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Fujitsu Offers Free Laptop Upgrades For Life
Barence writes "Fujitsu Siemens is offering its customers free laptop upgrades for life with its Lifebook4Life scheme. Customers buying a Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook will be offered a free upgrade three years after their original purchase, and every subsequent three years for the rest of their life — as long as they purchase an extended three-year warranty. Customers will have to hope inflation stays low, though: the value of each new notebook cannot exceed the value of the previous one, adjusted 10% for inflation. Fujitsu says the scheme is profitable, and a raft of small print ensures plenty of people will find they've excluded themselves from the scheme for all sorts of reasons."
"Free laptop upgrades for life"... sounds like "unlimited bandwidth" and "Plays4Sure".
No thanks.
http://outcampaign.org/
It's a scam, that's awefully direct:
"Fujitsu says the scheme is profitable, and a raft of small print ensures plenty of people will find they've excluded themselves from the scheme for all sorts of reasons."
Or this a case of another bad summary...
[J]
OK, so am I the only one surprised at this, and given their HUGE market share, who in their right mind would want one?
"TV, a medium as it is neither rare nor well done." Ernie Kovacs
Hit any of these, and you'll get excluded permanently.
From TFA:
If customers fail to register their notebook within 21 days of purchase, they lose out, and if the initial sales receipt is lost then they will not be able to claim a replacement notebook. If at any point a customer fails to take an upgrade, then they will also be ineligible for any future laptops.
This is designed to get money up front on the basis that most purchasers will be ineligible to benefit from it. Thus it takes money from the lazy and stupid which can be used to benefit smarter people. I have no problem with you^W them subsidising me^W us.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
"Customers ... will be offered a free upgrade ... as long as they purchase"
The complete ignorance of the majority of people where money is concerned is what has us in this whole financial crisis. It's NOT FREE IF YOU HAVE TO PAY SOMETHING, DAMMIT. At best this is a "membership" or "subscription" deal that has lots of strings attached to make sure it's very easy for you NOT to get your upgrades (like say losing the original receipt or not registering within 21 days (from TFA)), and forces you to pay an undetermined amount for the rest of your life to the manufacturer.
Reading the fine print you will probably find out that they can change the price or cancel the plan whenever they want without notice. And of course what guarantee do you have that your "replacement" will be a competitive model?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
This offer is far from comprehensive, though, as it excludes case cracks, small numbers of dead pixels, broken keys, smashed screens, software issues, virus infections or failed batteries that are older than one year.
Basically, the normal wear and tear of a laptop is excluded. This seems particularly negligent regarding failed batteries, as I've noticed that most laptops become almost unusable after a few years. Even with a RAM upgrade after 3 years, it is unlikely to last much longer than that, especially if broken keys and worn out batteries aren't included. (Are batteries even designed to last that long?
Unity in Diversity
What do you mean? Here in Europe, many consumers do have Fujitsu-Siemens computers. It seems to be one of the most popular brands. At my local supermarket they sell many models of that brand. Even here at the office (where all laptops are HP), the workstations are Fujitsu-Siemens. Heck, we just got a new VM server and it was Fujitsu-Siemens.
Fujitsu-Siemens is huge.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you'd read the summary more carefully, you'd understand that the upgrade is an actual new laptop, is in an upgrade from your old laptop.
I find it outrageous that still to this day we are trying to find new reasons for people to throw away their computers instead of actually encouraging them to KEEP THEM.
But what else could you possibly get from a system that judges a company solely on its sales? Our economic system provides strong incentives to build products that break in as short a time as possible, and can't be repaired, so you must buy a new one. Complain all you like (and we all do), but unless you're doing something to reward a company for durability, you're not solving the problem.
And yes you can always donate your computer to charity.
Doesn't this machine come with MS windows? We've already discussed the fact that, if you donate a Windows machine, the license for the software probably doesn't transfer along with it. Yes, I know the MS PR people claim that they have a way to transfer licenses. But I have a number of friends working for charitable organizations who will tell you about the grief and wasted time from trying to get permission to legally run the software. Mostly, they failed at this, and either paid the retail price for a license, or more often they just trashed the hardware. If you go to the web site for MS's Microsoft Open License for Charities, you'll see that they don't actually talk about transferring the original license. The site tells you how to purchase licenses at a special price.
So if you donate your computer to charity, you may be sticking that charity with the expense of a software license.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
I'm assuming you mean lithium iron sulfide (LiFeS) or lithium iron disulfide (LiFeS2)? I had a hell of a time finding any information on them, since Googling "LiFE" & "battery" gets you hundreds of hits about "battery life", even with quotes around "LiFE". Does anyone know a way to force Google to respect mixed upper/lower case search terms?
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Yep, this offer is great for folks that subscribe to record clubs, 10-year gym contracts, "free" tire rotations, vacation time-shares, tenth-cone-free punch cards, and all that.
The rest of us value lack of lock-in.
Edit: Sorry for the snarkyness. Apparently "a302b" was full of crap, and after I RTFA it looks like those exclusions he listed are for a different program.
My mistake, wish there was an edit button.
Web Developers: Celebrate to our roots! Animated Gifs and Tiled Backgrounds, dont let our history die!
Deals like this are designed to make money. Fujitsu is banking on warranty sales to make their additional profit; essentially tuning this into a laptop lease deal. If you decide to go off lease you keep the laptop you bought; if you stay on you get 100% of your payment down on the next model. It's like a lease with a 0 buyout; plus they get cash upfront instead of over 3 years. If you turn it in they get the resale / scrap value plus a new warranty - want to bet it won't be cheap and probably a significant percentage of the laptop's cost?
Look at dell - an $820 laptop 3 year warranty is $190 - about 25%. After 3 years you get $820 towards a laptop; but that $820 laptop retailed for about $1100 - Dell had an $320 special deal going. So, if they don't offer a similar deal you could wind up getting $820 off of a full priced machine (assuming the 10% fine print will let you), plus paying for a new warranty. As a result, that new machine would cost you $560. (190 plus 190 plus 1000 minus 820)
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
But what else could you possibly get from a system that judges a company solely on its sales? Our economic system provides strong incentives to build products that break in as short a time as possible, and can't be repaired, so you must buy a new one. Complain all you like (and we all do), but unless you're doing something to reward a company for durability, you're not solving the problem.
My parents had their old washing machine for ~25 years with minor repairs. When it was time to get a new one of course the old company didn't exist, the were probably long gone and dead because they had no resales. It doesn't really fit well into either personal compensation plans nor executive bonuses, since it's the guys 25 years ago that did the work which leads to the new sale. Most "extended warranty" plans today are scams at worst and an insurance against lemons at best, and doesn't really say anything about a product's real durability like whether it'll wear out in 5 or 25 years. Trying to charge me a bundle up front on an alledged durability is a snake oil salesman trick, by the time it breaks down the salesman and the CEO both will have cashed out their options and fled the scene. At best the company is still around to honor the warranty but it's still risky.
If a company wants to claim durability, then show me a warranty plan that makes me think you really believe it. Provide long and cheap warranty, and instead of trying to charge some absurd upfront cost at once commit to extension options payable at end of regular support. Throw it a good sales pitch so people are thinking sale + warranty extension vs sale + next sale. Try to really show that by dollars/year this machine will cost them less that buying junk they'll have to throw out every few years. It's not really the consumer's ball on this one as long as the offerings are such as they are. Sell it in a way that makes me think you believe it yourself and I'll buy, not before.
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