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Do Not Buy NZXT | Predatory, Evil Rental Computer Scam Investigated

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Kenrou

Kenrou

Member
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Joined
Aug 14, 2014
"In this video, we investigate NZXT's "Flex" rental PC program and its pre-built rental PCs, including the NZXT Player One, Player One Prime, Player Two, Player Two Prime, Player Three, and Player Three Prime PCs, which regularly bait-and-switch the components under the same name, misrepresent or straight-up lie in marketing, brandish objectively and provably false FPS benchmark numbers, and leverage oppressive terms of service. NZXT jacks up prices and manipulatively calls them a "sale," it has you waive your rights to death or injury claims in relation to its service, and it rips off uninformed consumers beyond anything we've ever seen before."

00:00 - NZXT's PREDATORY PROGRAM
06:15 - H1 Fires, Context, & History
09:08 - Motivated by Greed
11:02 - Bait & Switch
17:18 - Why Names Matter
19:43 - Fraudulent Marketing & Influencer Clowns
24:09 - NZXT's Lies
27:26 - NZXT's Victims
29:49 - Predatory Pricing
32:00 - $15,000 for a 5600X
32:46 - ILLEGAL LOANS
34:43 - CRIMINAL LOANS
36:40 - Aggressive Terms (ft. Lawyer Interview)
37:10 - Lawyer: Punishing Consumers
39:15 - Lawyer: Excessive Billing
43:46 - Lawyer: Major Privacy Concerns
46:32 - MAGIC THE GATHERING LAWYER TANGENT
47:15 - Lawyer: NZXT Protecting Itself vs. Aggression
49:35 - Lawyer: DEATH Waiver
54:19 - Lawyer: No Guarantee on Specs Listed
56:25 - Lawyer: Consumer Rights
58:11 - CONCLUSION

 
I saw a comment elsewhere implying Hanlon's Razor needed to be applied amongst other things, but I didn't get the context. I guess now I have the context.
 
I mean, this slide says pretty much everything, and according to banks in several states, the rate at which they're doing the loan (bottom bar) seems to be downright illegal?

Clipboard01.jpg
 
This might just be a next level of the "fps/$" chart that never tells the whole story of what's going on. The details matter. I'm not interested enough to dig into those details. When you rent something you usually get different rights/benefits compared to owning something. Maybe that factors into it somewhere, or rental might work out better over different time periods than that shown here.
 
Another company ruined by going public. Predatory investors move in and demand immediate high returns, and if they push too hard they bail and target another publicly traded company.
Post magically merged:

mackerel said:
This might just be a next level of the "fps/$" chart that never tells the whole story of what's going on. The details matter. I'm not interested enough to dig into those details. When you rent something you usually get different rights/benefits compared to owning something. Maybe that factors into it somewhere, or rental might work out better over different time periods than that shown here.
Click to expand...
Actually that's the thing. The contract is awful for the consumer. No option to own ever, returns require all original packaging, constantly changing components while jacking up the price. But above all, very misleading by letting people think they will have bleeding edge tech while selling 5 year old CPUs.

Excellent video from GN.
 
Kenrou said:
I mean, this slide says pretty much everything, and according to banks in several states, the rate at which they're doing the loan (bottom bar) seems to be downright illegal?

View attachment 369302
Click to expand...
Rentals are never a good 'value'. The point of most rental items is to use something for an extremely limited period of time (for the product). You pay to rent a car for a week, to use a tool from the hardware store for a weekend, etc. Renting a PC for 5 years sounds asinine even without knowing the price.

I can rent a Nissan Maxima for ~$60 /day. If I rented it for a month, that would cost me $1800. If we extrapolate that out over a 60-month period, that's ~$108K for a ~$38K car. If I bought that car across a 5-year term, with 'excellent' credit, a $41,000 loan with tax is $790 /month for 60 months...or ~$47K+. It's not outlandish, but you've just paid 7K more for a depreciating asset there, too. The good news is that you get to keep it and have capital.

