• Aiax (unregistered)

    Hey, I've been in the same boat with a $110,000 microfiche scanner and top-o-da-line OCR software. I won't go into the story, just know I feel for ya Scott.

  • harum (unregistered)

    That is good stuff. It is too bad that there are a large number of shops out there like that. I guess "fucking over customer" ranks higher on some peoples priority list.

  • Patrick Sullivan (unregistered)

    Ahh vendor stories now, I love it! Let me share something wonderful.

    We recently gained a client who was using a different consulting firm for all of their programming. One of the big problems was this firm was located in another state and thus could not provide on site support, as we do. Now, as I start moving into the code and trying to get some holes patched etc I'm talking with the prior vendor, getting some direction on what does what etc (the biggest problem was how they made new stored procedures in the sql server) For example say you have a procedure called GetCustomers, when they made a change to it, the new procedure would be called somthing random like GetCustomers_ai etc..so after the new procedure goes into place the front ends all have to be rewritten. After talking with the client I found they were paying average to upper average rates for the consulting but the bills were huge (obviously changing one sproc involved changing the various front ends, etc).

    After a few more phone calls with the prior vendor I find out that all their programming gets outsourced to India (obvisouly at very low rates to indian programmers). At that point I just stopped talking to the other vendor and figured it all out myself, I couldn't believe what they were doing to this client.

  • Scott C Reynolds (unregistered)

    I could do a post a day about these guys for 3 weeks...it's bad mmmkay?

  • Anson (unregistered)

    epilogue.


    Prologue go at the damn beginning.

  • SethNess (unregistered)

    I BECAME the Vendor From Hell.

    A few years ago, I worked for a deeply troubled company. I'd go into details, but I'm warned off by intrusive thoughts like "Noone would believe this...Truth is stranger than fiction... because Truth is under no obligation to be believable."

    Anyway, to make a long story short, I was their I.T.; one morning, the company vice-pres told me to finish whatever project I was working on by the end of the day. I wish I could say I got suspicious, but... Well, I was an idiot. When the end of the day came, I was completely surprised to hear "We can't afford you any more. We're making budget adjustments. You're fired. Don't come in tomorrow."

    Hehehehe... I'm happy to say that the new network cabling, PC repair, employee instruction, and every other thing I did (well) was NOT finished. Nor was it ever likely to GET finished, since employee training and PC maintenance are an ongoing process.

    They hired me back as a CONSULTANT. The company found out quickly that at $50 an hour, I was $30-per-hour cheaper than the next-cheapest IT consultant capable of filling my shoes. I learned quickly that being fired and re-hired as a consultant is a GOOD thing-- instead of 60 hour weeks, I was making the same salary for a day-and-a-half of labor per week.

    Life was good... until we found out that the president of the company was embezzling, and my boss'd been covering it up. Boss went to jail, company folded, and I lost the sweetest "Vendor From Hell" contract of my life. sigh

    "Downsize This !"

  • natitfj (unregistered) in reply to SethNess

    Anonymous:
    I BECAME the Vendor From Hell.

    A few years ago, I worked for a deeply troubled company. I'd go into details, but I'm warned off by intrusive thoughts like "Noone would believe this...Truth is stranger than fiction... because Truth is under no obligation to be believable."

    Anyway, to make a long story short, I was their I.T.; one morning, the company vice-pres told me to finish whatever project I was working on by the end of the day. I wish I could say I got suspicious, but... Well, I was an idiot. When the end of the day came, I was completely surprised to hear "We can't afford you any more. We're making budget adjustments. You're fired. Don't come in tomorrow."

    Hehehehe... I'm happy to say that the new network cabling, PC repair, employee instruction, and every other thing I did (well) was NOT finished. Nor was it ever likely to GET finished, since employee training and PC maintenance are an ongoing process.

    They hired me back as a CONSULTANT. The company found out quickly that at $50 an hour, I was $30-per-hour cheaper than the next-cheapest IT consultant capable of filling my shoes. I learned quickly that being fired and re-hired as a consultant is a GOOD thing-- instead of 60 hour weeks, I was making the same salary for a day-and-a-half of labor per week.

    Life was good... until we found out that the president of the company was embezzling, and my boss'd been covering it up. Boss went to jail, company folded, and I lost the sweetest "Vendor From Hell" contract of my life. *sigh*

    "Downsize This !"

     

    Jesus H Christ!  I cannot believe this happens to people...  (OK I can believe)   Why can't this crap happen to me, I mean, 90% of the companies I contract to, or end up working for, do this crap all the time.    "Joe, we are letting you go, because we can't afford you"... Two weeks later, I find out they hire someone else. Paying them double what I was making, and that person does jack squat!.  Another example you ask.  How about, "Joe, we are looking into purchasing a new 'network appliance here', it is going to cost us -pretty penny-  What do you think?"   I figure out we could build our own network appliance for 65% less of the cost of the vendor's price.   Company lets me go... I find out (from the vendor) that they (the company) changed their minds about purchasing said network appliance, and had a inside IT guy follow my suggestion.

     All I can think about after reading all these WTFs is   W  T  F!!!! Where do I meet these people, and how do I get out of my endless vortex of being honest!?
     

  • someone (unregistered)

    WOOP WOOP WOOP DOUBLE POST ALERT!!! WOOP WOOP WOOP

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