We are not free. Whilst we live in a consumer driven society, dictated to by advertising we will not be free. Whilst we are dumbed down and droned out by television and the internet we will not be free. Whilst we fail to think for ourselves we will not be free. Whilst we have laws; not just those against crimes such as murder, rape or drugs, but against something as simple as gathering food and building shelter without cost, charge or imprisonment we will not be free. While we allow our paranoid fears to over run our lives we will not be free. Whilst some of us allow their lives to be dictated to by a 2 thousand year old book we will not be free. Whilst we are confined by social structure we will not be free. Whilst we have responsibilities such as jobs, children, partners, extended families and friends we will not be free. Whilst we continue to attribute compassion, we will not be free. Whilst we have morality we will not be free. And whilst our actions have re-actions & consequences, be those socially, ethically, physically, environmentally or otherwise, we will not be free.

I'm not trying to argue against these things, some of them are very necessary, and some even to the point of not going far enough. Instead what I am trying to point out is the blaringly obvious elephant in the room. That freedom is an illusion, it's an unachievable buzz word which makes you feel better about your life and deludes you into thinking you have some sort of control over it. Think about it, really truly think about it...

Back in January this year I purchased and reviewed the Kogan Agora netbook in a blog post. Whilst it did have a few minor flaws the unit definitely seemed up to scratch and well worth the minuscule price tag, which also included a 12 month warranty. However 6 months later I found my experience with Kogan to be an entirely different one, given the battery in the netbook had decided to give out; and despite the fact it was still under and covered by warranty I even offered to PAY for a new battery in the hopes that would speed the process up (In my experience warranty claims can take what seems like a life time).

For 2 months their sales and customer support teams fobbed me off with excuses that they would be receiving a new shipment of batteries "soon" and I would be notified when they do; however they failed to ever materialise. Finally I wrote to them and asked them to confirm a specific date in the near future when they will be receiving the batteries or if they can not, to please point me in the direction of another stockiest, given that 2 months had passed without mobile use of my netbook rendering it near useless; I thought this was more than a reasonable request. Kogan responded by informing me that they would actually not be getting a shipment of batteries in period (so they'd just been stringing me along through 2 months of back and forth emails) and that they were not prepared to locate another stockiest for me! So basically not only have they violated the terms of their own warranty, but they have broken the law.

A netbook battery should not last a mere 6 months of normal operation before giving out to the point the battery will hold just 7 minutes of charge. But when you consider that Kogan import their stock from no-name cheap Chinese manufacturers and slap a Kogan sticker on it I suppose you can't expect much more. But more over a company should keep stock of product parts (certainly when said product is still actively on sale) and certainly respond positively towards customers whom have products still covered by warranty. Their failure to do so would lead me to suggest that Kogan are most likely not the sort of reputable company that the average consumer should do business with. Certainly in this case you get what you pay for, a product that will break within a few months and no customer service to set things right.