ESET Smart Security OEM

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Oubadah

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#171099 6-Apr-2015 15:30

I want to buy ESS for a new build, but the pricing seems a bit inconsistent. On their site, a 1 user 1 year license appears to come in at $84, but the likes of Ascent Tech have 3 user licenses for the same price or $73 for one user. Why would the retailer be cheaper than buying direct from ESET? And then there is a 1 year 1 user "OEM" version available for around $20 from retailers: https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=8435159
Why would I not buy that over the $70-90 version?

Dynamic

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#1277896 6-Apr-2015 16:31

Possible explanation:

When software developers sell direct to the public, they have a duty of care to their reseller/distributor channel not to undercut them. This means discount resellers can sometimes sell cheaper than the manufacturers direct web site sales.

If ESET sold directly to the end-user cheaper than a computer company could sell to their clients, the computer company would buy another manufacturers antivirus software at wholesale prices to sell to their clients.

OEM versions of any software are traditionally supposed to be only sold with a new computer - a cheapish version to get the client onto ESET's antivirus instead of Microsoft's free one for example. It may be a violation of ESET's license agreement for you to be able to buy the OEM version without it being bundled with a computer. Some software manufacturers will care and others will quietly grumble but do nothing.

Source: I used to work for an antivirus distributor.

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Amosnz

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#1277901 6-Apr-2015 16:34

I brought my ESET NOD32 (not smart security) from the Australia site (which seems to be down as I type) where a 3 user pack was much cheaper (in 2012 my 3 computer 2 year licence was $110 - in 2014 it was $120 for 3 computer 3 year renewal).
I used a friends physical address, but I'm not sure anything actually gets mailed.

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