NZXT Controversy Discussion

[neogunhero]

View: https://youtu.be/0pomC1CfpC0

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-pcs/i-want-to-acknowledge-that-we-messed-up-nzxt-addresses-concerns-about-its-controversial-flex-gaming-pc-rental-program-and-commits-to-taking-action/

Earlier this week, the legends over at Gamer’s Nexus did an hour-long exposé of NZXT’s “predatory” rental PC program. The main issues they brought up were that the system specs seemed to fluctuate by the minute, expensive rental costs, predatory marketing, and general false advertising.

NZXT CEO Johnny Hou has since issued an apology video, stating they will work on fixing things. The PCG article states that while it seems sincere, they did not fully address all the issues they were accused of.

What are your thoughts on this whole situation? Do you think NZXT’s practices are hurting the PC gaming community?


In my opinion, I believe what they are doing absolutely hurts the PC gaming community as a whole. There are three main things that I take major issue with: changing of PC specs “depending on supply and demand”, using old generation hardware. and their social media influencer marketing.

Changing the PC specs based on supply and demand, while not changing the price or model number, just the SKU most people don’t ever pay attention to, is absolutely predatory. They say that it “may give some gamers a free upgrade”, but all I can think about is the poor sucker who paid the same price for a prebuilt including an RTX 4060 as someone who got a RTX 4070 Ti installed in their rig. That is a huge difference in performance that is not reflected in the price.

The next issue is using old hardware but paying current gen prices. The Gamer’s Nexus video goes much more in depth showing how they use 2, sometimes 4 generation old CPU’s but charge prices similar to prebuilts with current gen CPUs.

Finally, may last issue is using influencers to market their rental PC program. These influences target low income people and children mostly. They make the claim that PCs are expensive, why pay full price when you can pay a low monthly price and be able to upgrade in 1-3 years. The issue is that they make a lot of false and misleading claims, which is not entirely the fault of the content creator, but NZXT providing the script for these paid partnership videos. We all know how influential these influencers can be on young people and people who don’t know much about PC gaming hardware. They hook you in with these promising claims, when the reality seems to be a much worse idea than buying it outright or paying over a credit card.

All of these issues combine to become a very predatory situation. NZXT preys on easily susceptible people who have only known console gaming their whole life. PC gaming seems super complicated when all you know is to turn on a box that will play every single game you throw at it. Now you are faced with this infinite selection of different hardware configurations, you don’t want to mess with any of that, you just want a new more expensive box that can play games better than your old box.

I think there is absolutely a time and place for a PC rental/financing program. PCs can be very expensive, and of course financing anything will cost more than buying it in full, but the specific program NZXT offers needs some serious reforming.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I watched a little of the video the other day, its good for consumers the GN is doing this kind of investigation.

NZXT have made some pretty good quality gear in the past but this kind of behaviour by large business doesnt surprise me, unfortunately.

 

[Johnway]

I had the opportunity to watch through all of it and i got to say NZXT have been pretty greasy with their business practices and it verges on anti consumer. I've never used them personally but yeah, not a good image.

 

[JCgames]

Some people like to lease cars. While I think it's a complete waste of money to spend a grand or sometimes way more than that a month on a car, apparently many people think it's a great idea. So, if someone wants to pay 200+ bucks a month to lease a computer and swap um out every year or maybe 6 months. (fine by me. I will still build my own comps.

As for kids listening to influencers, that's on the parents. I'm all for privacy, but parents need to pay attention to what their kids are watching on the internet and do some of their own homework. They are nothing more than paid advertisers just like a commercial you see on TV and parents need to make sure their kids know that. Maybe I'm just old, but the old saying "if your friends jumped off a bridge would you" certainly still rings true.

