I don’t see a thread about the current NZXT stuff. There was an old one concerning the PCI risers, but I decided to start a new one instead of resurrecting that one. If I missed it, let me know and I’ll delete this one.
So Gamers Nexus did a whole video on the NZXT rental PC program. This isn’t a rent-to-own. It’s a pure rental you send back at the end. GN cited the hardware would change (in a non obvious manner) if you flipped between Buy vs Rent, and that the pricing was obscene.
Meanwhile on JayZTwoCents, he was surprised by getting a face-to-face interview with the founder of NZXT. The CEO admits/owns some things, but dances around others. The rentals came through another vendor they contracted with, but it was under the NZXT brand/website. He claims the price increases Steve saw were due to sales taxes and he should have got an e-mail notice:
I realize there’s probably zero people in this forum that would rent a gaming PC. I think I had one NZXT case forever ago, but I sold it. Are any of you following this? What are your thoughts? Do you think Steve is going to call out the CEO of NZXT for lying, or do you think some of the stuff he claimed is legit and GN might walk back some of their statement?
Hard to say about the lying but when you have some investors that are looking for ONLY returns on the dollar, then things can spiral out of control due to this influence/pressure.
I think the NZXT CEO is very likely embellishing the facts of what has happened from their end. I don’t see GN back-peddling on much if anything. They might on the email if it was error on their end, but I have some doubts they received it. Kudo’s for him doing this interview, but I’m overall disappointed that it was even allowed for the rentals to exist in its current state.
I’m personally not buying anything off of them going forward or recommending anyone else to buy their products. Which kinda sucks. I really liked their older cases and the newer components(AIO, PSU, etc) they made.
Not really. NZXT’s been obviously iffy for a while, making GN’s rental expose just further confirmation, and it’s not like additional deprioritization noticeably reduces the likelihood I’d use their parts in a build.
I listened to the entire interview that JayZTwoCents, and from my small business background this is my reading between the lines:
-They thought up what they thought was a cool, novel idea, and just implemented it and started experimenting with it faster than they thought through the whole program. On a much smaller scale, I’ve done it.
-They’re still adjusting everything on the fly because they’re experimenting with it, and that looks awfully consumer-unfriendly all put together, where from exclusively from a business perspective they think it’s just refining the offering.
-They definitely got in a partnership with a really shitty lender, who may have gotten themselves locked in with an advantage. And they definitely don’t have a thorough understanding because of so much of it going through this other company, doubling down on the not fully considered part. There’s tons of them that are just the scum of the earth, and either NZXT don’t think they can get out of it and change things, or maybe Fragile has them contractually by the balls, it’s hard to tell with how awful a lot of terms can be. And I think that’s probably the biggest part of this.
I know if it were me, and I looked at the brass tacks of these specific things:
My (company) name is attached, directly or indirectly, to “renting” a product at such a high cost that it would be illegal if structured as rent-to-own vis a vis a “service fee.”
Even if it is legal, it is so far beyond the pale of what is ethical – is there a reasonable scenario where time-limited short-term rental would make sense?
The interview with Jay the NZXT Ceo let slip that if fragle deals with a returned machine and re-rents it, NZXT still benefits financially from this transaction. This means that NZXT’s hands are unclean. This is, imho, a worse ethical situation than “we make and sell a product; this other company buys our product and offers a service where you can rent it”
That is, a Dell laptop sold at a rent-a-center… Dell doesn’t get a cut of the profits from that. Here? Doesn’t look good.
In my mind these kinds of things that have washed out of the situation is tantamount to saying “Hey, we’re willing to do unethical things in the extreme – far beyond the unethical things your local typical rent-a-center does, in order to make a buck.” which is never a good look for any company. Sure, it’s legal, but that’s a kind of stink that does not wash off for years, if not decades.
Gamers Nexus responses. It’s both really funny, and insanely sad (not for GN; for NZXT and any other shitty players in the PC hardware industry in general). I’m not a lawyer, but I feel like they did their due diligence, and crossed their tees and dotted their iyes on this video.
