"Ted, I am sorry things didn't work out. Its unfortunate that your dealer was unable to secure a set or even accurately predict when the sets would arrive. In any event, I am disappointed that after a considerable amount of investigation, work and compromise on both sides we could not arrive at a deal. Please accept this e-mail as notice of termination of our discussions." (name withheld)
Short story but long one to type out. A customer, that I hooked up some existing equipment for several years ago, called last week asking me to hang a plasma from Costco. I will do that for existing customers on time and materials basis(with a minimum). The customer did ask me to research the costco set (which I partly did here) and give him a quote for something comparable. First mistake, I mistyped the price on a Sammy 50" in my reply email last week, by a grand low. Even though I said there was no way I was going to beat Costco at 4Gs he still took my word at $3100 for a 50" panel. So after anther phone call I confirm the price verbally of $4100 and we agree on an install of Saturday, depending on availability. Well as often happens in this game the Sammy panel can't be had for a week or two. I call to explain this to him and he's pissed because he tore his system apart last night to get ready for his new TV and the price has now jumped a grand. Understandable but I absolutely did say depending on availability and I did say $4100 First he says he'll wait, then he calls back to say he found the TV locally and will I install it. I reluctantly agree if I can't secure the TV elsewhere. Well I can't without jumping through hoops I'm not willing to jump through. So I call him to say as much and to confirm that I will hang the TV for him but if it is a local, competant dealer then he really should consider having them do the install for all the reasons you guys already know. Well the conversation goes poorly after that and the quote at the top appears to be the end of it. I haven't replied yet and I don't see a reason to. Although "go finger #$%#$ yourself" comes to mind.
So the moral of the story for me is to go back to my previous stance of not agreeing to hang a costco plasma to begin with and, in this type of situation, not setting up an install time until availability is confirmed. I just thought this one was going to go smoothly and let one of my rules slide. Always call the warehouse before you even spec the damn thing, let alone give a tentative install date. I got burned for it and clearly lost a customer along the way.
But "Please accept this e-mail as notice of termination of our discussions"? What the hell is this? A multi million dollar arms deal? It's a TV for pete sake. I feel like the Donald is in the house. I guess I'll just have to re-hire myself in the morning.
