Feb 04 2004
Vendor rant.
Man, I hate dealing with vendors.
There’s a reason I dislike answering my phone at work - vendor calls. They’re the telemarketers of the business world: they usually call when it’s least convenient, they’re hard to hang up on, and sometimes harder to ignore. Ok, so they can be helpful on occasion - but I want them to be helpful on my terms only. I want to initiate the calls for information. I do not want to be harassed after the initial call. I certainly don’t want any communications to leave me feeling like I’ve been slimed with greasy salesman ectoplasmic ooze.
And there’s one vendor/sales tactic that I hate more that almost any other. I absolutely can’t STAND being cold-called. What’s even worse than a cold-call is when a vendor cold-calls not me directly, but someone else in the company (presumably the operator?) and says “I want to speak with someone who works with <insert technology here> ” . That person then forwards the vendor to my phone #, which gives the appearance that the originator of the call is another company employee rather than a sales person. Even if I am the right person to talk to about the technology they’re trying to sell, I can guarantee you I will, at best, take a name, number, and email and say “I’ll see if I can find the appropriate person to get back to you” - and it won’t be me.
Blah. Hatesss them, we do.
