Dear Company on the Other Side of the Planet:

[ilumiari]

I am interested in your company's software. You would like to set up a demonstration to show how it would benefit me? Great! When you emailed me last week to ask whether the 25th was a good day to schedule it, I replied that it was a public holiday, and the 27th or later would be fine

Comments

[djplumking]

sounds like the software company that we use... nothing surprises me anymore in their lack of common sense when i'm asking them about something that's broken and what i need to do in order to fix their poor programming on my end.

[penguin_attie]

I had to write a proposal last month... the only time the person who had developed the underlying system was available to explain it to me was 1:30 - 3:30 am my time.

Good thing I don't work 9-5.

[travisd]

My rule of thumb is that the more expensive something I'm looking to buy is, the more the vendor should bust their ass to make the pitch work for me. Baseline minimum is that I choose the time for the initial contact/demo. Followups will be negotiated if there is a favorable vibe on the prior meeting. If the potential sale is over 6 figures, they better be offering to send someone on-site and taking us out to lunch.

[vulpisfoxfire]

Ouch. Of course, devil's advocate here: You do realize that your working time is *their* bedtime too, causing some poor schlub to have to make a prsentation at 11pm *their* time... ;-) Not that it makes it any better, but the suck does go both ways here.

[cs_neo]

Actually, vulpis, from what they said if 4:30 pm their time is 7:30 am his time, so yes they would have to work slightly late, but 11 pm his time is 8 am their time. So basically instead of giving him a 7:30 am presentation in his time, they were trying to give an 8 am presentation in their time...

[the_s_guy]

Not to mention: which one of them is trying to sell something?

Modulo travisd's note upthread, of course. If it was a $500 app, they'd be justified in merely offering something within their business hours. If it was a $500,000 package, that's a pretty good justification for some sales presenter to work back an hour.