NZXT Scam

[Vya Domus]

please stay in your lane

No. You don't get to tell me what to do either.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Instead of whining about Steve’s tone again, how about you focus on the companies actively exploiting customers with outrageous, unethical practices? GN isn’t doing this for fun—they’re calling out bad actors to protect consumers.

How is offering a bad and expensive product expoiting customers? Every single company wants to charge as much money for their products and services as possible. Only competition and state regulation can prevent them from doing so.

Protect consumers from what? From their own bad decisions? And how exactly did the video help consumers to make good decisions when solving their problem, when it just focused on attacking one company, provided no information about competing services and no useful advice to consumers, other than that they should not use this particular service?

If you’re more upset by how it’s being delivered than the fact that people are getting ripped off, you need to reevaluate your priorities. Your personal vendetta isn’t helping anyone.

I am not a fan of this style of GN reporting, or journalism, or however you want to call it. I have no personal problem with mr. Burke, but I am free to publicly express opinions about his work.

If your definition of 'drama' is GN being harsh and unrelenting in their video, then you're completely missing the point. The reason GN is being harsh/blunt and direct is because NZXT is getting away with predatory practices that harm consumers.

They are not harming consumers, they are providing a service for them. The question is, if consumers should choose this service, and whether better alternatives are available. GN video does not help here.

If GN softened their tone or ‘played nice,’ these scams would continue without consequence ... Sometimes, being harsh/blunt and direct is necessary to get the point across, especially when it comes to criticising companies for predatory/scummy business tactics. If you think that’s 'drama,' then maybe you need to grow up and understand that not everything needs to be sugar-coated to be effective.

I believe that a different video, which would concentrate more on providing useful information for consumers than on attacking a single company would be much more effective and also helpful.

BTW this habit of attacking a single company and not being in the protective framework of an objective review of the competing products or services can one day prove very disastruous for mr. Burke. Especially if the company has everything legally in order. Offering a bad product is not a crime.

 

[authorized]

Protect consumers from what? From their own bad decisions? And how exactly did the video help consumers to make good decisions when solving their problem, when it just focused on attacking one company, provided no information about competing services and no useful advice to consumers, other than that they should not use this particular service?

They did point out an alternative - a loan, even on bad terms, to buy a pc.
Btw, by that logic if a service doesn't have meaningful competition it can't be criticized. That's nonsense.

BTW this habit of attacking a single company and not being in the protective framework of an objective review of the competing products or services can one day prove very disastruous for mr. Burke. Especially if the company has everything legally in order.

He's been running that business for years, I suspect he has a pretty good idea of what he can and cannot publish.
But if it really is you who knows better, he'll get burnt one day. That's his problem though.

Offering a bad product is not a crime.

Neither is criticizing it. Or exposing false and deceptive advertising, which can actually cause trouble with the law.

 

[TheDigitalJedi]

This is nothing but legalized loansharking at its worst.

Tons of companies affiliate themselves with this nonsense. We see this vastly with cell phone companies. I feel bad for people that are desperate enough to participate and agree with these terms. Sadly, people want nice things at any cost. Another sad fact is that most of the consumers that participate with these scam loan companies know what they're signing up for. The woeful reality is that people will digitally sign their name on the dotted line regardless.

 

[freeagent]

they were OVERPRICED, yet, nice looking stuff. Both MBs and cases.

I honestly never liked the look of their stuff. I thought their AIO was a joke when my air cooler was crushing them lol. Nice looking hotboxes I guess.

Better not say the hot part too loud..

 

[eidairaman1]

Buyer beware is the best advice

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

TW this habit of attacking a single company and not being in the protective framework of an objective review of the competing products or services can one day prove very disastruous for mr. Burke. Especially if the company has everything legally in order. Offering a bad product is not a crime.

Its time to stop replying to this schill. He just doesnt get american ways of informing consumers of deceitful practices, plus he doesnt offer any competition examples when called on,

You cant fix clueless.

 

[BigBadLion]

Its time to stop replying to this schill. He just doesnt get american ways of informing consumers of deceitful practices, plus he doesnt offer any competition examples when called on,

You cant fix clueless.

I'd say he's more clueless than anything else, or perhaps too young or blind for the issue to notice? No idea but I don't feel there's malice in his words or anything like that.

This is very similar to loot boxes in games and why they had to be regulated. Companies will try their luck and see how much they can chew and clearly what NZXT was doing here was to offer something very dangerous to the US market, as it's very predatory and dangerous to younger adults/kids which still don't quite grasp these things (specially with the language that was used by their influencers)

 

[Noci]

This thread for sure triggered quite some peeps to give their (unvarnished) opinions clearly mixed with a number of emotions.

In my humble perception not everything is black (illegal) & white (legal), but here is an example of finding/stretching the boundary between dark dark grey and black .

Ethical business practices? Certainly not from my POV, but the ignorant consumer that is easily fooled pays the price.
Once more a typical example of greed in our consumption society, sad but reality and probably only the tip of the iceberg.

Nevertheless I'm still considering the (not released yet) NZXT N9 X870E mainboard as a serious contender in a possible upgrade path, as they do have some nice designs at NZXT.

Let's hope this shitstorm shakes them up a little and make them reconsider their business practices on this matter. Some repair efforts on reputational damage is not misplaced here I think.

 

[Ayhamb99]

NZXT's response

GN's response

Looks like the saga shall continue

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Oh shit. Here we go again....

Seems like NZXT hasnt had enough punishment and want more.


-edited for grammatical errorings.

