We Have The Best Customers in the World!

[precisonline]

I got a call a few days ago from someone trying to sell me collection services.  He started by asking me "how much did you have in uncollected invoices last year?" to which I responded "ZERO".  He then asked "what about the year before that?" to which the response was the same.  (Since 1994 I think the most uncollected we've ever had was about $200.)  He then asked what special magic I have in my contracts that makes people so compliant to paying, and I think I heard him fall off his chair when I told him we don't usually have contracts; most of our business is done on a handshake.

As I sit here this morning, having completed a half dozen projects before 10am and loving every minute of it, I just wanted to write a quick note of thanks for having the best customers in the world.  Not having to worry about collections keeps my mind free to focus on the real business, that is, solving problems and making the world a better place - one line of code at a time.

[Tom Pellitieri]

Well, Kevin, it's obvious that you provide excellent service at an affordable value!  Few people object to paying for something when they know they're getting their money's worth...

Just to add - I've been getting calls for by side business from people selling building security systems, financial investment opportunites, and all other sorts of typical "cold call" marketing.  Since I am effectively running an entertainment service on a cash basis with no storefront, no office space, and no inventory, I rather enjoy hearing the telemarketers hang up when I tell them why I don't need their services 

--Tom Pellitieri

[precisonline]

Thank you Tom, we certainly try our best.  I agree on the telemarketer issue.  While everyone has to eat, there's just no excuse for all this cold-calling, flood mailing, and all the other solicitations that come in each day.  The cost of postage continues to rise, and yet it's still a great deal when you consider the tons of CRAP that the postal carriers have to deliver each day.  The cost of basic phone services continues to rise as well as the number of spam calls continues to skyrocket.  Frankly, I'm thinking we better find a way to cut off the flood of spam email before someone comes up with a whiz-bang way to start charging for it, or we're going to be screwed.

Speaking of spam email, I got my spam filters installed on my email server here and it's filtering on average of 300-400 a day.  About 30-50 still get through daily, which I'm working on tuning the filters to catch these.  Still, 30-50 spam is a significant improvement over the 400-450 I was getting.  How sick is that?

Come to think of it, I wonder how much of this spam is intrinsically tied to the off-shoring phenomena?  That'd be some interesting research, don't you think?