Lol... you must have been into Dad's sherry a little early today, junior. That article is from the tech site, theinquirer.net, not the fucking National Enquirer. Try posting sober, it will increase your cred here. http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx
You have to learn how to ask these questions. Dell has confirmed that they will be shipping computers with XP upon special request. You will not have to pay more. There are probably plenty of Dell CSRs that actually haven't heard about this yet. It may also be the case that the CSRs have been told to say NO as the first answer and then to say "hold on, I will check' if the customer insists that they know about Dell's change of policy. Here's a perfect example. I was talking to my cell phone provider today about the shit service I am getting. I asked the first CSR I got if I could speak to a manager about my issues. He said 'No, we no longer escalate calls'. So we spoke for a while more. Then I asked the guy 'How long left in my contract and how much to buy out the contract?' He told me...and then guess what he said? 'Since you have mentioned terminating your contract, I am now authorized to put you through to my manager and you can ask all the questions you want'. I had no idea that this would result, I was just wondering how long I had left in my contract. The moral is that the frontline CSRs are essentially automatons who are working from screen prompts. Remember, the first answer you get from a major corporation's sales or tech support team is not always the final answer. btw... you didn't tell us what the Dell CSR said in response to your two questions.
That site you posted says "highly reliable" at the top. Obvioulsy it is not reliable. It is a fraud gossip site. And anybody who cusses on a public forum like you just did shows that you are not to be trusted.
Oh my God. "Obvioulsy", indeed. theinquirer.net is a fraud site. You heard it here first, folks. Moron. (For anyone reading this, the site is one of the more respected independent tech sites. And there is nothing about 'highly reliable' at the top of the page. Here is the link again http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx There is a banner ad for HP at the top - I believe this young fool couldn't distinguish between the banner ad for HP and the content of the site. But then, he assumed bizarrely, that The Inquirer was 'The National Enquirer. What in the fuck would the National Enquirer be running an article on Dell software policy for? This young person is evidently piss-drunk on Dad's sherry).
Microsoft admits Vista failure "WITH TWO OVERLAPPING events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows Me Two (Me II), is a joke that no one wants. Dell announced that it would be offering XP again on home PCs." http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39087
I'll admit, I didn't push the XP issue. I just asked him matter of factly. But if Scottrade doesn't have a fix I'll push the issue with Dell. Come load XP or take back your machine. Also, I did answer the first question. As for the second question, he said "well, I'm tech support but if you talk to customer service I'm sure you won't have a problem returning it".
I noticed you posted in another thread that Dell is sending you XP free. Looks like you called them up and told them what the deal was. That's the way to do it.