Looks like NZXT are looking to rip off gamers with their new computer “subscription” service.
basically pay for the whole pc the first year, but you don’t own it. yup. several sites have run articles on it.
It also looks like they’re substituting lower end parts when you switch from buy to subscribe so your paying more more for the “top of the line” PC after the first year.
not just substituting lower-end…
RENTAL DEVICES PROVIDED MAY BE REFURBISHED DEVICES
It’s actually even worse than that.
So it’s like every other subscription rental service or Rent-to-own business. Those services have always been a scam. Nowhere near a new idea, and definitely not the first company to do it with electronics.
Don’t see how this is any different than the hundreds of other companies that do this all over the place, other than it being a manufacturer directly instead of a middle man.
There’s more to it, if you watch the video.
False advertising, bait and switching specs, and of course, you don’t own the computer at the end of the lease. You have to return it.
No, this is misrepresenting older hardware as state of the art, switching out hardware component of the system if you select the rental option, then asking a predatory rental fee, and littering the contract with mines that give the company cause to charge you extra or if they make mistakes reducing a 2 year legal period to adress the problem to a mere 60 days. And then using an army of influencers to lie and misrepresent this product in order to drive sales.
Yeah, rent to own, emphasis on own. Even those places, sure you’d pay the times the cost of the unit but at the end of the day, you’d own the thing and you know exactly what you’re getting.
Here you not only are they doing the shady things of switching to inferior parts when you’re hitting subscribe so you’re a lot more for a lot less that you also don’t own at the end of the day. Plus the terms are in the agreement are problematic with the way they’re written.
This seems a lot worse than anything Rent-a-center has ever done.
Canadians of a certain age will remember Buck-a-day computers from the 2000’s
that was something like price didn’t include tax, monitor, or shipping (an outrageous amount for that, too). imagine having four years left on your glorious 850mhz celeron system with 64mb ram when winxp comes out.
Ubisoft and Logitech right now:
I lol’d at scam-normalized benchmark. Virtually ANY other method of financing an overpriced old prebuilt (short of a series of short-term payday loans) would be better than this hot garbage. Definitely fueled by corporate greed and a great way to dump old parts onto unwitting consumers while taking exorbitant rents from them.
Except with the payday loans, you at least own the computer at the end.
So long as you can pay. If you can’t pay they will repo it and sell it again and you’ll still owe. They used to do this with payday loans to buy vehicles outside military bases. We were all warned against them at the start but young service members still tried to buy vehicles from them occasionally. I even know a guy who used to install kill switches in them so they could repo the cars easier or disable them if you didn’t pay. Payday loans are scammy as hell.
Do they send you a new PC every year with top of the line components for that year while having you ship the old one back? I am going to assume no.
Every 3 years, and only “top of the line” if your definition means 4 generation old parts that have been refurbished.
I was considering buying their cases.
