Matt wrote:
Perhaps the e-mail should have been sent privately, but maybe not. I
don't know much about Molten other then from what I see, I would have
large reservations about doing business with them. Again, it was
never my intent to hurt Brian... rather to try to find out what kind
of company they are. When I see what I see at Brian's company,
immediately red flags go up in my head. I've been on the net since
about 1990. If I remember correctly, even at it's start, eBay was a
pretty professional looking company.
It doesn't matter how big or small you are, you should always try to
present a professional look. Sure, you may get some clients if you
aren't "professional", but they will often be dead-beats, and smaller
clients. If you want the bigger clients you have to present
yourself as a well established business who is going to be there when
the customer needs you (and then you also better be there or your
customers will run away!).
There's nothing that irks me more (and I'm not saying Brian does
this... this is just an irk of alot of these VoIP providers) then a
company that claims 24/7 support (via e-mail or otherwise) and you
call the support number only to get voicemail and never get a call
back, or you send to their 24/7 e-mail and it's answered 24 hours later.
I guess I'm just very leary of companies that seem to be run by one
person. As you said, some companies may have been started by one
person and now are very prosperous. However, if you are looking to
provide VoIP services, you need to make sure that you will have
support when you need it. You can't just go with any ma&pa company
that comes about. VoIP is phone service, and people expect it to
work. With the exception of one company I deal with, all the rest
have call centers with multiple technicians. And this other company
I deal with has multiple employees who can help, even if tech support
is only one person. Heck, even our company has a 24/7 call-center
(no.. it's not out sourced) to handle tech support for our wholesale
VoIP customers.
My point is, if you want to play with the big dogs, you need a decent
website, 24/7 support for your customers (this IS phone service after
all), and a decent sounding phone system. If it sounds compressed
and warbly, or unprofessional, that may very well scare clients
away....yeah you'll get the smaller fish...but anyone looking to do
anything "real" is going to go elsewhere.
Anyone can setup Asterisk and say "yup it works", but do they really
understand it?
Anyway... I've said enough..... those are my main concerns.
Are you a competitor of Molten? Offer similar services?
I would never buy from someone or some entity that bashes it's
competitors. I think that is very unprofessional (worse than an
evolving website or funny IVRs). If your service is better or
different, then by all means point that out.
I have sent several sales people packing the second they started to bash
a competitor. "This meeting is over, thanks for your time, please see
your way out and do not contact me further." I never tell them why,
just show them the door.
Thanks,
Steve Totaro
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