If You Didn't Know, Microsoft BLOWS!

So... today, I rescued all valuable data from my PC, burned it on cd, reformatted my drive and proceeded to reinstall WinXP. I've got a real-live CD and a real live serial number. No illegal crap happening. when asked for the serial, I typed it in, and XP told me that it was an invalid key. I double checked. Typed the key in again. Tripple checked. Typed again. Time after time, I got the same response.

So I called Microsoft. They offered to sell me a new CD Key for ten bucks. I told them that I had a key, but it wasn't working with the OS it was packaged with. The little girl on the other end smugly asked me if I was sure that I had typed the key in properly. It seems that since I typed in the correct numbers and letters and it didn't work, I now owe Microsoft ten dollars for a new key.

I am typing this from a newly resurected PC running Mandrake Linux.