Linus messed up with the "Trust me bro Warranty" T-shirt

[Ankit Sharma]

I have been a long time follower of LMG and Linus in particular (Since NCIX) but I have never felt anything he did was more in poor taste than this "Trust me Bro Warranty" gag.

The community was right about this and Linus got it wrong, I am not sure why Linus can't just take being wrong on the chin and move on. Making fun of this was not required. Yeah it may have sold a lot but that is not a metric for being a good person which I think Linus genuinely is. I have grown up learning from this guy and I am in the tech world today because of him and I am very happy to credit him for it.
I post this in the forum even though I am not very active here, and not on Twitter or something since I think this platform is slightly more respectable with the audience and hopefully @LinusTech will read this and realise that he can get it wrong. He is a role model to a lot of people, me included.

I hope you see what is wrong here Linus. I do not know what you should do to fix it or if it needs fixing but as a long time fan of your nature more than anything else, I hope you will fix this.

[NovaNightmare]

No matter what happens, people will find a reason to complain, it is actually quite hilarious. In one thread, some still go on about a warranty even though there is now an official one listed and no one received the item without the warranty. Here you are going on about a shirt that is utterly and completely irrelevant to anything, and is apparently selling tons of them, so whether or not your sensibilities are offended by it doesn't matter. People have spoken with their wallets.

 

In my own opinion, I do not care at all if they are selling the shirt or not. I'm past the wearing shirts with big printing on them portion of life. LTT is a brand, and a business that is providing content and products, and if the users of this content want the products being offered, they'll keep making them. Does it make it good or bad? Well EA keeps making Madden and horrendously monetizing it, but people keep buying them. Doesn't make it anything at all. It isn't worth the time of day if people want to buy that shirt, good for them, and if they don't, good for them too.

 

Just to add one other thing, that entire idea for the shirt was put up by another user and it became reality.

[Ankit Sharma]

I have not mentioned the backpack or any other product once in my post, so you can see how funny it was that you mentioned it in yours, which was not something that was related to my post. The reaction Linus had to people asking for warranty (which was a legitimate request) was a bad one. 
Linus knew and understood this and accepted it as well, therefore we have a warranty today. 

Now that the mistake has been accepted, it does not mean that he should go and effectively make fun of the people who raised this legitimate concern. The T-shirt was in bad taste, whether it sold well or not does not change that. Luke agrees with this sentiment as well. When you have done the right thing by correcting the Warranty mistake, making fun of the people who called you out on it is the kind of thing I expect from brands that don't care about their consumer base. Linus has never seemed to be that kind of person and has said a lot of things in the past to show that as well. I think Linus himself would be ashamed of being compared to EA of all people.

The fact that somebody recommended it does not make it any less bad. If Linus was to be recommended a "KYS and claim warranty" T-shirt idea, he would never approve it. The T-shirt does not become reality out of thin air, the approver is Linus so it does not matter if it was recommended by anyone else since Linus Okayed this. This is not a vote by wallet scenario since Linus has basically used the fanbase to make fun of/ popularise the idea that asking for the Warranty was not a serious thing. Which it 100% was. That warranty was required.

Your preference of what shirt you prefer wearing has no point here though so I am not sure why you mentioned that. 

[NovaNightmare]

You mentioned the warranty shirt, thus you've implicitly mentioned the backpack, where the warranty issue and warranty shirt originated.

 

If you feel a shirt is making fun of you, you are taking it too personally, and my mention of my own taste in shirt is simply to state that while I do not like the shirt myself, plenty of other people do and they have spoken with their wallet. You can also speak with your wallet and not buy it.

[yolosnail]

Steve made a very good point in the latest GN video, if someone like Artesian Builds pulled a similar move after their drama, would you look at it the same way as you would with LMG?

 

I very much doubt it.

[dogwitch]

1 hour ago, yolosnail said:

Steve made a very good point in the latest GN video, if someone like Artesian Builds pulled a similar move after their drama, would you look at it the same way as you would with LMG?

 

I very much doubt it.

really? he made that video for views. Nothing else.  quoting a multi gran computer build  vs   250 buck back pack that cheap. but but. hiking backpacks and such are over 100 bucks.   people really dont know teir pricing of products.

