6 ms·

So you turned down a product because you failed to lie your way into getting a pro version? I fail to see how turning down a one-off for a personal request mak

So you turned down a product because you failed to lie your way into getting a pro version? I fail to see how turning down a one-off for a personal request makes a company bad at handling corporate customers.

kls 16y ago
I like your choice of words "lie" as if there is some moral dilemma with framing a hypothetical situation to evaluate the response of a potentially critical piece of infrastructure. As well, for the record, before you jump to conclusions with charged and disingenuous position slanting words like "lie" It just so happens that that single purchase was going to be used to teach my daughter video production. I took it as an opportunity to feel the vendor out pre-purchase. As for failing to see that lack of pricing structure is indicative of immaturity in a sales organization I can only assume that that lack of sight comes from the fact that you either have little experience with enterprise and OEM purchasing or have never been in charge of contract negotiations, a inflexible vendor can be soul sucking. Negotiation is a big part of volume purchasing and flexibility in pricing structures is mandatory when dealing with such if there is any hope of creating a long term and mutually beneficial arrangement. To spell it out, a organization that treated a one off request for a discount due to non-conventional circumstances is a company that shows attention to detail, and a willingness to work with even the smallest purchaser to make them happy. If I told him hey I have 75K would he have responded differently? sure he would have, but where is his breaking point when will he decide that it is not worth supporting me due to the money being in the rear-view. Conversely a guy that supports even the smallest customer is going to treat a volume purchaser very well. Judging by this particular vendors response, I saved myself years of headaches by making a small simple request and I am glad I did. It is even more important when you deal with a small development house, I cannot tell you how many times I have seen large companies held hostage by a small vendor due to lack of maturity in their sales and customer support process. Ensuring that a potential vendor is not one of those shops is imperative to the happiness of my client and is therefore good business on my end. Vendors are free to have as crappy of sales and support organizations as they see fit, but when it comes to my organization I bend over backwards to make my clients happy and I chose vendors that align with that core philosophy. This particular vendor was within his right to not give me a discount, I hold nothing against him and I don't hold him account for it but I am also within my right to see that as a sign of lack of maturity in his organization and take my purchasing elsewhere. The purchase reflects on the solution that I was providing for my client, and my ability to support the solution is only as strong as the weakest vendors support. I'm not betting my companies reputation on a vendor that can't even put together non-commercial or educational licensing packages much less an OEM arrangement.
- jules 16y ago
  > I like your choice of words "lie" as if there is some moral dilemma with framing a hypothetical situation to evaluate the response of a potentially critical piece of infrastructure. As well, for the record, before you jump to conclusions with charged and disingenuous position slanting words like "lie" It just so happens that that single purchase was going to be used to teach my daughter video production. I took it as an opportunity to feel the vendor out pre-purchase. Don't blame him for using the word "lie" when you clearly phrased it like lying: > Funny story, I was evaluating some screen capture software for OSX not too long ago for a client of mine. I was building a web app for them and part of the work flow for their content was screen capture. Anyway, I emailed a company that had a reputable product and basically told them that I had no need for the pro version, would not be using the pro version for any commercial work but that I would like to use the pro version to teach my daughter about video editing. I then asked if they would consider selling me the pro version at the basic software packages rate. I framed the story in this fashion for several reasons.
  - kls 16y ago
    Don't blame him for using the word "lie" when you clearly phrased it like lying basically told them I framed the story in this fashion for several reasons I framed the story, is not an admission of lying there where motives beyond the initial purchase, but even if those motives did not exist I intended to purchase software for my daughter, only using a selective portion of my total intent to purchase was in no way lying and in no way disingenuous. I blame him for using the word lie because it is a charged word, that should not be used unless you are certain of the factualness of ones allegations. Calling someone a liar is pretty disingenuous and was done so in this case as a character attack to further his position in his rebuttal. Not as a legitimate response to a legitimate comment.
    - jonknee 16y ago
      You sound like a toxic customer.
      - 16y ago

kls 16y ago

I like your choice of words "lie" as if there is some moral dilemma with framing a hypothetical situation to evaluate the response of a potentially critical piece of infrastructure. As well, for the record, before you jump to conclusions with charged and disingenuous position slanting words like "lie" It just so happens that that single purchase was going to be used to teach my daughter video production. I took it as an opportunity to feel the vendor out pre-purchase. As for failing to see that lack of pricing structure is indicative of immaturity in a sales organization I can only assume that that lack of sight comes from the fact that you either have little experience with enterprise and OEM purchasing or have never been in charge of contract negotiations, a inflexible vendor can be soul sucking. Negotiation is a big part of volume purchasing and flexibility in pricing structures is mandatory when dealing with such if there is any hope of creating a long term and mutually beneficial arrangement. To spell it out, a organization that treated a one off request for a discount due to non-conventional circumstances is a company that shows attention to detail, and a willingness to work with even the smallest purchaser to make them happy. If I told him hey I have 75K would he have responded differently? sure he would have, but where is his breaking point when will he decide that it is not worth supporting me due to the money being in the rear-view. Conversely a guy that supports even the smallest customer is going to treat a volume purchaser very well. Judging by this particular vendors response, I saved myself years of headaches by making a small simple request and I am glad I did. It is even more important when you deal with a small development house, I cannot tell you how many times I have seen large companies held hostage by a small vendor due to lack of maturity in their sales and customer support process. Ensuring that a potential vendor is not one of those shops is imperative to the happiness of my client and is therefore good business on my end. Vendors are free to have as crappy of sales and support organizations as they see fit, but when it comes to my organization I bend over backwards to make my clients happy and I chose vendors that align with that core philosophy. This particular vendor was within his right to not give me a discount, I hold nothing against him and I don't hold him account for it but I am also within my right to see that as a sign of lack of maturity in his organization and take my purchasing elsewhere. The purchase reflects on the solution that I was providing for my client, and my ability to support the solution is only as strong as the weakest vendors support. I'm not betting my companies reputation on a vendor that can't even put together non-commercial or educational licensing packages much less an OEM arrangement.

jules 16y ago
> I like your choice of words "lie" as if there is some moral dilemma with framing a hypothetical situation to evaluate the response of a potentially critical piece of infrastructure. As well, for the record, before you jump to conclusions with charged and disingenuous position slanting words like "lie" It just so happens that that single purchase was going to be used to teach my daughter video production. I took it as an opportunity to feel the vendor out pre-purchase. Don't blame him for using the word "lie" when you clearly phrased it like lying: > Funny story, I was evaluating some screen capture software for OSX not too long ago for a client of mine. I was building a web app for them and part of the work flow for their content was screen capture. Anyway, I emailed a company that had a reputable product and basically told them that I had no need for the pro version, would not be using the pro version for any commercial work but that I would like to use the pro version to teach my daughter about video editing. I then asked if they would consider selling me the pro version at the basic software packages rate. I framed the story in this fashion for several reasons.
- kls 16y ago
  Don't blame him for using the word "lie" when you clearly phrased it like lying basically told them I framed the story in this fashion for several reasons I framed the story, is not an admission of lying there where motives beyond the initial purchase, but even if those motives did not exist I intended to purchase software for my daughter, only using a selective portion of my total intent to purchase was in no way lying and in no way disingenuous. I blame him for using the word lie because it is a charged word, that should not be used unless you are certain of the factualness of ones allegations. Calling someone a liar is pretty disingenuous and was done so in this case as a character attack to further his position in his rebuttal. Not as a legitimate response to a legitimate comment.
  - jonknee 16y ago
    You sound like a toxic customer.
    - 16y ago