On Sun, 24 Dec 2006, Jos Raven wrote:
I the late 1980's the company I worked for needed a new Private
Mobile Radio system.
Over 1.2 million Dollars worth of it.
I was the senior tech for the PMR and insisted that the winning bid
would have to give all
of the relevant software at source code level. Else, no deal.
That they did.
Around a similar time, I was in a similar position, but only about
?100,000 worth.
I was partly responsible for the selection of the type of
equipment purchased. The choice was between manufacturer 'A' at
around ?7000 each or manufacturer 'B' at ?11,000 each.
After considerable negotiation we got manufacturer 'B' to supply
at ?7000 each, plus a five year warranty, plus free service
manuals and hardware updates should they become necessary or
desirable (I had dealt with that manufacturer before!). This to be
applied to all future purchases as well.
However, when the equipment started failing, we discovered that
the sales dept had neglected to inform the service dept of the
conditions of sale and that caused all sorts of problems (to
them!), I had copies of all correspondance :-)
Another company I have had service problems with, like Keithley,
was a smaller US 'scope manufacturer - when they said that they
were not prepared to provide service information, I told the sales
manager, that while that situation remained, we were not prepared
to buy their equipment, and we didn't.
Finally, as another patrt of my job, I had to provide lists of
equipment for purchase by our Ministry of Defence. To do this, I
had to frequently go to many manufacturers to update quotations
for various items. This was usually done by my secretary.
One day she brought a letter in from one of the suppliers, one
which I had not dealt with before, which was signed by the sales
director. Basically it said that I had requested several quotes
over the past few years and no order had ever resulted from them -
this was not true, but the resulting orders were not traceable
back to me.
The letter went on to say that the company policy would be not to
supply me with any more quotations unless an order would be
forthcoming.
I rang the guy and was answered by a gentleman with a terribly
upper-class voice. He was the sales director. I patiently
explained my role and said that it was not my place to query his
sales policies, but without the information I had requested, I
could no longer include his product on the contract equipment
lists that we supplied to the M.O.D.
I got my quotation and a bottle of Rum for several Christmases
after that.
The moral of the story is that not all the high cards are held by
the manufacturers. For what it's worth, I applaud the view taken
by HP/Agilent, Fluke and other companies and recommend their
products to my customers.
Geoff
--
Geoff Blake G8GNZ located near Chelmsford, Essex, U.K.
Please reply to: geoff (at) palaemon (dot) co (dot) uk
Using Linux on Intel & Linux or NetBSD on Sun Sparc platforms
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
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