Never keep your emotions bottled up

Last week I was considering the purchase of a piece of software. I went to the vendor's website for pricing. It wasn't there. Annoyed, I filled out the form so that I could be contacted by one of their sales people. The following day I got a response:

Thanks for considering (product name deleted). Please write back to me with your phone # or call me at the # below -- we can discuss pricing as I learn about your application and how you plan to use (product name deleted) for development.

So I sent an email with the following response:

Hi (name deleted),

OK. Please bear with me for just a moment while I vent.

#ifdef FRUSTRATED_RANT

First, I hate the fact that you guys don't put pricing on your website. I looked up the old version of your site using archive.org, so I've got a ballpark idea of what the pricing was around six months ago. Mostly I just want to know if anything has changed.

Second, it's absurd that when a customer asks for pricing, you won't give it to them. Instead, you answer the question with a question. I'm not even the slightest bit interested in telling you about our application and how we plan to use (product name deleted) for development. I just want to know your pricing and your license terms.

And for the hat trick, it's incredibly frustrating that you want to do this by phone. I hate phones with a passion, especially when they're completely unnecessary.

Bottom line: I'm interested in buying your product. The only obstacle in my way is YOU. If your product didn't have such a great reputation, I would give up right now.

#endif

OK, sorry about that. I figured if I get all this off my chest then I'll have a much better chance of getting through our phone call without saying anything rude. Please call me at 217-XXX-YYYY. I promise to be nice. :-)

--

Eric

Fortunately, my "vent before the call" strategy worked out very well. The sales person called me and we had a very pleasant and cordial conversation.