Quote from guauld:
gnome I am sorry, its over now, you had a good run
but now I am here, younger better faster with all your systems and more at my disposal
you had your time
The market is Mine Now
PS: sorry I can be such a bitch
picturing gnome like an aging wiseguy who can't control his criminal empire anymore
By "Market", I presume you mean the "helping noobs with computers" market? That's fine. There isn't much in it anyway.
I started this thread because a guy sent me an email telling me of what he wanted his system to do and listed the components of the rig he'd ordered. And he wanted to know what I thought of his order.
Long story short, the rig was a hose and the markup was waayyy excessively overpriced.
So, I tried to help save him some money, but each step along the way, he'd contact the guy who'd sold him the other rig. Then he'd get back with me an tell me what he said, etc. Even got to the point where he wanted me to have a 3-way conversation with the salesman guy. (He even talked with ANOTHER salesman from another company and brought what "he" said into the discussion. Sheesh.)
Well.. because of this it was all very aggravating and took far too long. I eventually convinced him that it was I who was giving him the straight scoop and not the other guys. I guess I could have dropped it early on and left him to his own choices, but he is a friend of a friend of mine so I wanted to follow through.
When it was finally done... he STILL didn't do quite what I said he should have, and it cost him an additonal $400. Still he saved nearly $2,000 over the original rig.
Then I thought... If he'd paid me a modest consulting fee, I'd have not only beer money, but I wouldn't have had to fight him tooth and nail to do the right thing. He would have just taken my recommendations "because he paid me tell him the strait scoop"... that's a better way to do things...
People are funny. They are much more likely to take advice when it costs rather than when it's free... Just another example of "no good deed goes unpunished"..
