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I think this identifies a real problem, but I agree with those who are suspicious of the proposed solution. All that goodwill I would gain from playing good-cop
by mechanical_fish 16y ago
I think this identifies a real problem, but I agree with those who are suspicious of the proposed solution. All that goodwill I would gain from playing good-cop-bad-cop with a sockpuppet as my partner will vanish, threefold, if and when my customers begin to suspect that I'm making stuff up. They will commence to wonder how many other aspects of my company are completely fictional, like my portfolio, or my qualifications.
What I wonder is how much it would cost to outsource Tony. The job of being Tony is, in the simplest form, really simple: You have to physically exist, and send out stock emails that I compose for you, and forward the responses to me. Obviously if your Tony candidate can write and speak well and has great customer-service skills they can do more, like actually respond to calls and emails without checking back with you.
- stuff4ben 16y agosounds like a neat business idea. You could get a bunch of polisci majors who can't find jobs in this economy (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1545019 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1545019) and hire them out to be "fictional tony's". Sort of like a more specific version of the Amazon Mechanical Turk.
- donw 16y agoAmazon Mechanical Jerk. I like it.
- mechanical_fish 16y agoYour first goal in setting up this business is to resist the terrible, perhaps irresistable temptation to use this name.
- bugsy 16y agoNothing about the article says that Tony is a jerk or a thug. Tony's requests for payment will be exactly the same as any other company trying to get paid for their hard work from a customer that is a jackass who won't pay. You start out with polite reminders, and gradually increase the sternness of the letters. At some point you start sending physical letters in the mail, via certified mail, you start printing headers in red, then you switch to the phone calls, and finally, Tony shows up in their front office and sits there every single day and asks to see the president, for as long as it takes. Then you'll get paid. And after the first time this happens, no more products on credit for that customer, payment in advance only. Also, no products on credit for new customers either. Credit is only for ESTABLISHED customers.