[yolosnail]

6 minutes ago, dogwitch said:

really? he made that video for views. Nothing else.  quoting a multi gran computer build  vs   250 buck back pack that cheap. but but. hiking backpacks and such are over 100 bucks.   people really dont know teir pricing of products.

 

Eh, do you mind repeating that in a way that actually makes sense?

[dogwitch]

Just now, yolosnail said:

 

Eh, do you mind repeating that in a way that actually makes sense?

gn drama video. for ad money.

a 250 back pack is cheap.

dont you know about cost of hiking backpacks?

dont you know what a tier product is?

[yolosnail]

1 minute ago, dogwitch said:

gn drama video. for ad money.

a 250 back pack is cheap.

dont you know about cost of hiking backpacks?

dont you know what a tier product is?

Right. 

What has that got to do with anything I said?

What has that got to do with a t-shirt?

What has that got to do with a warranty?

[dogwitch]

 

so warranty. he selling to both usa and world. legal he warranty is only valid in Canada...

you got mad about a t shirt.

you quoted a pc building company. no where near the same thing as a screw driver,clothing and backopack.

and you quoted from poor man Puget system  dude.(steve)

[manikyath]

the 'trust me bro' warranty shirt is probably in poor taste, or at least in poor timing. (should perhaps have been released *after* the official warranty was set in writing, not before.)

 

having that said... still a hilareous shirt, never waste a good crisis?

 

on the GN side.. Steve is Steve, and in my opinion he makes a very good point: LTT store meming is hilareous, but it's a company, and there are certain things that a company should not "meme" about, such as customers having a honest concern about warranty. everyone talks about the difference between people rage-tweeting vs the people meme-tweeting, but steve's concern is about the quiet people sitting in between feeling like the child of divorced parents.

 

also.. for people who might have missed the memo.. Steve's take on this is simple: in his opinion the shirt was in very poor taste, and this situation is also a wakeup call to him, that the merch shop of himself and other youtubers should, in his reviews, be held to the exact same standards of other businesses.

 

as for myself, i suppose for me it's easy to take a stance on this, because i'm too deterred by the problems of long distance shipping to actually buy LTTstore stuff, despite the fact i really want the backpack and screwdriver - the fact is it's just too expensive to get them here, and the chance of issues along the way is too big. i'm - in a sense - a "disinterested party". i never assumed a warranty past "this came wrong out the factory" on anything LTT sells, and i guess this was linus's viewpoint too. however i do see how a $250 backpack is crossing that line towards a point where some hard rules should be set in stone.

 

then again.. i bought a €200 laptop bag somewhat recently, and past it arriving intact i assumed zero warranty on this item, because you can bet your ass the manufacturer will just say "you used it wrong" anyways. the only value of a warranty policy is the willingness of the company to support you.. perhaps LMG should have just put *that* in writing instead?

 

overall.. IMO a solid 5/10 for how this whole thing is going.. both for the not-quite-right way LMG handled things, *and* for the people on both sides of the shoutfest of meming and raging.

All in all, i kind of follow steve most in this, because he seems to be one of the few people in this whole ordeal able to take a step back and reflect on one very important question: "was my own view on this correct?"

[rentaspoon]

3 hours ago, yolosnail said:

Steve made a very good point in the latest GN video, if someone like Artesian Builds pulled a similar move after their drama, would you look at it the same way as you would with LMG?

 

I very much doubt it.

Artisan builds screwed over a partner and broke a law and then took enjoyment over it.

 

LMG haven't even come close to the muck up that is Artisan Builds, have implemented a warranty and then made light of the drama.

[Arika]

31 minutes ago, rentaspoon said:

have implemented a warranty and then made light of the drama.

but is also making a mockery of the people who weren't happy there wasn't a warranty to begin with.

 

i would seriously recommend the recent coverage GN did on the situation

 

(time stamped)

 

Linus is laughing away at everything while Luke is just thinking "shut up man, you're making it worse"

[DeerDK]

16 minutes ago, Arika S said:

but is also making a mockery of the people who weren't happy there wasn't a warranty to begin with.

