Nosy Vendors? 72
avante asks: "For reasons ranging from political to financial, we have convinced an organization who wants to use our software to use only Open Source and Free Software, including GNU/Linux as their operating system. Because they will need support, we decided to go with Dell, since we had heard that they distribute a free operating system with their computers. First, I found out that they only sell non-Microsoft OS's on their 'server' models, which cost several hundred dollars more than comparable 'desktop' configurations. Since our clients are a cash strapped not-for profit group, we decided to purpose a low price 'desktop' as a server, and suffer the expense of the superfluous OS. When the sales rep. at Dell was told of our decision, he became upset and began demanding explanations as to why we wanted to use a 'desktop' as a server, what version of GNU/Linux we had intended to use and other things that were not any of Dell's concern. This is not the first time this has happened to us. Has anyone else experienced this sort of hostility when you try to deviate from their pre-ordained sales path and use Open Source/Free Software?"
Re:Remind him . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
Me? I'd tell him I had to look into some things and call him back. Then I'd go to PriceWatch and buy a bunch of Althon XP 2200s for ~$300 and install whatever OS I needed, without having to worry about getting a refund for a MS license I didn't want or need.
Re:Good sales process (Score:3, Interesting)
I am a web developer, and the company I work for provides web hosting and e-mail hosting for my clients. They can choose whatever ISP they want; we always recommend against AOL. We also recommend strongly against Outlook Express.
Technically, when one of our clients called up and asked for help because their internet connection wasn't working ("My website is down" "Your mail server isn't responding") or Outlook is behaving badly we would be "morally and legally right" to tell them to contact their ISP or remind them that we recommended against Outlook. However, we provide support nonetheless, because we can't afford to lose them as customers.
Granted, Dell is a little different in the sense that they've already gotten the money and could care less about you now. That doesn't mean they won't get a ton of people who don't care that the reason their computer isn't working is because of a bad line in a config file: The case says DELL on the outside, dammit, and they want support! The DELL isn't working, never mind why!