Laptop that can be remotely bricked for not paying bills

[Osiris]

Unpaid Bills? Good Luck Starting Future Laptops

What do you think of a laptop, one that is subsidized by your internet service provider, that can be remotely bricked if you stop paying your internet bill?

LM Ericsson AB, the Swedish company that makes many of the modems that go into laptops, announced Tuesday that its new modem will deal with this issue by including a feature that's virtually a wireless repo man. If the carrier has the stomach to do so, it can send a signal that completely disables the computer, making it impossible to turn on.
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[Hefemeister]

Yeah I just got an offer for one of these deals so I will explain how it works. You get a computer and a wireless card and sign a two year contract. During the 2 year contract a portion of your monthly payment goes toward the internet service and the other part goes to paying off the computer. They actually sell the computers for slightly less than retail.

Under these circumstances I do not really have a problem with them bricking you computer if you are not paying your bill. If you do not make your car payment they will come and repo your car so it is kinda the same thing.

 

[hikaricloud]

That's just weird. I know the local internet service where my mom lives gives away computers with new service to broaden support for it's DSL coverage. She got a crappy dell desktop/monitor/keyboard setup, and now they're giving out these 8 or 9 inch dell netbooks...but nothing like the whole bricking thing.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

IMO, this could be the start of a GOOD thing for some smaller companies. I used to work at a shop that would sell "custom" laptops but the customers 90% of the time wouldn't pay there bill, it was NOT easy to get them to cough up the cash, especially if they had already taken it to a pawn shop.... That would have made it easier, completely disabling the pc it self... IMO, make it more powerful and let it integrate itself into the motherboard and BIOS to totally brick it.

 

[hikaricloud]

We solve that at our shop by taking a % up front, then the rest when we get the parts/computer.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

We took quite a bit up front as well, just enough to actualy cover the cost of the unit, but at times, we had customers that would come in the shop when one of the techs would have to take a **** and take there laptop with out paying for it, happened often because at times we had only one person scheduled to work...