On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 14:53 -0700, Joshua Zeidner wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 2:38 PM, Craig White <craigwhite@azapple.com>
> wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 14:09 -0700, Joshua Zeidner wrote:
> >
> > Stephen,
> >
> > Im not knocking them personally. I find it commendable
> that they
> > plainly state their return policy, which unfortunately many
> vendors
> > like them do not.
> >
>
> ----
> I didn't think 15% restock fee was out of line at all.
>
> If you're willing to pay for it... by all means- go right ahead.
> But if I bought a system and then I found out Skype or something else
> doesn't work properly and I had to pay a 15% restocking fee, I'd be a
> little upset. This is the problem with Linux support, its notoriously
> unmanageable, and often times the 'community' is driven by somewhat
> manic tech-heads who refuse to conform to any idea whatsoever, let
> alone a technological standard.
----
I'm sure that if you have concerns about whether certain things will
work, you could ask them. Skype seems to work with most of the
distributions...I hardly think that would be a concern.
Costco and others have cut their return periods and become more
restrictive because of abuse and in reality, people who exploit generous
return policies drive up the prices for everyone anyway. It's a
reasonable paradigm to have lower prices and not absorb the full cost of
a sales scheme that allows people to return stuff freely.
----
> Obviously taking back returns without restocking fees (i.e.
> Fry's, Costco, etc.) is a marketing scheme.
>
> Not really sure how to parse 'marketing scheme' here, but if you
> mean 'a way to sell something' - yep it sure is. I can take it home,
> see how it plays with my hardware, use it for a few weeks, and if it
> doesn't stick, all money is refunded. Hardly a 'scheme' if were using
> this word as some kind of negative. Setting up this marketing scheme
> requires a lot of business development with hardware vendors, etc.
>
> Sorry if Im letting down the Linux revolution, but you've got to
> face the reality of what the average person gets with a major
> distributor. Eventually, Im sure someone will figure out how to make
> the Big Mac of linux PCs, and Im also sure that 50+% of people on this
> list will reject it on the basis its not 'true linux'. -jmz
----
The term 'scheme' has 11 definitions (dictionary.com) and only 1 has a
negative connotation and I'm sorry that you focused in on that because
that wasn't my intent.
The fact is that there is a cost to having generous/don't ask return
policies and that cost is ultimately borne by the consumers and it's a
scheme just as having low prices and a 15% restock policy is a sales
scheme.
Lastly, there is no Linux revolution...only a Linux option which makes a
lot of sense. For the record, Walmart has been selling Everex Linux
systems for $200 for quite some time
now...
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8304655 (I
can't tell you what their return policy is on this because it's not
clear from their web site)
Craig
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