If my free trial of Word has expired is my PC still fit for purpose?

I ordered a Toshiba PC from QVC in October 2010. It came with a free trial of Word 2007. Since this expired, I have tried to register the product using the key code on the side of the computer, then a key provided when I registered the PC, but the software will not work.

The majority of work I do on the PC is using Word. Since the trial finished, the computer has not been fit for purpose.
Martin Wallis

We think Mr Wallis was trying to register Office 2007 using his licence key for the Windows 7 operating system on his PC. We called him and explained that just because his free trial of Office 2007 had come to an end, this did not mean his PC was ‘not fit for purpose’.

This would apply if the computer was inherently faulty in some way. Goods can also be not fit for purpose if the customer has been told a product can undertake certain functions but this is not possible.

But neither would apply in this case. All Mr Wallis needed is some word processing software. If he wanted to use Word 2007, which forms part of Office, he would have to pay for this.

After talking to him, he understood he would have to do this. However, we explained to him that if he only wanted to write documents, then a free office suite such as Open Office would suit him just as well.