March 27, 2008

Never Pay For Tech Services That Should Be Free

InfoWorld is reporting that Sony is charging customers $50 to remove needless trial-ware software from some notebook computers. I understand that Sony (as their competitors do) gets money from these companies to add the software to computers, however, it's very bone headed to charge customers for something they never asked for and that could be turned into a good thing.

Sony's a very smart company and I'm sure no smarter than Dell. However, it is quite interesting that last Summer Dell launched its new Vostro line of computers, specifically for small businesses and trial-ware software is precisely what they took out of their Vostro computers.

InfoWorld writes Customers opting for Sony's Fresh Start will miss out on software including Microsoft Works SE 9.0 bundled with a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office, Sony's Vaio Creation Suite Photo Software bundled with a 30-day trial version of Corel Paint Shop Pro; the Click to Disc video editor; WinDVD, and a free edition of QuickBooks Simple Start that can only track 20 customers.

Sony justifies the $49.99 fee by saying it covers removal of the unwanted software before shipment -- although selecting the option appears to have no consequences on the estimated shipping date.

If your vendor (hardware or software) ever wants to charge you a FEE for something that should be included in the price, or "free" consider getting another vendor.

tags: dell , laptop , notebook , sony | 0 comments