I recently had cause to specify, procure and construct a new development server. The number of custom requirements required that the server be constructed from parts rather than be purchased directly from the likes of Dell or big blue. Necessarily this involved phoning around a few IT suppliers to get some questions answered and get the best prices.

 

I got on the phone to a few well known suppliers. Disappointingly, the wide variation in the quality of pre-sales service came as no surprise. I spent some hours of becoming increasingly frustrated trying to elicit credible responses to some (not too) technical questions.

 

So finally at 5.55pm, I tried one last call to a Birmingham based computer supplier, not even expecting to get a reply at that time of night. But hold on a minute…the phone was answered and I spoke to Farshad. I asked my questions, Farshad answered them knowledgeably. This is looking good folks. Then the $64 question, was the item in stock? “Let me check……no, sorry” but without further prompting, Farshad said that there were a hundred such items on hold for another client and that he’d check to see if they’d release one to me. A few minutes later Farshad rang back with the news that as his other client did not need immediate delivery they would be happy to release one. What a guy! I placed my order immediately. Ok so they were a bit more expensive but Farshad had earned his commission twice over by going that extra mile. Good on yer mate! I’ll buy from that company again, they gained a new customer as a result excellent customer service not necessarily the lowest prices.

 

Once again it seems that you get what you pay for.