The Perils of Price Shopping TOO hard.

Should you be careful when buying a phone system? Dam right you should!

It's asked all the time. "Can you price match company so and so?"

My answer "Not unless you want me to send you the same thing!"

Having been in this business for so many years, I've had wonderful opportunities to get a good grip on what's going on our there in the telecom world. And price shopping can be filled with peril and horror stories. I've inadvertently created my own horror stories!

Here's a little peek into how it works. Let's use a Norstar phone system as an example.

Norstar Compact ICS Cabinets consist of three major parts. The base cabinet, the software card and the trunk card.

Well guess what, some people have figured out that with the right computer software and a $15 dollar blank card from Comp USA, you can MAKE your own software! And there ARE shops who just make fake software over and over and over and then sell them to other shops that don't care who then turn around and sell the to you!

Let's go a step further. Another great example are the Norstar Call Pilot Voicemails. Not only have unscrupulous types figured out how to make fake software for those too, they have also figured out how to use the same set of mailbox key codes over and over. They essentially generate fake keys at almost NO cost and then sell them to you.

The situation puts you in particular peril. If your voicemail ever has any trouble or an unknowing technician resets the thing, you can't put those voicemail boxes back into the system. You'll either have to send the voicemail back to whom you bought it from so they can.. *ehem** "reload it" or you buy all new key codes... hope you have real software, cause they gotta match.

Another cute gimmick is to match empty cabinets with refurbished trunk cards. Easy trick and usually no one can ever notices. If they do, it becomes a "mistake" and they are very sorry.

Another gimmick is to send you Optus Remanufactured phones, which by all means are high quality refurbished phone, but not the new ones you paid for!

One more point that I would like to mention to you as I finish this writing. I can most positively assure you that the lower the price the less service you will get. As price falls so does quality. Items won't ship, the wrong items will arrive, faked goods will show up all kinds of stuff that you don't need to happen will. As many years as I have been at this, I can promise you that I know them all, have bought from them all, have sold to them all and I know who's good and who's not. And as price points go down, so does quality. Can you afford that?