There are periodically stories "on the net" about people getting the Windows refund.

If I ever buy a personal laptop, I want to run the experiment of asking the vendor/dealer up front if they will cooperate with me to get the refund. Brief encounters in --e.g.--Best Buy or Office Depot, Staples, and the like---tells me this would be an ordeal.

I long for the day that the US is not so preoccupied with other problems that they get back to the noble cause of anti-trust----before companies like MS get so powerful that it would no longer be possible to control them. (Ooops--are we there already??....)

Unfortunately, I think the U.S. Supreme Court's Bush appointees just put a nail in the anti-trust coffin. With unlimited corporate money pouring into elections, companies like Microsoft will own enough politicians to control what happens.

From what I have read on this issue, you are absolutely correct. It will be an uphill battle all the way. This is because the vast majority of computer tech support people will never run into a question like this. There are relatively few linux users who will buy their company's computers and want to get rid of Windows and get a refund.
The retail sales people who work at the big box stores are even more clueless about this issue.

.....clueless about computers pretty much across the board......

I've been looking at the EULA for Windows 7 Home Premium (got it as a .pdf from the M$ site), for anything regarding possible refunds. This is the relevant bit:

Nothing definite there.
I wouldn't touch it with a burnt chip, as we say in Oldham.