Sony Retracts Bloatware Removal Fee

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Sony has responded to the massive uproar that erupted Friday over the company charging to remove bloatware by removing the $50 fee. From now on, bloatware removal from its VAIO line of notebooks will be free. Thanks to Monkey34 for the link.

Fresh Start is a Sony feature that lets customers buy certain laptops without so-called "bloatware," trial software that laptop makers often load onto new machines. Sony was asking buyers of the Vaio TZ2000 and Vaio TZ2500 notebooks with the Windows Vista Business OS to pay $49.99 for the removal of the extra software. Those customers already pay an additional $100 to upgrade to Windows Vista Business OS from Windows Vista Home Premium.
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Ockie said:
A good ending to a story :)
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Although a good ending, it should never have happened to start with, honestly. Sounded like a lame way to leech some extra green out of unsuspecting buyers. And yes I fully know that those companies make bank off of the crapware they install, but they way they wanted to go about it seemed cheesy.
 
well i'm on my 3rd pair of sony headphones in the last 6 months or so, the wiring keeps crapping out. hows that for more? its not much but something else to toss on the fire.
 
Didn't Dell used to do somthing similar a few years ago? I think it was the option to order without an OS installed though.
 
Just another reason why I no longer buy Sony products, if I can avoid it. After the whole rootkit fiasco, they become a company I could no longer trust. It will take them years of goodwill to make me want to buy their products again.

R.I.P. HD DVD
 
Glad to see some more positive news stories. I'm not a daily reader, but I've been annoyed with all the negativity in media surrounding corporations and their "big evil hand" that somehow grips the general populace and intrudes into all aspects of their life. Unfortunately, these kinds of news stories don't usually make it to the mass media outlets.
 
I’ve got one more to go and I’ll be Sony-free, the wife’s monitor.

Every time I see that logo I want to take a side grinder to it.
 
At least they responded quickly. Despite their initial screw up, they managed to humbly admit the FUBAR and got rid of it.
 
This is NOT a positive development. This is simply another example showing how naive the average consumer is about how business works.

Sony makes MONEY off kick-backs on the bloatware, just as Dell, HP, etc. do.
That is why they were charging $50 to remove it -- because not preloading it lowers their profit margin on the machine.

The cost of having the option to NOT preload bloatware will now be passed on to EVERYONE. Basically, you can expect Sony to probably increase the ASP of ALL their systems across the board by $10-20 to cover revenue lost on those units that people choose the no bloatware option.

Sony is NOT going to just give up the cash and lower their profits -- it WILL be passed on to the consumer (but it likely will be phased in slowly and in a manner that is hidden so that no ruckus is raised).

This is the exact same reason that Dell charges the same (or MORE) for their Linux or No OS PC's compared to their Vista Home Basic PC's. Dell probably receives on average $40+ in kickbacks for preloading "bloatware" -- where the average licensing fee they pay to MS for Vista Home Basic is probably under $30/unit. With a Linux or no OS unit, they can't preload the bloatware -- hence, no revenue stream. This means they actually have a LOWER profit margin on Linux/No OS units than they would on the same Windows PC. In essence, the NET cost of Windows to the consumer is LESS than free due to the kickbacks the manufacturers receive from "bloatware".

WAKE UP PEOPLE -- there ain't no such thing as a free lunch!

I say, bring on the bloatware!
If it lowers my out the door cost for a PC, I'm all for it.
I have master images for every PC I support in business and at home already pre-configured -- so I immediately wipe every system that comes in the door anyway (they never even get booted and the click through Dell/HP/etc license on them has never even been displayed either).
 
The $50 fee was ridiculous from the start. That would be like a fast food restaurant charging me $0.50 to remove the tomato from my cheesburger.
 
"fine fine, chill the fuck out people. We'll get rid of the $50 fee. Jesus. *ups the cost of all laptops by $50.* there its gone."
 
I have an idea...instead of taking the time to put all the bloatware into the computers in the first place, why not just not have it, and ask if you WANT bloatware, and it can be installed accordingly.
 
VolvoR said:
I have an idea...instead of taking the time to put all the bloatware into the computers in the first place, why not just not have it, and ask if you WANT bloatware, and it can be installed accordingly.
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Because manufacturers get kickbacks from the companies that make the software that's put on the systems. That lowers the cost of building them, which means more money in everyone's pocket.
 
HOCP4ME said:
The $50 fee was ridiculous from the start. That would be like a fast food restaurant charging me $0.50 to remove the tomato from my cheesburger.
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No, a better analogy would be a fast food restaurant asking you to watch a 1 minute commercial in exchange for a free cheeseburger (with the advertiser in the commercial actually paying for the cheeseburger). So, if you declined to watch the commercial, you wouldn't exactly expect them to still give you the cheeseburger for free would you?
 
HOCP4ME said:
The $50 fee was ridiculous from the start. That would be like a fast food restaurant charging me $0.50 to remove the tomato from my cheesburger.
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It has already happened to me. I went to Burger King and they had the Western Whopper for $1.49 I asked them to leave the BBQ sauce off. The wanted to charge me $1.99 (the cost at the time for a regular whopper.)
 
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