Big companies can be just as bad

Post #39,185 by JayMehaffey 5/19/02 12:15:04 AM Reply	Big companies can be just as bad My dad does auditing and quality assurance consulting mostly in the power industry. And many of those companies are worse then the small fry I did computer consulting for. You can forget getting paid in less then 60 days, the ones that are good with paying their bills time things so the bills are paid 60 to 90 days after invoice. The bad ones take 90-150, assuming they didn't 'lose' the invoice or something else didn't go wrong. If that happens don't expect to see your money until you hire a lawyer or they need to hire you again. One company my dad did work for was so bad that the UPS guys wouldn't take anything off or put anything on the truck till they had a check in hand. Took my dad the better part of a year to get his money from them. Jay
Post #39,186 by Andrew Grygus 5/19/02 12:42:23 AM Reply	. . and in government too. One of my clients has the Navy on C.O.D. because they can't pay their bills. It isn't that they don't want to, they just don't know how. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #39,199 by Ashton 5/19/02 4:07:07 AM Reply	Heh.. I beat IBM When I gave a sample of Tweek (the "contact enhancer" for 'dry' electrical connections) to Jerry Pournelle, at the SF Computer show, he named it Product of the Year ('85?) second to the original Laser Jet (!) This after he fixed an annoying keyboard intermittent. I agreed to peddle small qty. orders to individuals and Cos. as sample/test orders (so he listed address in his column). IBM (Research Lab IIRC) wanted 10. Wanted me to invoice them. Said, not setup for that - send a check or MO. Wasted another letter re-asking. Week or so later a check arrived. Always wondered if they found out what a bizness advantage it could be: if your stuff had fewer intermittents, infant mortality failures - than your competitor's (?) (In my experience.. most just didn't get it! The stuff worked - still does. All board edges, IC-sockets get Tweeked when I get something in. Just 'fixed' a SCSI board today, with some: BIOS chip not making contact. A lazy droid would have sold her a new board without even looking.) Got the money from IBM in 7. Then shipped. [cackle..] But when the guy who did most of the design on Osborne1 wanted one: it was free :-) Believe this-all has deteriorated in recent years; no such trouble in the audio consulting days with say, Crown, Revox, Marantz, or local distribs. If you were late-pay more than once: dogmeat. Ashton

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