A wolf in sheep’s clothing

Recently, we had the opportunity to meet a prospective client who had grown frustrated with their long-term vendor. They shared that the vendor, who for years had been responsive, had changed their business focus and seemed to have lost interest in them.

Soon, the conversation moved past the “meet & greet” stage and the course was set for the prospect to become our client. First things first - it was agreed that the client’s existing website would be the migrated from their current vendor’s hosting environment to ours. And that’s where everything fell apart.

Out of nowhere, the current vendor demanded a $5000 retainer before any dialogue would be started. Feeling like they were being held hostage (and they were!), we began to look for alternative ways that we could migrate the site without the assistance of their vendor only to discover that every form of access had either never been provided or had been blocked.

Now, not only was the website being held hostage but it appeared the retainer was nothing short of extortion.

In our opinion, no matter how you look at this situation, it is simply wrong. The vendor had always been paid on time and the client had documented repeated attempts to communicate with the vendor well before we entered the picture.

I’ve had too many professional experiences with corporate fraud and people doing illicit things for personal gain but I admit, this situation took me by surprise. What was the motivation? Anger? Greed? The vendor had already made the decision to stop supporting the client’s application. They had demonstrated a lack of concern for their client through their unresponsiveness. So why create such turmoil and difficulty?

For us, helping a client survive a difficult experience is what we’re good at and knowing we’re ready to do so again and again is a part of our identity…but acknowledging there is yet another crook in our industry is disheartening.

If you are in a bad vendor relationship, we're here and ready to discover how we may best help you. Everything starts with a conversation - and the first one is free.