You could get your PC upgraded for $99 if you also bought 24 months of dial-up Internet service through them. But you also had to pay shipping both ways, and be out the use of your computer while you did it! That seems so inconvenient I imagine almost nobody bothered. eMachines certainly expected people wouldn’t, making the whole thing little more than a carefully calculated marketing tactic. And it worked.
That said, their machines were very competitively priced even without the upgrade deal, and it really disrupted the incumbents, making them good value machines even if you didn’t take them up on the dubious “never obsolete” offer.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this was a programme where they would upgrade/replace your setup for free every year or so.
That’s right. There’s an insightful blog article if you want to learn the full story.
You could get your PC upgraded for $99 if you also bought 24 months of dial-up Internet service through them. But you also had to pay shipping both ways, and be out the use of your computer while you did it! That seems so inconvenient I imagine almost nobody bothered. eMachines certainly expected people wouldn’t, making the whole thing little more than a carefully calculated marketing tactic. And it worked.
That said, their machines were very competitively priced even without the upgrade deal, and it really disrupted the incumbents, making them good value machines even if you didn’t take them up on the dubious “never obsolete” offer.