Sure, with any return/warranty program you open yourself up to abuse. But of course your methods for detecting the difference between abusers and honest customers are never going to be 100% accurate. So I think the question is do you design your policies so that no abuses slip through the cracks but you also prevent honest repairs thereby screwing over some of your customers? Or do you design policies that open you up to abuse but only in some very extreme incidents make you falsely deny claims?

Personally I like to buy from companies that offer service with less hassle involved. I think a lot of people feel this way. Heck it's the type of thing Apple has built their reputation on. And since, as is often extremely well elaborated here on Slashdot, purchases of Apple products are largely based on reputation instead of technical aspects they're a company that especially risks screwing themselves over with a policy like this.

The point of a moat around a castle wasn't to drown idiots. It was to create a no-man's land around the walls of the castle.

It's very hard to bring a battering ram up to the gate when the draw bridge is up and there's 30 feet of water in front of it. Same thing goes for siege towers and the like.

The other cool thing a moat does for you is that it stops anyone from digging under your walls. It's extremely hard to dig a tunnel when your ceiling keeps caving in and drowning your digging team.

You seem to be writing an inflammatory email. Should I help make sure it doesn't go to your boss?

Or

You seem to be writing a drunken email to your ex-girlfriend. Are you sure you want to do this?

I think one major reason that the XBox gets so much coverage of its hardware failures is because they have a good name and visual. It's easy to talk about the dreaded Red Ring of Death much less interesting to talk about hardware failures or scratched disks. Language goes a long way towards shaping the debate.

I don't understand what's so wrong with that though. If you didn't pay anything for the app then who cares, so you lost 30 seconds. I'd be much angrier if I paid for something only to discover later that it's useless unless I pay more.

A better solution would be to allow in ap payments but only if users were notified before they purchased the original ap. That way at least you know what you're getting.

There's a little company out there called Berkshire Hathaway. They're down a bit right now trading at a little under $100,000 per share. But if Warren Buffett died you could watch that number tumble like baby Jessica falling down a well.

Really? My cell phone doesn't work in the basement of my house. Was this some sort of magic super cell phone? And where do I buy one?