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hbiss #610532 05/19/17 09:07 PM
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Originally Posted by hbiss
Originally Posted by Rcaman
Yes, Arthur. We have a company that constantly tries to steal our customers. It's really annoying. When confronted, it's always "Sorry, we didn't know they were your customer." I guess the Americom sticker on the front of the KSU was too subtle of a hint.

I feel your frustration, we've all been there. But I wouldn't blame the other company as much as I would blame the customer. Every time I've been called to service a system we didn't install, when I ask the customer "what happened to the company that you bought it from" you always get some line of BS that, if you translate, all boils down to the customer doesn't want to pay or they owe money.

Sometimes too, (actually nearly always these days) there will be some idiot in charge that doesn't know a KSU from an iPhone so they never get to see your sticker. So they just Google up a service company when there is a problem.

-Hal
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sometimes we say what idiot did they deal with at the old vendor then after a couple months we realize where the idiot resides...


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Arthur,
Did you do alarms at one point? Just think I recognize your name.

Anyway, I don't understand when you said "Stole My Customer" I too have gone over and above for my customers, then some slick sales person comes in and takes over the account. Or in other cases, maybe the customer shopped around and found another vendor 2C cheaper (which is more likely). IMHO, the problem is not the vendor that took over your account, but the lack of loyalty today with customers. Years ago, the telephone guys were the bible when we spoke to a customer, today, their IT guy is the bible. Just saying, you never own a customer, they actually own you, since you don't own a customer, it is not stealing when you lose a customer. What I will also say to you as a long time vendor in this industry, it certainly sucks and bothers me as well when a customer does not appreciate all your years of service and leave you.

I feel that pain and it sucks!!!

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Yes, I have done alarms and most every type of low-voltage work over the last 50 years.

With respect to the customer of mine, whose behavior started this thread, here is the updated story:

One of the customer's employees thought the system was dead. It had been unplugged and lost its memory. They called the Avaya number on a sticker on the old KSU. That number forwards to a company that has taken over all the old Avaya accounts. They rolled a truck and sold the customer a new system. What they should have done, in my humble opinion, is asked the customer who usually serviced the system, then called me to respond.

Whether or not the customer did something wrong, the vendor certainly did something unethical.


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Arthur
I think the business Ethics you expect don't exist in 2017.

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Originally Posted by Arthur P. Bloom
Yes, I have done alarms and most every type of low-voltage work over the last 50 years.

With respect to the customer of mine, whose behavior started this thread, here is the updated story:

One of the customer's employees thought the system was dead. It had been unplugged and lost its memory. They called the Avaya number on a sticker on the old KSU. That number forwards to a company that has taken over all the old Avaya accounts. They rolled a truck and sold the customer a new system. What they should have done, in my humble opinion, is asked the customer who usually serviced the system, then called me to respond.

Whether or not the customer did something wrong, the vendor certainly did something unethical.

That isn't the least bit unethical ... that's just competition.

Telling them someone went out of business or used to work for you and you fired them is certainly questionable but to try and take a customer from their existing vendor is not even remotely unethical.

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This is the exact reason why we sticker all of our hardware including phones and KSUs. With all of the turn over that happens, the person who bought the solution X # of years ago is long gone if/when a problem pops up. We usually don't even know that a new person is our Point of Contact, and our asset stickers have pointed the new POC to us more times than I can count.

They are also useful if a client goes out of business and abandons the equipment, and a new tenant takes their space.


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This is the exact reason why we sticker all of our hardware including phones and KSUs.

Well, we sticker all our product primarily so that a customer under warranty can't take a bad phone from his friend and say it's one of ours that went bad or purchase a phone online and say it's ours. But yes, the other reason is like you said, so that our name is everywhere to be found.

-Hal


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You can also use that change of staff over time as an excuse to visit and offer a quick instruction course to the newbies, answer any questions and see if there are any additional phones, moves, etc that you can take care of. The visit is a sales call, but you look like the good guy by offering a free mini training while you're there and maybe get a sale from it.

Jim

upstateny #610606 05/24/17 12:46 AM
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Originally Posted by upstateny
Telling them someone went out of business or used to work for you and you fired them is certainly questionable but to try and take a customer from their existing vendor is not even remotely unethical.

Really? How is it questionable, that it is unethical, to downright lie?

If you try to take a customer from some one else without even worrying about who took care of them before, You're just a dick. I believe in capitalism, but that doesn't seem very ethical to me.

Well itsa dog eat dog!


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1864 #610607 05/24/17 07:12 AM
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Originally Posted by 1864
Originally Posted by upstateny
Telling them someone went out of business or used to work for you and you fired them is certainly questionable but to try and take a customer from their existing vendor is not even remotely unethical.

Really? How is it questionable, that it is unethical, to downright lie?

If you try to take a customer from some one else without even worrying about who took care of them before, You're just a dick. I believe in capitalism, but that doesn't seem very ethical to me.

Well itsa dog eat dog!

I'm not sure if you read my post correctly. I said telling a lie about being out of business or being fired is certainly questionable as a business practice. To clarify I would never do it and do think it is unethical. However taking a customer from another vendor is simply competition.

Verizon tries to take the cable companies business and vice versa. McDonalds tries to take Burger Kings customers. Mechanics try to get business from other mechanics.

If you are qualified to work on a piece of equipment and feel you provide better value and service than the current vendor then there is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to win their business.

It happens every day in every industry.

If the current vendor is maintaining the relationship, doing a good job and providing value to the customer they won't leave in most instances.

Last edited by upstateny; 05/24/17 07:13 AM.
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