IC Technology - sign an NDA for a quote?!

[sahmeepee]

Here's the email I have to reply to before IC Technology will deign to give me a quote:

Dear Mr XXXXXX

As part of continuing efforts to secure the best possible pricing for our customers and to maintain our relations with our suppliers we now request that you respond to the following terms to be able to receive a quotation from IC Technology UK Ltd.

1: All pricing and specifications supplied by IC Technology UK LTD are private and confidential. We will never pass any of your details or requirements on to a 3rd party or supplier and we ask that our customers do the same in return. We understand you may use a quote to secure better pricing but we ask all customer not to disclose or use IC Technology UK LTDs name to do this. Failure to do will be seen as a breach of trust and could carry legal action if IC Technology UK LTD were to receive restrictions by its suppliers due to a breach of trust coming directly from one of our customers.

2: It is not within IC Technology UK LTDs interest to quote against Dell Products, If you are seeking pricing from Dell products or currently have a quotation from Dell Products please make this known to your IC Technology UK LTD sales representative. IC Technology UK LTD reserve the right to withdraw their pricing to preserve their relationship with Dell Products.

If you have any questions regarding these points please contact Xxxx Xxxxxx on ##### ######

Please respond Yes or No to this email to receive your quotation

They seem to be suggesting that they break their suppliers' rules on pricing etc. and want their customers to keep quiet about it. They'll even take you to court if you don't! (uhm, good luck) What a sh'''y way to treat potential customers! The second point is even more farcical because he's sent me this so that he can quote me on Dells.

[Geoff]

Run away! Tell them why too.

[russdev]

not a chance would sign that

In fact i would go as far as to get head to ban any use of the company...

Russ

[ICTNUT]

Seems to me thay have lost a number of deals due to being a little expensive and are trying to stop people from trying to play of one quote against another, which is what we all do.

Another thing is that I guess they have been made to sign some NDA's and have either mis understood it and think that everyone they speak too or look at need to sign one also.

2: It is not within IC Technology UK LTDs interest to quote against Dell Products, If you are seeking pricing from Dell products or currently have a quotation from Dell Products please make this known to your IC Technology UK LTD sales representative. IC Technology UK LTD reserve the right to withdraw their pricing to preserve their relationship with Dell Products

I love this bit, looks like they are more intrested in keeping thier reseller status with Dell rather than get the business to sell them...

Leave them well alone......

[pete]

Drop em, if they have to resort to that they'll be going under soon.

We've signed NDAs for evaluation of beta software and a fair few edugeekers will have seen one for the KS3 tests, but for a quote? Pfft, I say, Pfffft.

[Gatt]

Makes note never to deal with this crowd..

[GrumbleDook]

Inform them that as part of your work on best value you share all information with a number of external sources. These include your auditors, accountants, the local authority, agencies you have SLAs with ... in fact you *have* to share information with a number of people and actually ... you want them to sign an agreement to say that they will not take any action against you for sharing any information of what you may or may not buy from them.

:-)

They have now stopped ringing me.

[russdev]

ok this an email from IC Technology

<quote>
Dear Russell


We were alerted to this by one of our customers who did not feel the comments were fair.

The reason we get our customers to sign a NDA is so we can still supply customers certain brands of equipment at a discount otherwise they may be limited to purchasing there equipment from one source. Just having one source is not good for any customer as that means they can set there own price.

We have no problem with customers going to other suppliers saying they can get it £20 cheaper (customers do it to us) we just ask that the customer does not use our name or sends another supplier a copy of our quote. We can understand that you may want to get money off from your preferred supplier, but you do not need to use our company name or quote to do that? Just say you have had a quote for £20 cheaper your supplier either believes you and does something about it, or does not believe you! If they do not believe you, are you sure your should be with that supplier?
If they will not give you a cheaper price without a name or a copy of a quote you are having far worse terms laid down on you!

The main reason for this overall is to give people a choice. A lot of customers agree with the NDA as it is not within their practice to give out company details. (something which will become prevalent as the public sector takes on the competitive quote system. Get at least 3 quotes, the lowest or best value wins, no more Dutch auctions!) This is why we ask our customers and prospective customers to sign as it still gives our current customers the choice of dealing with who they want to deal with. I am sorry if it offends some prospective customers but we all have choices in life, work and business if you do not like it please say no, or find out more information on why something like this would be put in place before damning the idea.
Believe me we would rather not bring in a condition that we know will loose us potential business, but we have to put our current customers first and they want the option of having a choice on who they purchase from.

But just for health running of this site in the future a little research before writing a damning comment may be wise. A much larger company than us could have taken a very grave view on some of the comments in this thread.


Very Best Regards
Jeff Rogers
</quote>

Also can i just say my comments are what I would do and each school has to decide what best thing for them is.

This issue is now closed and EduGeek understands IC Technology point of view and I am sure IC Technology understands why comments above came about.

We also ask members to carry on and not revive this thread hence why we have now locked the thread issue is now closed.