'm hoping someone can help? Arghh...