Luckily (?) they'd tried to scam me before, so I was wise to them. Still, I'm amazed they had the guts to try the same thing twice.
I'm the office manager at a small architecture firm. I received a phone call from a woman who said she needed to verify the "model number on the large printer." I asked if she was referring to the black-and-white or the color printer; she said that she didn't know, it was the "biggest one." I was pretty sure it was a sales call, but thinking that you never know when you'll run across a bargain I figured there was no harm in getting a quote from her. So, I gave her the make and model of our "biggest printer." She tried to cover for herself by saying that she was just "verifying" but obviously had no record of what kind of equipment we had — I had to repeat the make and model 4 times before she got it right.
She then informed me that the price on our equipment was about to go up, and that despite the fact that the price change was in effect several days ago, they wanted to send us one last shipment at "the old price" because they hadn't notified us of the price increase in time. When I asked what the new price would be, she told me it would be $796.
Well, I knew that wasn't right — we pay less than $200 for our biggest and most expensive ink cartridges — so I asked her what company she was with. She told me InterState Distribution. This isn't the name of the company we usually buy our cartridges from, so I told her that we didn't need any ink cartridges. She tried to argue with me, saying that it was our last chance to get the "old price" but I was firm. Finally, she hung up on me mid-sentence.
Words to the wise: If you ever get a call from someone who doesn't identify themselves with the company name first, it's a scam — your company's distributors will always identify themselves! If you suspect that the person you're talking to doesn't have your equipment info on file, or if they claim that they can't access it due to a computer error or something like that, they might be a scam. Don't give them any info.
If you're suspicious, ask if you can call them back. If they refuse to let you call back, it's a scam for sure. If they give you a callback number, compare it to the number on an actual invoice from an actual supplier you've dealt with in the past.
If the prices they quote seem high to you, just go to a major supplier like Sxxxx or Oxxxx Dxxxx (REDACTED) and figure out how much the item would cost from them. If it's more than twice as expensive, then it's definitely a scam.
Finally, when in doubt, do a search for the name of the company, and maybe the item they were trying to sell you. If a link to the Better Business Bureau or a scam review site (like this one!) comes up, then run for the hills!
sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome!
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