Stop it with the price wars
Alright, a few weeks ago one of the girls at a company we work for asked me for a whole bunch of pricing. So I got it all for her as soon as I could. And she comes back asking about turn-around times, so I explain to her what would be faster due to printing on a stock/standard item vs. printing on a custom made item. So she says that she’s convinced her customer to go with a stock item, and that we will receive the order and file the following Monday.
Nothing Monday. Nothing Tuesday. Wednesday I ring up to see what’s up, and get a note saying that they are just finalizing the items to be printed and once the files are ready I’ll get everything. Nothing Thursday. Nothing Friday.
The next Monday comes along, and all of a sudden I have an e-mail from another person at the same company. Telling me that he’s got a price that’s $300 less than what I quoted, and if I was interested in matching it.
Matching WHAT? I was told a week ago that I already had this job in the bag! I tell him this, obviously pissed off that someone would promise me something and have me wait just to be told at the last minute that someone else is suddenly under-cutting the price I provided.
I’m just grumpy. I have no problem being told my pricing is high, or too high, or “you must be crazy” since these are the guidelines set by my boss, which makes it not me being crazy but her. But… ARRGH.
We got the job in the end. But I just am not thrilled with the idea the girl probably said “This is the best price I got!” And the guy then went out and said “Okay this is the best price we got. Beat it so I can take it back to them!”
Bastardos. All of them.