You said something about computers parts being switched, is that after you pay for your contract? I looked at the page and it clearly says what you are paying for and what you get. Unless they are saying 4070, and you get a 4060, then that's fraud and should be taken up with your consumer protection and state's attorney. But honestly that sounds much more like a supply and demand issue. It sounds more like they are renting way more computers than they thought and are trying to keep up with demand. Which means there is obviously a market for it and perhaps someone else can do it better.

In the end it sounds more like people really need to research things before they buy, but really that's with everything. I literally will look up reviews on everything I buy, even if it's just to skim. I mean everything, (outside of food because in that case me liking it is all that matters. ) Tape, glue, a kitchen spoon ect, i'll take a min and look um up to see if it's worth it. If I'm spending 100 on something, I'm taking a little deeper dive before I buy. Even in a store I'll pull out my phone and look something up not just to see if I can buy it cheaper, but if it's worth buying in the first place.

I did check out their web page and prices and It's not something I would buy, but I could see why someone might want to. for instance, a kid that goes to college and wants system for the semester, or people that just like to upgrade every year or whatever. Unless there is something I'm missing or they are doing a bait and switch, then I don't think they are doing anything wrong. Perhaps it's overpriced, but that's free market and sounds like an area that needs more competition.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm not interested enough to watch the video, but it doesn't bother me that they upgraded people's components when the original supply ran out. No idea how anyone could complain about that. That's how business always works. It's like when my wife rented a Kia for a trip, but the rental place ran out of Kias, so they gave her an Audi, a far superior vehicle. Should all the people before her cry like babies that they got the Kias that they paid for? No, that's ignorant. If I book a hotel room and they have to put me in a suite because they ran out of regular rooms, should all the people in regular rooms stomp around and demand partial refunds? Of course not. This is the way the world works. If you pay for something and it runs out, the business tries to upgrade you to make up for it.

Most of the complaints I saw were just the product of extreme naivety. A lot of younger people are not prepared intellectually for the realities of life. Renting a computer is a horrible idea, and you are going to waste tons of money if you do it, but there's nothing ethically wrong with it. I used to do financial counseling, and you wouldn't believe how many people were paying hundreds of dollars a month to lease living room furniture. It's pure insanity. Stop doing it. Learn basic financial logic and stop complaining.

 

[Colif]

NZXT are owned by an investment company now, they aren't the same people anymore.
So they are using the name to exploit young people by selling them the idea of renting a pc at rates only criminals charge at. Advertising with influenzers (I know that is wrong spelling but it is descriptive) to an audience who don't understand it is a bad idea.
So it is totally reasonable to dump on them.
The rental models have the same names as the ones you could buy but different parts, and monthly payments increase in price without being advised. It's a trap.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

So they are using the name to exploit young people by selling them the idea of renting a pc at rates only criminals charge at. Advertising with influenzers (I know that is wrong spelling but it is descriptive) to an audience who don't understand it is a bad idea.

Its the same thing as cold calling the old and defrauding them out of money for 'antivirus' and so on in my book.

 

[Colif]

And it is rental with no chance of ownership. The contract is not customer friendly. Everything designed to make it hard for customers.
Say you want to return it. You need to send it back unopened so if you open it and find it is wrong, tough luck.
And if you do return it, you have to use the original packaging for all parts. Did you keep the plastic bag mouse was in?
Jays2cents also dropped them as a sponsor

 

[ZedClampet]

Jays2cents also dropped them as a sponsor

Maybe. They said they dropped their influencer program. Never heard of him anyway. I would put influencers in the same category as shady businesses. In fact, they are shady businesses. I would say there are even more examples of influencers behaving badly.

The point is that, at least in the US, you can rent anything. At some point, young people need to realize this is a bad idea. You would think that anyone with basic math skills would realize that.

 

[Pifanjr]

you wouldn't believe how many people were paying hundreds of dollars a month to lease living room furniture.

It did remind me of the concept of leasing furniture, which is also (almost?) always a terrible idea.

Learn basic financial logic and stop complaining.

