Well Lookie Here, Barracuda Networks tries to get me to fall into their trap again...

William Herrin bill at herrin.us
Sat Dec 24 02:17:45 UTC 2011


On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 8:46 AM, Nathan Eisenberg
<nathan at atlasnetworks.us> wrote:
>> In fact, it's not.  If you miss your renewal payment for, frex, Safari
>> books, they actually slip your cycle date to when you renew -- since you don't
>> [...]
>> But, effectively, he's a new client, and should probably be treated
>> that way.
>> Assuming the paid service is actually *the update service*.
>
> I've always strongly felt that this was a rather foul business practice,
> wherever I've seen it.  The justification for it is the utterly misguided
> belief that, if allowed to, customers will pay for a month then

Spin it the other direction. The company will sell you the current
version of their system for $X. For a period of Y years they will at
any time sell you the then-current version of the system at the
discount rate (%{Y} since last payment)*$X. Y years after your last
payment, they will sell you the then-current version of their system
at any time for $X.

Where's the ethical problem here?

The same company offers you a subscription so that you're considered
paid up on the cost of the then-current system at all times during the
duration of the subscription. Did this raise a new ethical problem?


On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 1:11 AM, Jimmy Hess <mysidia at gmail.com> wrote:
> If you let the agreement lapse, usually no warranty.     Most extended
> warranties can't be renewed 6 months after they lapsed,  because you found
> the product just broke  and you would like to renew a warranty, so you can
> RMA it for a repair/replacement.

My out-of-warranty refrigerator from Sears broke a couple years ago.
When I called to schedule a repair, the nice lady on the phone pitched
me on buying a 1 year extended warranty. Easy sale. The repairman came
out, fixed the fridge, and billed the warranty company for about 1.5
times the cost of the warranty I bought. Every so often I receive a
mailer from Sears offering to sell me another 1 year extended warranty
at a fixed price.

Regards,
Bill Herrin




-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004




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