Stupid business methods #2 - software licenses still cheaper when they come wrapped in plastic
Eighteen months ago I wrote about it being a third cheaper to buy a license for Diablo in the most wasteful manner possible.
Today I come to re-subscribe to Norton Antivirus*, and the Norton site offers me a year's resubscription for £40 (for up to three PCs). So, of course, I go to see how much they're charging if I bought it from scratch, and wasn't a semi-captive market. And I can get Norton Security (which seems to be the replacement for Norton Antivirus) for a 30% discount off the £50 price (down to £35) for up to 5 PCs. So, £5 cheaper, and two more PCs. That's rather better.
And then I go on Amazon. Where I can also get the online code for £35. Or...I can get a license card for £24. Which is another 1/3 off, if I'm willing to wait a day for it to be delivered, and waste plastic, paper, and someone carrying it to my door. Which, of course, I am.
To summarise:
Re-subscribe: £40
Order new (digitally) from manufacturer: £35
Wastefully buy a piece of paper and have it shipped to me: £24
And yes, I'm sure that there are good reasons for this (see previous post for discussion), but still - there is something irretrievably fucked about the kind of system that produces results like this.
*Before someone leaps in here, Norton _used_ to be a massive memory and CPU hog, and impossible to remove from your system. And then they rewrote it from the ground up, and since then it's been remarkably well behaved for me. If there's a good reason to dislike the current version, then I'd like to know, of course. I've checked the reviews and it does rather well in comparison to most.
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
comments there.
Today I come to re-subscribe to Norton Antivirus*, and the Norton site offers me a year's resubscription for £40 (for up to three PCs). So, of course, I go to see how much they're charging if I bought it from scratch, and wasn't a semi-captive market. And I can get Norton Security (which seems to be the replacement for Norton Antivirus) for a 30% discount off the £50 price (down to £35) for up to 5 PCs. So, £5 cheaper, and two more PCs. That's rather better.
And then I go on Amazon. Where I can also get the online code for £35. Or...I can get a license card for £24. Which is another 1/3 off, if I'm willing to wait a day for it to be delivered, and waste plastic, paper, and someone carrying it to my door. Which, of course, I am.
To summarise:
Re-subscribe: £40
Order new (digitally) from manufacturer: £35
Wastefully buy a piece of paper and have it shipped to me: £24
And yes, I'm sure that there are good reasons for this (see previous post for discussion), but still - there is something irretrievably fucked about the kind of system that produces results like this.
*Before someone leaps in here, Norton _used_ to be a massive memory and CPU hog, and impossible to remove from your system. And then they rewrote it from the ground up, and since then it's been remarkably well behaved for me. If there's a good reason to dislike the current version, then I'd like to know, of course. I've checked the reviews and it does rather well in comparison to most.
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
comments there.