Jebus. You'd think by now that these companies would have figured out that the logical response is acknowledgement, investigation, action, statement, and demonstration of lessons learned. Unfortunately another company has questionable practices, and when called out on it seems to crap the proverbial bed. I...just wow.
I prefer to separate the company policies from the products...because a bad company can release good product and a bad product can come from a good company. The problem is that the whole lease to own thing is usually not as straight forward as you might think...and with pricing being what it is, getting into this market produces a lot of scum. Think about payday loans as a prime example of a debt trap that is insanely lucrative, and often nearly impossible to get out of once its been engaged.
I'm a fan of GN for the reporting...if a little less about somewhat hyperbolic statements meant to get videos viewed. That said, it's the nature of attention seeking entities. If NZXT had released the most dish-water dull statement of "we are aware of the concerns, and have launched an internal investigation" they'd have bought weeks to get their ducks in a row...and maybe introduce the bare minimum changes required to make GN's issues go away. Unfortunately they decided to take the "look at what I did" approach, and speak out against their accusers directly. That's...while it isn't a mortal sin to be stupid, they have most assuredly demonstrated that licking windows isn't a healthy habit.
My reaction aside, do we care enough about NZXT as a community to wish them to do better, and to hold them to account? I...do not believe that anybody out there will be significantly harmed if they go under. Speaking as someone who at one point liked their huge cases, and enjoyed the minimalist black with a single color stripe, had at least two cases with some pretty shoddy work and a serious amount of hot glue holding critical components in place. Today, for the same price, I can get stuff that absolutely is amazing (Silverstone's Grandia series is the PC hiding as a receiver I never knew I wanted). I think scummy practices are top down...and the response that you didn't know who was responsible either indicates a company run by profit margin rather than product, or leadership so out of touch that it's just a corporate entity.
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