Competitive Quotes

Sometimes we get an insight into the unscrupulous nature of some of our competitors, and the lengths they go to, to bamboozle their clients in to buying pointless tech, or keeping their contracts because they appear indispensable.

Now this should be on the corporate blog, but I feel it’s a little personal to be dropping in over there, so forgive me for this little rant – lets call it cathartic!

We believe in being honest with our clients and not confusing them in to buying.
We believe in being honest with our clients and not confusing them in to buying.

To give a little background on why this has popped up I’ll tell a few details of a recent requirement for a couple of potential clients.

Firstly, we were asked to take an objective view of a local business who “no longer trust” (their words), their IT guy.

It took about 5 minutes to prove that they were being charged for a non-existent, online backup system, and being massively overcharged for PC equipment (£430 for a £150 PC anyone?). (6)

Did they kick out the lying cheat?

No… 😯

Secondly we’ve been passed a quote by a competitor who is offering to replace one of 3 servers (in our opinion they don’t actually need 3 – instant saving of a few thousand pounds).

The competitors quote lists every step required for the completion of the job, including some unnecessary steps, and quoting for an upgrade to Windows 7 for PCs that actually come with it installed.

In this case the IT guy quoting is a friend of the MD, so let’s see what happens once this bombshell hits.  ❓

Call me a cynic but…

We do our utmost to ensure that any client who comes to us, gets a clear and concise quote with as much or as little detail as they want so they can make a simple decision as to the yes or no of what we are offering.

Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but I fail to see the logic of maintaining a professional relationship with someone who has been scamming your company for an untold time.

Tor says that we don’t want clients like that and I’m strongly inclined to agree ~ especially as acting as a low-level expert witness has shown us just how many of these cases end up in court.