customer service?? How much that costs??

its a strange experience today from a company that sells video conferencing equipments. to put it in a real short story, i wanted a solution that will be a one step higher version with skype. Where we can to multiple video and audio conferencing so that people can see each other without much dependency to hardware that costs fortune. This company came and gave a big brochure listing the name of almost every big company in india saying thats their client base ( who cares about client bases) then they said they are the best in this and there is nothing they cannot do.. (great!!!) while discussing things i spotted a solution which if installed in mine and my counterparts internationally can do what i wanted to do… (superb!! – then comes the bomb) then i wanted to see a demo of the same or atleast the equipment so that i can see how that would fit inside my office. There came the surprise. The total cost of the equipment is USD2599. But if i need a demo of this product then i need to pay USD299 because they cannot give demo free of cost. I told them i dont need demo in that case atleast show me the instrument so that i can see how that fits in my room. They said for showing the instrument it costs USD 199 (ridiculous) because they will not have stock of any instrument and they need to bring it from bangalore and that costs has to be borne by me.

I wonder how companies like this has such a big client lists. will these companies just buy based on looking at some pictures and brochures?? God save these companies.. i hope i have not named the company in this posts.. even if i have.. i dont care to look through again and delete the same..

Incase you are in chennai and if you want a video conferencing solution, call me before talking to companies, i would name this company… dont waste your time with them. As the saying goes more the clients any company has, the value of their new clients or existing clients are very less… god save these people!!!

How easy to select the product you want even though your budget is high!!!

Its not so tough to say that my budget is limited so i am finding it difficult to select the product I want.  I ve been an ardent fan of this statement till two days back.  Through out my life i had a very small budget for buying things even though my eye would look higher.  But now i have a very good number as my budget but still i face the same problem.. May be even now i am looking higher for the budget i have.  But i know that its not the case..

Always there are two best options..

The electronic industry and gadgets has always been my passion and life right from my childhood, starting from inspirng to get a Red Wolf Arm gadget for Gaming in my school days.  Now i am looking for a Camera – high end and wow god, how many choices and what a variety.. but again.. its starts with excitement and continuous with confusion..   When i entered the kodak world all i could see is the excitement like a child in myself because for the first time i felt that i have a budget thats worth buying anything thats going to be on the shelf.  And i would be proud to tell my budget when the shopkeeper asks me for that.. But, all i could see is the same set of reaction when i see that the person shopping next to me has higher budget than me and so all cool gadgets are being lined in front of him.

Still not clear how in life i would reach a point where i would get the day where i could avoid such situation of someone standing right next to me with higher budget for purchase than me.  Withstanding this, i proceeded to get the lists of crieteria that i put forth for my product selection.. To my surprise i could really filter the status to 3 brands.. And of which one i already possess which i am not that interested in.  Ofcourse i could line with two most famous brand to what i know from my photographic reading.  Cannon and Nikonsdf..   Oh my god, what a range of technology and what kind of options those has.. i was stunned initially to see the Cannon EOS 1DS.. amazing.. it went for few min. till the Nikon D300 came.. man. what a piece.. again in spite of excitement, the state of confusion again begun..   All i could do end of that session is to be open to the shopkeeper how confused i am and promised him that i would decide and get back to the same shop for the purchase.

Excitement to confusion took just 10 min.. but confusion still prevails.. i dropped this line in Facebook.  Thanks to few of my friends who suggested few ideas.. I also spoke to one of my photographer friend.. He invited me to his studio and i went to his studio this morning.. Amazing to see my friend having his own sophisticated photo shoot house..   He explained me all of Nikon’s model that he has and also showed me the D300 version and the shots taken from that.. i have kind of fell in love with that model by then..   Thanks to Renie for showing another link that actually gave me few more option to see and evaluate before i finalise.. But to me i think i am left with 1 brand – “Nikon” for the purchase..

I hope that my next visit to the shop would make me feel more clear in what i want and to choose the best of my selected brand..