We lost a sale a few months ago to a mail-order DVR company. We know the competitor’s product well, so we were surprised when we heard the system capabilities their sales guys were claiming. Let’s just say that the number of channels, resolution and frame rate combination was WAY too good to be true. Their price point for the system would have been a screaming deal, if they could actually do what they said. We told the customer honestly about the capabilities of our systems and made a very competitive quote. Unfortunately, from a sales perspective I couldn’t prove the competition was making it up as they went along.
So here we are 10 weeks down the road. I’ve been in touch with the customer since then. They are great guys and have more technical expertise than your average small casino.
But their new system is not operational yet. The mail order company has since admitted that they can’t do everything they promised.
To try to make it do something close to what they promised, they are sending additional hardware to build more units!
So far, three chassis have arrived with a pile of encoder cards and various components. The customer is left to piece things together with help from the “technical support” folks over the phone. That doesn’t sound like a system to me.
We haven’t given up. We are on good terms with our future customer, and we will continue to provide assistance and advice as long as they want it. I’m sure that we will do business down the road when they expand operations, or possibly sooner.
In the end, companies that make outrageous performance claims (lies) and don’t follow through will get flushed out.
Karl
Winter is coming, group owners and friends who want to take care of themselves, get away with health first
Posted by: moncler | Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 01:37 AM
Flushed out? How about DOWN.
Maybe we should just buy them, fire the liars, and keep anyone who seems emotionally abused by having to work in such an environment. Places like that aren't just bad for customers - they are bad for employees.
Posted by: Gryphon MacThoy | Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 08:57 AM