 

i would seriously recommend the recent coverage GN did on the situation

 

(time stamped)

 

Linus is laughing away at everything while Luke is just thinking "shut up man, you're making it worse"

I honestly think that the shirt was meant as a self burn,  but I agree that Linus sometimes seems to have his head in the clouds in terms of what is good practice in general, just because he himself wouldn't consider skewing people over. 

Its the same as when he said that he would feel it like a personal defeat if his employees would want a union, as he should be providing good enough conditions. 

I get what he means from an "altruistic" standpoint, but he completely misses the point of leveling the playing field and ensuring safeguards while everyone are still on good terms. 

Dunno, maybe he is working on his med dosage again. He told some time ago that it had made him a bit more...easy excitable or something. 

Edited August 25, 2022 by DeerDK
A few typos

[rentaspoon]

5 minutes ago, Arika S said:

but is also making a mockery of the people who weren't happy there wasn't a warranty to begin with.

 

i would seriously recommend the recent coverage GN did on the situation

 

(time stamped)

 

Linus is laughing away at everything while Luke is just thinking "shut up man, you're making it worse"

Yeah watched it this morning, I really feel like it pulls the WAN show out of context, was a bit disappointed to see Steve produce some journalism this way.

 

He made some pretty bold allegations.

[Arika]

4 minutes ago, DeerDK said:

I honestly think that the shirt wad ment as a self burn

No it absolutely was NOT.

 

With how he was talking about it, it was 100% created to profit off the drama.

 

All he needed to do was say "i'm sorry, we messed up, here's the warranty". that's it, nothing more. instead he goes on to make a shirt mocking the situation, making excuses and playing the victim by saying "So it comes down to trust no matter what, and i thought you guys saw me the same way, which was kind of heartbreaking actually"

 

 

2 minutes ago, rentaspoon said:

I really feel like it pulls the WAN show out of context,

i don't think it does at all. i watched the original wan show and nothing was taken out of context in this video. what do you think was wrong about steve's coverage?

 

[DeerDK]

11 minutes ago, Arika S said:

No it absolutely was NOT.

 

With how he was talking about it, it was 100% created to profit off the drama.

 

All he needed to do was say "i'm sorry, we messed up, here's the warranty". that's it, nothing more. instead he goes on to make a shirt mocking the situation, making excuses... 

 

Im not saying he handles it well. And he is definitely gloating a bit since it sells well. But the initial idea may still have come from a place of self irony (is that a term in English?). 

But Im with Luke. Linus is missing the core point. 

But i do not believe that he is willfully trying to skrew people over. Just out of touch on people wanting it in writing is not a personal attack on his integrity. 

[Arika]

7 minutes ago, DeerDK said:

But i do not believe that he is willfully trying to skrew people over.

I don't think he was either, but he's trying to put the blame everywhere but on himself. 

 

And you're falling for it with:

8 minutes ago, DeerDK said:

Just out of touch on people wanting it in writing

please tell me how is it "out of touch" to want a warranty for something you're buying? Linus is not your friend, he's the CEO of a company. Would you accept a tweet from any other company's CEO saying "we'll take care of it 100%" as warranty? or do you want it in writing and know exactly what the terms are?

 

Don't change your opinion on something just because it's Linus.

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

41 minutes ago, rentaspoon said:

I really feel like it pulls the WAN show out of context,

The context was exactly that. Linus thought a T-Shirt about the issue would be a popular sale, and it was.

37 minutes ago, Arika S said:

With how he was talking about it, it was 100% created to profit off the drama.

That's how I understand it as well. I think that's the point Linus was making: "Only a few loud people are upset, we had very few orders cancellations and the T-Shirt is selling like fire, meaning most poeple don't care about the warranty issue, people trust our customer care and the issue is blown out of proportion."

Which I think is a correct assessment. I wasn't particularly bothered by the warranty issue either and I only found out about it during the WAN show. I did not agree with the argument "But what if I die and my successors at LMG want to deny warranty?"

 

I think the point Luke and Steve from GN make is that the concern about warrantly is legitimate and the T-Shirt is in bad taste and will serve only to keep the drama alive longer. Which I think is a correct statement as well.

