A step too far or normal protocal??

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

What's this?

Me?

The 13th Duke of Wybourne?

Kate?

And MBK?

Involving a kilogram of chocolate you say?


With my reputation??





Oh well...

HAHA!!!

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

I assume you don't work for an American company then? We have to abide by the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act where inducements like this are completely banned in case you get sued for winning a deal "unfairly".

You may be happy to get treated in the way that KM was but it seems you're in the minority.

Yes it does appear that I am in the minority here, I guess no one else who has commented works in the Construction industry where it is considered normal practice that if you want somebody to listen to your sales pitch you take them out for lunch or whatever.

I would personally never specificy somebody simply because they offered me "incentives" although they are more than welcome to try, in addition all of my specifications go out with a "or equivalent" clause so if a Contractor has an alternative that will do the same job just as well but is cheaper they can go ahead and use that.

Also if the situations were reversed and a female rep rang me up and said they "loved me" cos I had allowed them to tick all of the boxes on their checklist I wouldnt mind at all, I would view it simply as the banter that it was rather than taking offence.

Oh and by the way if somebody caused me offence on the phone or I didnt want to talk to them because they were a cold caller I would simply put the phone down on them.

Originally Posted by Gabriel2k

Yes it does appear that I am in the minority here, I guess no one else who has commented works in the Construction industry where it is considered normal practice that if you want somebody to listen to your sales pitch you take them out for lunch or whatever.

I would personally never specificy somebody simply because they offered me "incentives" although they are more than welcome to try, in addition all of my specifications go out with a "or equivalent" clause so if a Contractor has an alternative that will do the same job just as well but is cheaper they can go ahead and use that.

Also if the situations were reversed and a female rep rang me up and said they "loved me" cos I had allowed them to tick all of the boxes on their checklist I wouldnt mind at all, I would view it simply as the banter that it was rather than taking offence.

Oh and by the way if somebody caused me offence on the phone or I didnt want to talk to them because they were a cold caller I would simply put the phone down on them.

Perhaps the contract they may get with you is worthy of more of a sales pitch and discussion over lunch, but for the sake of the odd ink cartridge or pack of biro's I think it is too much!

Do any of your suppliers offer to send things to your home address?

I was just shocked as I have never come across this before.

I think the fact you have posted about it shows you aren't comfortable, and I wouldn't be either. I regularly have a bit of banter at work, but unless I know someone, I'm not a fan of the forced intimacy stuff.

sends stuff to home address? we have suppliers offering us stuff for our houses lol.

but thats the corrupt industry for you.. oooh look freee stuff

454697819 - I need a garage built if ya get an offer of one! lol

I do get offers of free "samples" i.e. light fittings, extract fans etc so that I can "evaluate" them at home, but I always turn these down as its going that bit too far.

I guess I am probably a bit blase about it all now as its happened to me so much.

[Balky001]

The guy needs to work on his approach. If he wasn't getting banter back then he should have realised he needed to be more formal to get the business.

I don't think most people would agree to lunch without a formal meeting or without opening the invitation to your boss etc, safety in numbers. Never give out personal address until you know the sale guy. But I think this guy is a poorly trained or came from a different industry.

I certainly would take offence to this though. How you receive and react is down to you and remember you are in control as the client. If you didn't like his banter you should have said get to the point and stop calling me dear or whatever he was calling you, told him you don't like smarmy sickly salesmen or held out for another £2 off