Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!menudo.uh.edu!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Unlimited software warranties (was Re: Mach from mt Xinu) Message-ID: Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC References: <1991Mar12.015256.16098@ico.isc.com> <8024@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> <8135@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> Date: Wed, 20 Mar 91 22:39:54 GMT In article <8135@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> jgd@Dixie.Com (John G. DeArmond) writes: > >But this is beside the point. The subject at hand is an *unlimited* money > >back warranty. I admit the shortage of 30 or 90 day money-back warrantees is > >a high priority on my "what I'd fix if I was god for a day" list, but an > >indefinite one is really just asking for trouble. > Why do you say that? There is some really basic merchandising psychology > involved here that should be intuitive but if not, is outlined in > a number of books on the subject. There are three important aspects of > unlimited money-back warranties. The first is, the no-questions-asked > removes the dishonesty quotient from the equation. People no longer > have to lie about the product or worse, destroy it, in order to > get their money back. Just like at K-mart. You hand them the package and > the receipt and they hand you money. OK, we'll drop the Sears bit... but I have never seen this behaviour from any merchant that I have done business with. Unless I've got a *recent* receipt or the merchandise is in "like new" condition, you can't return it. Period. The psychology argument is compelling, but as I've never seen it actually implemented I don't buy it. Limited (30, 60, 90, whatever) guarantees are common. Unlimited, open-ended ones? At K-mart? Sears *used* to do this, 10 years ago. The treatment I got when I brought in a broken Sears bicycle I bought second-hand and asked about replacement parts was amazing. They didn't even require a receipt! But I haven't seen it since then. From anyone. > Let's take our old whipping post friend, ISC Unix. Would you really have > the guts to use the product for a year and then arbitrarily ask for your > money back? I wouldn't. J Random corporate purchasing agent, with no causal connection to the product... sure. Before folks started cracking down on it, piracy was practically corporate policy many places, and that's not just a matter of being a deadbeat. Corporations do not suffer from embarassment. And the main customers of software like UNIX are corporate. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' peter@ferranti.com +1 713 274 5180. 'U` "Have you hugged your wolf today?"