My only response to such devious and dastardly behavior is that such an individual must lack the skill and charm to sell himself and his equipment. you shouldn't have to resort to tricking your very own customers into calling you back.

My favorite snafu story: A long time ago the company owner insisted that he be the one to measure a huge continuous run of cable for parking lot lighting. 6 conduits each with 9 cables all #2AWG about 350'-400' long. He spoke of wanting the measurement to be precise and always told us about how much each cable cost per foot yadda yadda yadda you get the picture.

So Instead of having us pull the cable off of complete reels he had each leg cut at the supply house to the exact size.

You should have seen the look on his face when we ended up 10 feet short on every run! Needless to say, no money was saved we had to pull the cable halfway back and we ended up adding junction boxes, butt splicing and heat-shrinking every cable AND we had to order more cable to complete the run! We had to laugh knowing that if one of us made the mistake, he would have chewed us a new one. Instead he sat there shaking his head and talking about how he forgot to "carry the 2" or something when he calculated the run.

It goes to show you how much can be wasted for the sake of saving a few bucks. Leave yourself wiggle room on all of your measurements. If you're long you can cut it, but if you are even 1 inch short you're screwed!