Working in the tech department at school means that sometimes I get to talk to salesmen. The CDW-G folks are always very nice and understand that, as an Ohio school, we have no money. But since they go out of their way to help us, when we can put business their way, we do. Today, a different salesman did the WRONG thing in order to maintain the sort of relationship that we have with the vendors that we like.

This salesman was for Action Computer Supplies or some such company. (I have his name and company info written at work should anyone seriously be interested in knowing this fellow’s particulars.) He was friendly on the phone and rambled on and on about the sample items that they sent us (they asked if we wanted to try some free samples some time ago, and who am I to pass up free samples?) Turns out I hadn’t had a real chance to try the products – they were for cleaning monitor screens and laser printers. (2 separate products, in case you’re confused now.) But no matter, he continued talking with me, asking if I liked cheese. Well, yes, I do like cheese. Turns out one of their clients is Wisconsin Cheese Board or somesuch and they gave the company cheese to send out to their Testing Pool or whatever it is that he called us. Cheese is good and I wouldn’t say no to cheese…

But as he continued his spiel, I became a bit concerned. He was talking about an Educational Kit containing 4 cleaning sets and each set was only $XX and the total cost would be $200+. And we’d have 60 days to pay, yada yada. So I slowed him down and double checked – he was going to send us stuff along with a bill. But I didn’t want to order anything from him. Honestly, during the summer, my priority is getting old computers working, not dusting off the monitor screens. His products just won’t help us out. What’s more, I explained to him, we have no money. We won’t get the levy money until 2005. Well, he said that perhaps he could make up a smaller batch – surely we could afford that. (He suggested “petty cash” and I almost laughed out loud.) No, I explained, and I was going to tell him of the summer priorities, of which monitor cleaning comes in behind pritnear everything else. But I didn’t need to say anything more because the bastard HUNG UP ON ME!

OK, now THERE’s the way to get repeat customers!

I think the only disappointment I have is in the lack of cheese. But I think I could probably buy some decent cheese and spend considerably less than $200 of my employer’s money. (I think I could spend $5 of my own money and get some nice smoked gouda. Mmmmm.)

(Oh, and see my new icon – which I hope I never have to use since it’s perfect for when I feel sick. Or hungover. And I *know* I’ll never need it for that!)