I am sure this is the most used title in my blog posts, and has lost all its charms... but to my few loyal readers who say.. "Sruthi stories?? bring'em on...", here goes the latest....
I am overloaded with work this semester, and I can go on cribbing about how many things I am handling at once, but I am sure no one is interested... :) Lets cut to the chase now...
As a research assistant, part of my duties is to procure equipment for the lab. Now this is a painful process, to say the least. Most equipment we need to buy, doesn't come with price tags.... The costs are a carefully and vigilantly guarded secret by the companies that sell them. I know why, but telling it here will spoil my plot...
So now, the websites have quote request forms, which ask you for you name, phone no. and 23 other details, and promise to email you the cost of the equipment "ASAP". This ASAP takes anywhere b/w 2 hrs to 2 weeks, depending on how long it takes for the sales executive of the company to give up trying to pronounce my name.
The email with the quote arrives, and within 5 minutes of it, my phone rings, "is it truthy/hrooty/roothy(and other variations) ?" , I am a veteran at this job by now, and mumble a tired "yes". The enthusiastic sales Exec now introduces himself/herself, and the company and says he/she are calling to follow up on the quote. I am getting tired of being gender unbiased, because it just means a whole lot of extra typing, which doesn't even make for good reading.
I am a graduate student, I can't make a decision on buying a $5k+ equipment, in less than 5 mins. I need to consult my advisor, and talk to my colleagues, I will get back to you soon. Thanks a lot for your call.....
And then there are more calls, and more... they come all day... right from the time the guys on the east coast reach their offices, to the time the west coast guys go back home...
And usually, when we decide to buy, we get 3 quotes on 3-4 different equipment, which unleashes the enthusiasm of atleast 12 ppl on me at a given time.... either they have fantastic memory, or they have notes on me to consult, and I have neither... I get jolted out of sleep by Carol, who asks me if I have decided yet, or do I need more info? Thankfully, I usually am awake enough to not say.. "What's the time? Am I late for class again?"
You get the drift.. they call me all day long, and I struggle to comprehend which company and which equipment they are talking about, and also pretend to understand all the jargon they throw at me regarding the equipment handling and usage.
Last week, I was trying to buy a ball mill. And I had 2 guys calling me about it. One from California, quoting ridiculously low prices, and lowering his voice and telling me how he would love to get my order, and asking me how his quote compared with the others.... The guy from New Jersey was saner though, and his quotes were almost double the price.
I have never had people begging me to buy such expensive stuff, my poverty is self-evident, so all this equipment buying process does give me a feeling of being rich and spoilt for choice.
The prcie differentials in the quotes confused me, also the unnatural levels of interest the california guy was showing, so I consulted my advisor. he got all excited, and asked me to tell both the guys that I was seriously considering the other quote, and if they wanted a chance, they should give us the equipment for trial and evaluation.
He was especially interested in the New Jersey company, saying he would go watch an indian movie, and collect the equipment personally one weekend, since we are just 3 hrs away from NJ.
So I dutifully emailed both the guys about the possibility of trial and testing. To the New jersey guy, I mentioned that we could come over, and test it in their facility itself, so that my advisor could catch his indian movie.
Now Bill called me, and said we could come over for testing whenever we wanted, and I gleefully decided on Wednesday, and started planning the trip to NJ, and googling new Hindi movie releases. Weekdays my advisor would be busy, so I could go on my own, and have some fun... paid trip on a weekday... oh, so exciting....
It is monday night now, and I received an email from Bill, confirming the visit plans for wednesday. And.... Bill.... is... from San Diego!
AND, thats the goof-up!
Story over... :)
