An Invasion of Privacy by Citibank and AT&T

Dear Citibank and AT&T,

If you robocall someone, ask for their name and zip code, which is not that hard to produce for criminals and then ask for me to speak to someone to assist me, they should be able to let me know what account # we are discussing BEFORE asking me for real information like Social Security #, birth date or my bank details.

I asked for them to let me know which card(we have a few between corp and personnel) it is, tell me the last 4 digits of the card or the last digits of one of our accounts, but they are unable to comply unless I give out my details?! YOU CALLED ME!

So you get to invade my privacy and request personnel information BEFORE your people can tell me anything? and you expect me or anyone else to believe you are Citibank or whatever?

The person suggested I call back the number on the back of my card, I asked, which card, they can't tell me.

Thank you,

A not very happy customer

Do you use this line in your contracts?

Don't waste your time, I am going to make you read this to find the line.

This is the point as well. Who reads contracts? Raise your hand!

Now who writes their contracts?

How many of you ask your client if you can steal money from them on every project?

Yes you read that correctly.

In subcontracting some work we received contracts which include a line that says something along the lines of:

This project may run over our estimates, we will provide additional billing upon client approval.

So this is a license to steal. Why you ask? Because what incentive do you have to finish the project? What stops you from saying, in the middle of it all, we need 100 more hours and if you say no, well it's not finished so we will leave you in a mess.
And I have seen this many times happen through the years, used to be SAP projects or .Net applications, SEO companies, website designers, roofers/construction and movers.

I bet every single Microsoft Business Partner uses this line as projects from any of them came in under budget or under time. Especially those laughable attempts at rewriting Domino applications in .NET.

This is probably the best way to admit you have no idea what you are doing.

Now, I admit things happen, problems arise and delays occur but didn't you take any of that into consideration when you wrote the estimate? Even if you are double charging someone(like the armies $400 hammers) why would you include this line?

Our contracts never say this. We due exempt us and clients from acts of God, after all I live in a hurricane zone, but that doesn't change costs, just sometimes delays in completion.

If I quote a project, that is the price, don't ask me to discount it, unless you are paying upfront in full, in cash. I am not a sales person. I am a business man. Business needs can never be discounted, otherwise they are no longer needs are they?

So if you get proposals which include this line, just toss it and the vendor and find someone open and honest and upfront. You will save a ton of money in the end.

Or spend double having someone clean up the 1st vendor's cheap price or over time heavy project that is still not completed.