From what I understand there's a growing problem with teens and young adults buying or renting stuff they can't really afford. I guess nobody taught them basic financial logic, so they're going to learn by making (expensive) mistakes.

 

[ZedClampet]

From what I understand there's a growing problem with teens and young adults buying or renting stuff they can't really afford. I guess nobody taught them basic financial logic, so they're going to learn by making (expensive) mistakes.

It may happen to every generation. You'd think the parents would provide a little wisdom.

 

[Colif]

Never heard of him anyway. I would put influencers in the same category as shady businesses

He isn't an influencer, he is a reviewer just like Steve is. He been doing it since 2012 so its not like he new or anything

 

[neogunhero]

I'm not interested enough to watch the video, but it doesn't bother me that they upgraded people's components when the original supply ran out. No idea how anyone could complain about that. That's how business always works.

I get what you mean, it’s like paying for an Economy seat on a flight but getting a free upgrade to Business because they overbooked and you don’t have to cover the extra costs of the Business seat. That’s not necessarily the same case as what’s going on with NZXT though. That could happen to you, pay the price of a 4060 rig but get a 4070 instead for example, but in this case it’s reverse and the customer would never know. From how I’m understanding it, what GN is saying is two people could be looking at the exact some PC on their webpage at slightly different times, and the price will be the same but the hardware is different. NZXT does not disclose that to the customer and they are none the wiser. So if NZXT knows they can rent the next 5 computers with a 4060 and after that they must switch to a 4070, why wouldn’t they change the price to reflect that? The customer is unaware of their supply and inventory, so to them $200 a month for a 4060 rig sounds good, and that price also seems good to a different customer looking at the same PC but it says it includes the 4070 instead.

I guess the main thing is the price should reflect the hardware configuration. I don’t think they were sending the wrong hardware after you started the contract, it’s the fact that the product page always displays the same price but the hardware will change depending on what time the customer looks at it due to supply and inventory.

As for financial knowledge, yes, renting a PC is a terrible idea. There is a place and time for it, mainly young people who don’t know better. Renting is always predatory because you will always pay more over time than buying outright, but this adds and extra layer of deception to the mix. Financing always seems the better option over renting a PC. You’ll eat the costs in your interest, but at least you get to own it at the end of the contract period.

 

[ZedClampet]

@redf

I get what you mean, it’s like paying for an Economy seat on a flight but getting a free upgrade to Business because they overbooked and you don’t have to cover the extra costs of the Business seat. That’s not necessarily the same case as what’s going on with NZXT though. That could happen to you, pay the price of a 4060 rig but get a 4070 instead for example, but in this case it’s reverse and the customer would never know. From how I’m understanding it, what GN is saying is two people could be looking at the exact some PC on their webpage at slightly different times, and the price will be the same but the hardware is different. NZXT does not disclose that to the customer and they are none the wiser. So if NZXT knows they can rent the next 5 computers with a 4060 and after that they must switch to a 4070, why wouldn’t they change the price to reflect that? The customer is unaware of their supply and inventory, so to them $200 a month for a 4060 rig sounds good, and that price also seems good to a different customer looking at the same PC but it says it includes the 4070 instead.

I guess the main thing is the price should reflect the hardware configuration. I don’t think they were sending the wrong hardware after you started the contract, it’s the fact that the product page always displays the same price but the hardware will change depending on what time the customer looks at it due to supply and inventory.

As for financial knowledge, yes, renting a PC is a terrible idea. There is a place and time for it, mainly young people who don’t know better. Renting is always predatory because you will always pay more over time than buying outright, but this adds and extra layer of deception to the mix. Financing always seems the better option over renting a PC. You’ll eat the costs in your interest, but at least you get to own it at the end of the contract period.

I don't know. I'm hearing conflicting stories, but either way it's a bad program that sucks in people who can't afford it. Financing, as you say, is the much better plan so long as you don't have loan shark levels of interest to pay.

 

[Colif]

Steve replies