> I view all "free for life" promotions like this. Indeed. On Facebook, I kept seeing ads for some cloud computer provider offering a "for life" VM for $100.

> I view all "free for life" promotions like this. Indeed. On Facebook, I kept seeing ads for some cloud computer provider offering a "for life" VM for $100. I'm like, first off, that's going to be a very low-end VM. Second, "for life" is probably going to end in <5 years when they discover how much that actually costs them, or the company bombs. > Absolutely cost them more than the savings they thought they were gaining (probably cost them more than their savings in just the first month). How is it costing them money if they already got your $400 and aren't paying anything monthly? If anything, keeping you around was costing them money. The only thing they're losing is lost sales from negative word-of-mouth, but that's very hard to quantify.