As I’m keen to evaluate the usability and user experience of other operating systems, I’ve been looking at the reviews of virtualization software such as Parallels and VMware Fusion. It seems that Fusion is the current favoured approach, and I have had previous issues with Parallels, so I decided to buy a license for VMware.
Imagine my joy to discover an error on the VMware online store that allows me to get VMware fusion digital download for half price. If interested, do the following:
- Point your browser at http://www.vmware.com/download/fusion/ and click on ‘purchase a license’ (see diagram below)
- Next click on the ‘Add to cart’ button which adds Vwware Fusion 1.1 to your basket.
- Select the ‘no thanks’ option at the bottom of the screen, you don’t want to add anything else.
- Your shopping cart now says $79.99 (about £40), but at the top right of the screen there’s an option to buy another copy of VMware Fusion for half price. Select the ‘add to cart’ button.
- Your shopping cart now says $119.98, but now you can remove the full price copy by selecting the trash can icon beside the $79.99 copy.
leaving only one copy of VMware Fusion at $39.99.
- Complete the checkout process and you’ll get your serial number and be able to download the software.
After discovering this, I started looking around other parts of the store. If you go to www.vmware.com/vmwarestore you’ll see towards the bottom of the page it says ‘Buy one, get one 50% off’. Clicking the ‘buy now’ button shows that someone at VMware is struggling with percentages. Buy one, get one 50% off should lead to a total price of $79.99 + $39.99 = $119.98, however the shopping cart says $79.99. Nice, buy two but pay for one. Incidentally, the same trick of removing a copy works here too. Please take full advantage of these ‘special’ offers while they last
“Please take full advantage of these ’special’ offers while they last”
Did you do this? Did you check that it was part of their current trading practice beforehand? Or did you just take advantage of a failure of their software to thieve from them? And did feel more ‘justified’ after exhorting others to steal along with you?
Bargaining is a normal trade practice because the vendor is part of the process and agrees to the outcome. If they are not, it’s theft whether they lose 50% (of the offered price here) or 100% when you run out of their shop with it under your jacket…