How NOT to solicit my business
Okay, our Lotus licensing is up for renewal, and I received the info from IBM the other day. Just yesterday I received an email from an IBM Business Partner that wanted the opportunity to quote us for the licensing. I figure that’s fine (since I have the requests for quotes out to a couple of other companies) so I hit reply, and send the person an email with the appropriate information for the quote. Later I get an email rejection:
SMTP Protocol Returned a Permanent Error 553 sorry, that domain isn’t in my list of allowed rcpthosts (#5.7.1)
Well, if I can’t send you mail, then I guess you can’t quote me. Good business model there…
June 30, 2006 @ 1:59 am
Just out of interest, is there usually much difference between the quotes? I’d have thought it would all be list price on renewals?
June 30, 2006 @ 8:04 am
Actually no, the pricing can be quite dramatically different. There is a significant difference between the list price and what the informed consumer usually arrives at.
John, contact me if you’d like another quote.
June 30, 2006 @ 9:58 am
Hey Colin, yeah, I was the exact same way. Thought that prices were the same everywhere so the last two years I just did it through IBM. But from what I’ve been hearing (and what Lance just stated) the prices can be quite different.
Hey Lance, thanks a ton for the offer, but we have a pretty close business partner that will probably get the business if they don’t get severely undercut by two other companies also bidding.
I’ll definitely lt you know if I change my mind though.
THANKS!
-Grey
July 5, 2006 @ 2:21 pm
How incredibly frustrating for you! I wonder how many of their other enquiries/quote requests have been lost this way…? Personally, I’d write them a note briefly stating the exact reasons why I won’t be investigating their services further. But that’s just me; I’m a notoriously stroppy madam when I encounter such needlessly exasperating difficulties
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(Sidenote: Grey, I don’t know if you’re aware, but clicking the “wry” smiley doesn’t appear to work correctly – the one which looks as if the code should include a forward slash for the mouth. Only the eyes (colon) and the nose (hyphen) appear in the comment box. I’m using Safari on OS X for what it’s worth, although I believe that info to be irrelevant.)