Herbert Graf wrote:
> Very true. But remember, samples have TWO purposes for many companies,
> one of those being to get FUTURE customers used to your product so that
> they choose your product when they become a big customer.

I agree.


>> How about this alternative for students: have their accounts verified by
>> their professor, or ship the free samples only to university/college/high
>> school addresses?
>
> Way too much work, on both the students part (much of my work during
> school wasn't FOR school), the profs (trust me, they are not interested
> in more work) and the companies (confirming a prof is a prof?). As a
> student I would have considered a manu requiring this not worth my time
> given their competition didn't have those requirements.

Well OK, how about just requiring that the package be shipped to a school 
address and addressed to a Prof.?

Remember that we're talking about a potentially "all-or-nothing" situation. 
If Microchip can easily write off the losses due to abuse, there's nothing 
to argue about. However back in August they said that the scammers forced 
them to cancel the free samples program, so it must have been serious 
enough.

In any case, the bottom line is that they can find ways to stop the abuse 
without causing too much inconvenience to the legitimate users.

Vitaliy


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