I think all companies need to balance profits and ethics. Clickbait titles measurably bring in more views. "Trust Me Bro" T-Shirt measurably brings in more sales. Conceding on the ethics issue of a loud minority would have incurred in a minor short term miss in profit, whith a maybe nebolous image gain in the future.

6 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Linus is not your friend, he's the CEO of a company

Linus conceded on the issue in the very same WAN show where he announced the T-Shirt.

[DeerDK]

12 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Don't change your opinion on something just because it's Linus. 

Im not. Im just going by the "Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity" philosophy.

 

--------

Edit: You misunderstood me, I said that Linus was out of touch for not understanding people. 

-------

And no, im not accepting that we should trust the word of the ceo over a written agreement. Never said that. But i have listened to WAN in over a year now, and its not the first time Linus misses the point in the value of clearly defined agreements. Like with Unions. Or when he said that he got provoked when people would go by the book instead of on a personal interaction. I don't think he is a very good Manager/HR person, even if he seems to have his heart in the right place, mostly. 

[DeerDK]

9 minutes ago, 05032-Mendicant-Bias said:

... I wasn't particularly bothered by the warranty issue either and I only found out about it during the WAN show. I did not agree with the argument "But what if I die and my successors at LMG want to deny warranty?"

... 

That one really rubbed me the wrong way as well. It's like "THIS IS WHY WE NEED IT IN WRITING" 

[dogwitch]

58 minutes ago, rentaspoon said:

Yeah watched it this morning, I really feel like it pulls the WAN show out of context, was a bit disappointed to see Steve produce some journalism this way.

 

He made some pretty bold allegations.

he needs drama. to get views. nothing more.

[Ankit Sharma]

8 hours ago, NovaNightmare said:

You mentioned the warranty shirt, thus you've implicitly mentioned the backpack, where the warranty issue and warranty shirt originated.

 

If you feel a shirt is making fun of you, you are taking it too personally, and my mention of my own taste in shirt is simply to state that while I do not like the shirt myself, plenty of other people do and they have spoken with their wallet. You can also speak with your wallet and not buy it.

I did not mention the backpack because Linus himself admitted that he got it wrong. I am surprised by the number of people defending Linus on this when he himself knows he did it wrong. Luke also knows that the t-shirt was absolutely wrong.

It is easy to defend Linus by the number of sales he has made, with the context of the massive fan following he has, but by this logic a bad politician is right when he says he can stand and shoot someone in a crowd and get away with it scot free, and if the crowd has clapped for him, that makes it alright. 

[Lewubro]

TBH: I have never seen Linus so out of touch with customers as it has happened with the whole warranty thing. He acted exactly the opposite of what he has been preaching throughout his YT career. And then he even goes on to play the victim. 

 

The deal was never "trust for trust". The deal was "my time and value in sold ads for LTT's efforts in making good videos."

I am not going to do the whole "I am not going to watch LTT" ever again thing...but damn sure will I be careful whenever they advertise their products from now on. 

[Magnus33]

No matter how you look at this it was handled badly and Linus really missed the point.

 

Luke was right this isn't about honesty it's about trust but verify which given the last few years is a must...gpu..covid...companies going on left and right. People want the piece of mind that a warranty gives.

Luke was aware of this and could see Linus digging the hole deeper the longer the wan show went on.

 

Hell i even get the humour of the shirt and don't think it's a bad idea but for go sake put it out after you come out with the warranty otherwise your adding fuel to the fire.

 

Linus this is a major company now and as such you need to stand back and look at it as such.

 

This isn't merely about your word or honesty as many aren't going to know you that well given the size of things now.

Would you expect them to buy from you if there was no warranty at all ..would you ?

 

Now i watched Linus from the very beginning and trust him to keep his word but i also want my better half to feel comfortable if she buys from the store that iam covered if something fails.

 

You should have took the hints from Luke as he was right this time and this was handled badly.

 

Now that said he human and we all make mistakes and Linus admitted so with the backpack but the timing of the tee shirt was a mistake.

 

He should come out and say hey we messed up and should have put it out after the warranty was announced so people didn't' think they were getting insulted.

People would have gotten the joke at this point and realized they were making fun of themselves with no one feeling insulted.

 

It's not the first mistake and it wont be the last mistake as everyone is human and we all make them.