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Comment by wongarsu | Hacker News Reader

To a consumer it's fine. For a business the amount of money spent is only one part of the equation. Some places will have spent significant time both in the procurement process and setting this thing up. Time that can be translated to opportunity cost.

As the person proposing such purchases you want to be able to show successes. Amazon just bricking it means you don't have much to show for, probably burnt political capital for nothing to get these, and if anyone was opposed to getting these they are now proven right.

Both on the organizational and individual level these kinds of things are far more impactful in business products than in a hobbyist product

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> To a consumer it's fine.

Is it? Let’s say I buy a Foo rather than a Bar because it brings better value for money. A few months later, the device is bricked, and I get my money back, but Bar doesn’t sell my 2nd choice anymore or it got more expensive.

Even if it isn’t, I may have made additional investments in time (e.g. learning how to operate it) or money (e.g. buying an longer charging cable) that I won’t get back.

I think basically any consumer buying something like this thinks of it as an expensive toy, not a permanent investment in their lifestyle. What would the Bar even be to the Astro's Foo?

Definitely not ok with Comsumer products either, especially once they are in this price range.

It's basically in the range of an expensive laptop, fancy fridge + dishwasher, big couch, etc... Something that might have taken multiple weekends to shop for and maybe even a day off work to get delivered, possibly followed by months of personalization for an electronics product like a laptop.

It's also not necessarily super easy to refund money to a business. I know that accounts receivable at my company is a serious pain in the ass, and it's not a given that refunds on anything purchased via PO are gonna be easy or quick. And of course there are restrictions on how you can purchase things that might easily have required these to be bought via PO (rather than corporate CC).

It's not only a refund. It's a refund + $300 credits.

Have fun doing accounting for those credits.

Exactly, time is money. Amazon wasted customer time, therefore money.

Very bad look.

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