Dell to charge users to NOT install crapware?
In: Random
10 Jan 2007Ed Bott from zdnet.com recently blogged about his round table meeting with Michael Dell and others about the negative image Dell has been receiving on blogs as of late. Ed Bott was invited due to his admittedly caustic comments about Dell’s customer service. His article is an interesting read.
The point I wanted to take from this article is a little disheartening. When asked why Dell (and I am sure HP, Gateway, Sony, etc are all equally guilty) loads so much subsidized trialware on consumer PCs, Michael Dell answered “Would you pay not to get bundled software?”
Scary…now you are telling me that I will have to pay to get a clean PC from major manufacturers? My latest new PC is an HP DV8000 notebook, I literally was uninstalling software for the first hour of it’s life. Dozens of applications had to be removed before I even began putting my applications on it. How much of that is still trashing my registry I hesitate to think.
I think this is an issue that is going to have to take a more prominent discussion. It’s time for an opt-in strategy for this type of software. There should be an installer CD with a check this and that for the software you want to try. I have seen some PCs with so many ISP’s and Antivirus/Malware software preloaded that the desktop was half full on purchase.
One attendee at this meeting said he would pay $60 to get a clean PC. Scary, a $60 “Don’t trash my new PC” tax.
JB
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4 Responses to Dell to charge users to NOT install crapware?
dawngrrl
January 10th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I’m not for crapware either – it’s a pain the ass…BUT is does come with the territory. Dell (or HP, Gateway, etc …) are gonna pull that cost from you somewhere. I’ts all part of the pricing….you start bitching about things like that – evenutally companies take that stuff out and charge more the product. If part of that cost is in inconvience its still a cost, which may be time for you, but it hits thier bottom line, that’s fixed the rest is fuzzy math – tack it on to support & maintentnce, tack it onto the installed software (or lack of), but it’s not going anywhere. It’s 6 of one half dozen of the other, $60.00 worth of uninstalling time or 60 bones on top. I’d be all for the option though…
Jason Burns
January 10th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
When Dell set the expectation of PCs for $250 they not only screwed themselves, but they screwed us too. Now they have to resort to any low brow attempt to keep margins low enough to sell crap computers for dirt prices. No one really wants a underpowered machine that is nearly worthless, so here is the result of the experiment:
I get this PC, it’s got 256MB ram in it to begin with so it’s totally garbage running XP, it’s so loaded with crap that nags me about registering and purchasing and buying online services that I get pissed that I have to wait 5 minutes to see a “do you want to buy my crap” screen, and I walk away saying, “I bought a Dell and it sucks”
Get rid of the crap, bring the prices back up to reasonable levels, make a good product and support it like you used to in the 90s.
dawngrrl
January 10th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
That, I totally agree with, but then, I wouldnt buy a PC for 250 bucks….its unreasonable to think you would be getting anything of greater value. If youre shopping for a PC today, one that will be an adequate machine upon which to work, play games, function well with media or provide all the conectivity, a target price of $250 is folly.
Eamonn’s Blog » Blog Archive » Would pay extra to get a clean pc?
January 14th, 2007 at 7:29 am
[...] sources/extra reading : User refund for no Windows option Windows refund day Dell to Charge Users to not install crapware [...]