Feels like a typical GN video (soaked in as much sensationalism as there are facts... :( ). I mean, who's watching their videos if Tech Jesus doesn't have a fungia(sp?) face on the thumbnail? :rofl:

Im not saying this is good business, at all, note. But I can't say I was caught off guard by it either. At least, my expression wasn't like Steve's, LOL. :)
 
EarthDog said:
Rentals are never a good 'value'. The point of most rental items is to use something for an extremely limited period of time (for the product). You pay to rent a car for a week, to use a tool from the hardware store for a weekend, etc. Renting a PC for 5 years sounds asinine even without knowing the price.

I can rent a Nissan Maxima for ~$60 /day. If I rented it for a month, that would cost me $1800. If we extrapolate that out over a 60-month period, that's ~$108K for a ~$38K car. If I bought that car across a 5-year term, with 'excellent' credit, a $41,000 loan with tax is $790 /month for 60 months...or ~$47K+. It's not outlandish, but you've just paid 7K more for a depreciating asset there, too. The good news is that you get to keep it and have capital.

Feels like a typical GN video (soaked in as much sensationalism as there are facts... :( ). I mean, who's watching their videos if Tech Jesus doesn't have a fungia(sp?) face on the thumbnail? :rofl:

Im not saying this is good business, at all, note. But I can't say I was caught off guard by it either. At least, my expression wasn't like Steve's, LOL. :)
Click to expand...
Yes GN is a bit of sensational show but it appears most YT creators seem to be the same way these days. I still think the points they made are valid.

You are right, renting isn't meant to be long term but the issue is NZXT and their paid shills are pushing the idea of a "refresh" (getting upgraded components ) every 1-3 years implying it's such a good deal and, apparently, expecting people to do this long term.
 
dumpa said:
Yes GN is a bit of sensational show but it appears most YT creators seem to be the same way these days. I still think the points they made are valid.

You are right, renting isn't meant to be long term but the issue is NZXT and their paid shills are pushing the idea of a "refresh" (getting upgraded components ) every 1-3 years implying it's such a good deal and, apparently, expecting people to do this long term.
Click to expand...
Hey brother, you can't help stupid. That's not in my control, LOL.
 
It's crazy how times have changed. Now some "random dude" from YT has more media influence than some national TV show hosts. Everything started changed with us (millennials). 🤔
 
dumpa said:
It's crazy how times have changed. Now some "random dude" from YT has more media influence than some national TV show hosts. Everything started changed with us (millennials). 🤔
Click to expand...
The only way this makes mainstream local news (not even talking about national) is if someone 'reports' it to the station and they 'investigate'. This is a small(ish) company selling PC parts.

The guys you're seeing with long form video like Tech Jebus and J2C, ARE the news for this industry (for things like this). Years ago this would have likely never come to light outside of some complaints on forums like these.
 
EarthDog said:
The only way this makes mainstream local news (not even talking about national) is if someone 'reports' it to the station and they 'investigate'. This is a small(ish) company selling PC parts.

The guys you're seeing with long form video like Tech Jebus and J2C, ARE the news for this industry (for things like this). Years ago this would have likely never come to light outside of some complaints on forums like these.
Click to expand...
True. But it's just crazy that for millennials and younger generations, these people are more "mainstream" vs traditional media. Hell, I bet for Gen Z, if it's not on TikTok they have no idea it happened!
 
Yeah, I go through this with my kids (13/17). They'll bring something up at the dinner table they saw and if it sounds odd, we probe to see where they got the info from...and it's typically SM. Ick. So we're trying to get them to more reputable sites to confirm/deny and telling them these 'influencers' are not much different than them and can quite literally publish bullshit that everyone will believe. Now, this goes far outside of SM, but, yeah.
 
That CEO is shitting bricks now that everyone knows about his diabolical plan.

Not a good time to be a CEO in America these days.. I wonder why..
 
I haven't watched it yet because....meh, whatever. GN and the other PC-tubers love to gang up on companies, and many of them deserve it. But, who doesn't know about "fake sales" at this point? If you're watching a particular thing on your wish list on Amazon, you know when it's a legit sale or not. Otherwise, that's classic human psychology marketing.
 
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