anti-sales people at LayeredTech

Talk about a really interesting take on what being a sales person means. It is my general (perhaps misconceived) notion that when a customer contacts a sales person that their job is to try to evaluate the customer’s needs and maybe upsell them or find some combination of services that would met the customer’s needs and, oh may be make the company a wee bit more money. May be this is a little out-dated, after all it is a concept I learned while selling roast beef at Arby’s – guess it doesn’t apply to LayeredTech‘s sales people.

I should preface this with the comment that I was planning on adding more servers but…..

From: Patrice Moore
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LTSALES #GHX-xxxxx]: Client Order: Patrice Moore [Client ID: xxxxxx] [Server ID: xxxxxx]
Date: Sep 27, 2007 5:38 PM

Hi there —

It looks like the prices for the servers have dropped in price to $49/month … So I would like to take advantage of that to move to the lower price.

I am also looking for a build/staging box build machine so this can be a slow box…or virtual machine…

-Pat

So here I am saying I want to get my account billing changed, but I am also saying that I want to add an extra server. (Wo ho) existing client, upsell opportunity (any place but layeredtech)!

Got this reply:

From: Sales Related Requests
Date: Sep 27, 2007 6:11 PM

Hello Patrice,

If you need to upgrade (or downgrade) your current server to a new processor, you will need to order an entirely new server. So, you should time it to where the server that you want to upgrade will be cancelled right after your new server will be up. We need a 2 day cancellation notice (go to support.layeredtech.com and open a ticket, chose ‘Cancellations’ and you will be guided through the process).

You can set the cancellation of the existing server to be now or at the end of your billing cycle. Please specify in the body of your ticket. There will be no refunds given for servers cancelled prior to the renewal date.

I apologize, but we will not move hard drives from one server to another. IP allotment is also not transferable to newly ordered servers.

If you have further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me for assistance.

Thank you,

Jenny Song
Layered Technologies Sales
Toll Free: 1.866.584.6784
Direct Line: 972.398.xxxx
Fax: 972.398.7055
Email: jsong {at} layeredtechnologies.com

You got to love this! Instead of trying to find out more about my needs was

• to direct me to some series of steps on a website that I don’t want to figure out, and
• not bother to find out if I had other needs (which I pretty darn clearly indicated)

But that’s o.k. right Jenny did say to contact her if I had “any further concerns or questions”. Well as a matter of fact I did:

From: Patrice Moore

well this looks like exactly the *same* server….so why can’t you adjust the price?

No response by the next afternoon, the offer of assistance must have been an empty one….

So I resent the email thread to [email protected] hoping the luck of the draw would get me someone a little better. Wishful thinking. Got this reply:

From: Sales Related Requests

Hello,

We wish it was that simple however, it is not. Again, if you would like to upgrade or downgrade the processor you will need to order a new server. We will be unable to drop the current price of your server to $49.00 as per our current specials.

Thank you,

Drew Patterson
CSR/Sales/Accounts
Toll Free: 1-866-584-6784
(972)398-7000
FAX: (972)-398-7055
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]

Now at least Drew was a little more upfront and honest. He didn’t extend the (empty) offer to be of “further assistance” and he wasn’t even going to try to be helpful with a list of steps on navigating the layeredtech website. And certainly no direct number or email address for him!

I should also add that my whole humorous exchange started with me asking the same question of their pre-sales person ‘available’ via chat. I will not mention the id number of that person, because he did try to be helpful but admitted upfront that he didn’t have the ability to handle what I was asking for. He at least tried to be helpful and referred me to the (un)helpful people available at [email protected]

Capitalism at its finest – “we won’t take you money unless you shove it in our hands”.