Bob Young@fifonetworks@infosec.exchange
Here’s what vendor abuse looks like.
A national company (in the USA) – you’d recognize them – contacted me to inquire about hiring me for a problem with some of their wireless equipment. Short-range wireless encrypted data, plagued with intermittent and unreliable performance. They were taking a reputational hit on social media, lots of customer complaints.
We had a “getting to know you” conference call. I don’t charge for those. It’s understandable that prospects want to gain some confidence before they spend a lot of money on a consultant. I signed a non-disclosure agreement and we scheduled the call. The company VP of Technology and his Senior RF Engineer were both on the call. It lasted a little over an hour. In addition to the technology issues, they asked about my rates. I thought the call went pretty well.
A couple of days later the VP emailed me: “Can we schedule another call? We have a few more questions.” I said sure. He had another person on the call with him this time; I don’t remember who. They asked how I would go about solving their problem.
Every consultant knows this is a dangerous moment. You have to tell them enough that they recognize you know your stuff, without telling them so precisely how to do it that they do it without you. This call, too, was just over an hour. They asked about next steps. I told them that now they need to send me a written request, a scope of work, that spells out what they want me to do. This is the document that will help us both know what success looks like. Then, from that specific request, I’d write up a quote and send it to them. If they liked the quote, they could send me a purchase order. The P.O. would constitute the Notice To Proceed (NTP), and I’d get busy.
Another couple of days go by, and the VP sent me another email: “Is there any way you can lower your rates?”
I emailed back the same day: “I withdraw my offer to assist your company. Our methods of doing business are incompatible.”
He emailed back: “Can we talk about this? It seems so sudden!”
I didn’t reply. He never contacted me again.
More than two hours on the phone at no charge, talking to a total of three people. I hadn’t given them a quote yet, and he asked me if I could reduce my rate. He didn’t even know yet how much it was going to cost. We’d talked about my rates – hourly, daily, travel – but there had been no request for an actual quote.
He showed me how horrible the company was to work with, and I walked away.
He thought the whole conversation was about me desperately wanting him to say “yes” to me. He completely forgot that he needed me to say “yes” to him, too.
THE LESSON
Don't take jobs, even short-term contracts, from people who reveal they will always be a problem.
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