Why Don't Businesses Respond to Price Inquiries?

[Topher925]

You want to know what really grinds my gears? When these idiot businesses require you to submit an "inquiry" to request the price of something so you can buy it and they never even bother to respond to you. I've spent a good 20 hours of my time this week dealing with these numbskulls that don't respond to emails or return phone calls no matter how frickin polite I am. Do they want to sell their product or what? I have money (well the university does) that I really want to give to you in exchange for a crappy overpriced service or product so your company can survive and you and your fellow employees and can buy food and live and stuff. Why the hell would you not do it?

You know why we're in a recession? Its not because of big banks or the rich 1% screwing everyone over. Its because people are too damn lazy these days. For what ever reason the common western cultured worker thinks they should be able to sit on their *** all day and read about Kim Kardashian online instead of returning phone calls to people who desperately want to be their customer. This is why businesses go under. Example: Solyndra. Everyone wanted to buy their solar panels but no one bothered to pick up the phone, so they called China instead, and even though you can barely understand them, they're still more than willing to deal.

DISCUSS!

 

[lisab]

LOLOL...this is one of my pet peeves, too!

I hate that feeling of, "Oh please, Mr or Ms Business Owner, please...I want to part with my money soooo bad! Now what hoops do I have to jump through to make it happen? And please, Sir or Madam, make them extra extra difficult for me!"

Sigh.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

You want to know what really grinds my gears? When these idiot businesses require you to submit an "inquiry" to request the price of something so you can buy it and they never even bother to respond to you. I've spent a good 20 hours of my time this week dealing with these numbskulls that don't respond to emails or return phone calls no matter how frickin polite I am. Do they want to sell their product or what? I have money (well the university does) that I really want to give to you in exchange for a crappy overpriced service or product so your company can survive and you and your fellow employees and can buy food and live and stuff. Why the hell would you not do it?

You know why we're in a recession? Its not because of big banks or the rich 1% screwing everyone over. Its because people are too damn lazy these days. For what ever reason the common western cultured worker thinks they should be able to sit on their *** all day and read about Kim Kardashian online instead of returning phone calls to people who desperately want to be their customer. This is why businesses go under. Example: Solyndra. Everyone wanted to buy their solar panels but no one bothered to pick up the phone, so they called China instead, and even though you can barely understand them, they're still more than willing to deal.

DISCUSS!

Beyond a lazy business owner that doesn't want to sell anything, which is highly unlikely, a few possibilities occur to me.

1) Bulk sellers that know you're not a real customer [in their terms]
2) Fly-by-night operations [here today, gone tamale]
3) A one-time limited supply
4) A scam to get your contact info

 

[Borek]

If you have too much money and you want to get rid of some, you can always buy my programs - you don't even have to ask me about the price, it is listed on every page of my site.

I hate sites selling something where the price is not shown up front, but you have to dig to find it. Geez, this is one of the most basic pieces of information people look for.

 

[Containment]

I think the thought behind it is that if you spend a life time trying to find out the price you won't be so shocked when you finally see it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I think the issue is more the lack of response than a missing price.

Sometimes it is necessary to quote prices based on the customer. For many professional products there are different discount schemes for single users, as opposed to large users or [in my case] OEMs.