Wayne E. Bouchard wrote:
I've never been happy with 'deinstall' fees of any sort. To me, this is just a cost of doing business. The time necessary to remove such is just accepted. It is assumed that the terms of the contract are long enough that such costs become insignificant and should not be something that gets passed along. Besides, if you turn right around and reuse this for someone else, you haven't done a deinstall and are therefore charging the customer for work that you did not actually perform.
There are several different ways to argue both for and against such fees but they always rub me the wrong way whenever I see them.
Perversely these fees have gotten as far as residential broadband subscribers in the UK. BT Wholesale now charge a line disconnection fee, which is being applied retrospectively to all contracts. On the flip side, the new WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) regulations make disposal of electronic equipment the responsibility of the manufacturer.