 

[lexluthermiester]

NZXT should have remained silent rather than release that statement.

 

[y2faulty]

also didn't know NZXT was american

 

[Ruru]

I honestly never liked the look of their stuff. I thought their AIO was a joke when my air cooler was crushing them lol. Nice looking hotboxes I guess.

Better not say the hot part too loud..

Their first cases were pretty dope looking back in the day to be honest, these days they're pretty meh. Also I like the look of their motherboards as well, though they're just rebrands of known manufacturers' boards.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

NZXT should have remained silent rather than release that statement.

That would have been the smartest thing to do. Dont say anything and instead go consult their lawyers and marketing/PR people about how they can go about defusing the situation in the best way that doesnt destroy the company.

Johnny sounds like he just got out of bed and was like "Oh shit. I gotta deal with this right now!" before speaking to his lawyers and PR team.

 

[A Computer Guy]

NZXT should have remained silent rather than release that statement.

Or just fixed their policies.

Oh shit. Here we go again....

Seems like NZXT hasnt had enough punishment and want more.


-edited for grammatical errorings.

Didn't EK have a lot of inventory surplus? If EK partners with NZXT they might be first to market a rent a water-cooled PC option.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Or just fixed their policies.

That's a given.

 

[TheDigitalJedi]

NZXT should have remained silent rather than release that statement.

Agreed.

The man looks like he's reading from a cue card. This is why having a customer relations expert and liaison is important. Coming from a huge corporation we never release statements before we fix the problem. If any of our clientele had issues due to a mistake by the company, we apologized, took care of them and kept their business.

 

[Deleted member 234478]

desperate aatempt trying to save face. down the shets and this is their end. within a year

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Funny how he went to Jayz2cents rather than GN. It would have said a lot more about him and the company if he went to face Steve at GN.

I havent watched the video yet but I predict that Jay probably went easier on them due to him not being the channel that done all the investigating and now continued investigation.

I hope Jay really doesnt hold back.


(watching it now)

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

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.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Yeah. Just as I thought and predicted. Jay played softball with him.

They chatted for 90mins about it but nothing of real value was said.

Jay is not the kind of guy for serious interviews when serious interviews are needed/required. He doesnt like conflict or to rock the boat. whereas Steve will absolutely drill and interrogate till he gets to the bottom of something, some accountability and promises to change and do better. Johnny pretty much got off the hook as far as being interviewed by Jay is concerned.

I didn't expect the interview to amount to anything and I'm still disappointed at the CEOs lack of spine in not taking complete responsibility in what happened and still going on. He knows about it and knows it's been going on for a long time but so long as they are making money cheating and exploiting people, its fair game and he turns a blind eye to it.

If he had any amount of integrity. He'd would have contacted GN and gone to face to face with Steve to really face the issue and accusations head on.

Near the end of the interview when they are wrapping it up Jay says something like Johnny has come out to address the issue just to prove that he's 'not hiding.' But I very much disagree with that statement. The CEO is hiding in plain sight and the interview where nothing of value was really said other than a load of finger pointing and attempting to throw one or both of the partners under the bus and honestly just him really not knowing what the hell is going on with the company further proves my point.

He needs the balls to rein everything in. Do an audit, a deep dive, an investigation - whatever it is to find out whats going on with his company and pull it back on course or step down and let someone else who will take the reins and get the company to clean up their act.


I dont expect anything to change. I think NZXT is over unless the CEO steps down or makes the company clean up its act. They'll eventually get bought out by a holding company just like Corsair.

 

[Veseleil]

Yeah. Just as I thought and predicted. Jay played softball with him.

They chatted for 90mins about it but nothing of real value was said.

Jay is not the kind of guy for serious interviews when serious interviews are needed/required. He doesnt like conflict or to rock the boat. whereas Steve will absolutely drill and interrogate till he gets to the bottom of something, some accountability and promises to change and do better. Johnny pretty much got off the hook as far as being interviewed by Jay is concerned.

I didn't expect the interview to amount to anything and I'm still disappointed at the CEOs lack of spine in not taking complete responsibility in what happened and still going on. He knows about it and knows it's been going on for a long time but so long as they are making money cheating and exploiting people, its fair game and he turns a blind eye to it.

If he had any amount of integrity. He'd would have contacted GN and gone to face to face with Steve to really face the issue and accusations head on.

Near the end of the interview when they are wrapping it up Jay says something like Johnny has come out to address the issue just to prove that he's 'not hiding.' But I very much disagree with that statement. The CEO is hiding in plain sight and the interview where nothing of value was really said other than a load of finger pointing and attempting to throw one or both of the partners under the bus and honestly just him really not knowing what the hell is going on with the company further proves my point.

He needs the balls to rein everything in. Do an audit, a deep dive, an investigation - whatever it is to find out whats going on with his company and pull it back on course or step down and let someone else who will take the reins and get the company to clean up their act.


I dont expect anything to change. I think NZXT is over unless the CEO steps down or makes the company clean up its act. They'll eventually get bought out by a holding company just like Corsair.

Because this whole interview is their mutual agreement to not rock the boat at all. It's not about Jay's inability to have a conflict, but about him doing what he always does - being a shill. I have no respect for that guy, he's a damn clown.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I started watching the new video and saw how Jay was slobbering all over himself and after declaring he wasnt a journalist, tried to be exactly that. Colossal failure J2C.

 

[Hecate91]

I haven't watched all of the interview but Jay is going too soft on this CEO, there is no way the CEO didn't know what was going on, and he doesn't seem to understand why the rental program is an awful service which purposely rips people off.