Those dirty vendor tricks

We don't want to give all vendors a bad name, but these days it's important to watch out for the slight of hand tricks that some may try to use to sell their wares. An article from InfoWorld.com outlines some of these tricks, such as the demo that works perfectly, at a great price, but requires change orders and maintenance fees down the road.

"I think the software industry is kind of dirty," says Natalie Petouhoff, a senior analyst who covers CRM, customer service and social media for Forrester Research. "The people who are buying the software may only see this kind of dog-and-pony show one or two times in their careers. They don't know that the demo is rigged. They think this is how the software actually works."

Keep your guard up against the following dirty tricks, suggests InfoWorld:

Underbid, then overcharge. Vendors offer low tempting prices and make up the difference in added charges after the contract is signed.
Low-priced software, then additional charges to implement the software.
Check your bill carefully because you may get charged for services you didn't buy.
Unnecessary upgrades. Watch out for the extra services your vendor thinks you must have.
The clueless customer: Make sure you don't put too much trust in systems integrators and vendors. Do your own investigation.

Most vendors are honest brokers doing good work, but if you don't know about the few bad apples out there, you could get taken for a ride.

For more on spotting bad vendors:
- check out this InfoWorld.com article [1]