I like to save our Hall of Shame posts for the special candidates that really deserve it. Yesterday someone all but requested it with the most unprofessional email I’ve received in a long time. Here’s the story.
We have been seeking out companies that specialize in usability in hopes of making our customer Control Center easier to use and navigate. We are well aware that improvements are needed and we’re seeking outside help from a specialized third party. This project is going to be a big and lengthy process and isn’t going to be cheap, so it only makes sense to find the right company to do the best job. After searching through many companies, we selected what we felt were the best 5 companies. I spoke with all 5 and explained what we were looking for, then asked for ballpark proposals to be sent. 4 of the 5 sent detailed proposals, with one sending a PDF of screen shots that really didn’t tell me much. This one company was theUEgroup.
Even though all the other companies were able to propose something, theUEgroup said it was too difficult, which I could understand, but kind of weird that everyone else could. That wasn’t what killed the deal for me. What killed the deal is the President of theUEgroup, Tony Fernandes, sent this PDF which was named Linksworth briefing. Is it too much to ask that the company trying to earn our business can not only name the file how we display our name “LinkWorth? And if you can’t do that, at least SPELL IT RIGHT!
Since I have to narrow the 5 companies down to 1, I have to find reasons why 4 are not a good fit. Spelling our name wrong was an easy decision. If they can’t spell our name correctly, how many other mistakes would they make? No proposal, wrong name, deal breaker. I responded to his email with this message:
> Hi Tony,
>
> I appreciate the time and the examples. This project is definitely
> something that is extremely important to our company. Attention to
> the slightest detail can make or break the results.
>
> There is no doubt that you and your company could probably help us,
> but when I get a file from you spelling our company “LinkWorth” as
> “Linksworth”, it unfortunately was a deal breaker for me. Simple
> mistake, I know, but a project of this size can’t have simple mistakes.
> In my eyes, if you’re trying to earn my business, you can at least get
> our company name right. It makes me think not much thought has been
> put into it.
>
> Best of luck.
>
> Regards,
> Ron Wicker
> LinkWorth.com
I thought I was being honest and polite. I would rather know that I screwed up a big job because I spelled their name wrong instead of never hearing back from them, which is why I explained why I was not interested.
Shockingly, I received a very rude response from Tony Fernandes at theUEgroup.com, who I’m not sure if I said already, is the President of theUEgroup. Evidently he says he tried to call my direct line and my mailbox was full, even though I only had 1 saved message in it. We have a complete digital phone system and everyone else was able to leave messages during the day without issues. Anyhow, this was his response to my message above:
I appreciate the reply. I think that calling the President’s number and winding up in a general voice mail box that is full is a deal breaker as well. If you want a company like us to work with a company like yours, we need to believe that you are real enough to have a working phone system with more than one voice mail box. It makes me believe that you haven’t put much thought into your business or how it appears to the outside. Its a small detail I know but in a world where we are turning away work, it helps us decide who’s real and who isn’t. Best of luck with your venture.
Am I missing something here? Were we hoping to strike a deal with theUEgroup? Does a phone, whether it had a glitch or not, tell you whether or not we are a real company or how much thought was put into the business? Wouldn’t the fact we were trying to contract them for this project tell him we put a lot of thought into our business and how it appears to the outside?
I think it is safe to say that Tony Fernandes from theUEgroup is unprofessional and is a little bitter that he screwed up the chance at winning our project. I doubt Mr. Fernandes would appreciate any of his employees speaking to potential customers that way. I know I wouldn’t. And I really like how Tony says “If you want a company like us to work with a company like yours“, as if he considers theUEgroup is far and above our company. I’m pretty sure if we matched details to details, he’d be surprised that we are much more prominent than he thinks we are.
Needless to say, Tony Fernandes from theUEgroup has earned the Hall of Shame Award. I guess he hasn’t put much thought into how he wants his own business to appear to the outside. Guess they’ll all know now.
14 comments ↓
That’s a very cocky response to someone who is considering you for a project that could approach six figures. I’ve never had an issue with my extension here…have him give me a call. HAA!!
“in a world where we are turning away work…”
Translation: “Our company is not profitable enough to hire more employees besides me, my friend Bubba and the cute chick who used to work at the donut shop.”
No wonder.
Yeah, I’ve had messages left before him, messages left after him. I checked all the other extensions and they were working fine.
Maybe it was one of those I.D.10.T. errors??
@Kate - Yeah, at least let the cute girl be rude! Then send some donuts as an apology.
Wow - unbelievable!
Tony -
It’s “Linkworth’s Briefing”, not “Linksworth Briefing”
Tu Amigo, Enrique.
Ouch!
theUEgroup
All for this post about theUEgroup!
Rather than commenting on the obviously rude and unprofessional response I would just like to give “LinkWorth” a thumbs up for actually hiring someone ad investing a lot of time and money to make your services and user interface more friendly for us. It tells a lot about your company and your passion to make it even better.
Thanks Klemen. We hope to be as user friendly as possible as soon as we can.
(used the word ‘as’ 4 times!)
The phone sys always seems to work well for me when i call…
Is it possible that Tony called 1-866.LNKS.WRTH by mistake?
The mispelling is not limited to their emails
On their Uegroup website the “About Us” page mentions among the projects that they have worked , the “Apple McIntosh”. Apple has always called the computer the “Apple Macintosh”. Now misspelling a very well known Computer as the “Apple Mac” on their own website is totally unprofessional . You did well not to utilise their service.
I know I am no html queen but that IS really biting the biscuit which means this time I lost my Idiot’s award aaaghh…lol..
Hah. After that type of correspondence I just have a hard time believing they have/had clients like the ones listed. That said, I have worked with people at large companies (with clients to match) that have been complete dummies. Sad to say you just never know.
Well, I’m really glad LinkWorth is taking serious steps about improving the control center. It is greatly appreciated!
-Drew
@Drew - I felt that same thing. How could someone that speaks to other potential clients land business relationships with big companies? I would guess some is made up, ya know, people like to make themselves appear better than they really are. Some may be where they know someone that gets their foot in the door. Other could be luck. Hey, like I said in my response, they can probably do what we need, but I ALWAYS make sure to reference business names and individual names right.
@barefoot - I was going to respond yesterday about your McIntosh find. I looked it up and I remembered that Steve Jobs and his other partners were supposed to come up with a business name by end of the day and if they didn’t, (he happened to be either eating or looking at a McIntosh Apple Wiki Page), they would stick with the name he proposed of Apple Macintosh. Always fun to hear stories like that. Either way, I couldn’t find anything on the reference of Apple McIntosh with relation to how they use it. Most everything appears to be others misspelling it too. Great find!
Hi Ron,
I’m a customer and have worked extensively with Mitzi.
I do agree with everything you’ve said here. This company blew it, especially given the quality of opportunity that being a special project LinkWorth vendor represents.
You might be interested to know that late last week I did attempt to telephone Mitzi for an issue with my account, and did receive the “mailbox full” voicemail error message. (she quickly responded via email or the support system and resolved my issue within an hour or so).
As a web vendor that attempts to pre-qualify various opportunities presented by a variety of (poorly to perfectly matched) prospects for our strongest services, I understand UE’s need to make a snap decision. Clearly they failed to respond professionally and correctly, and in addition they apparently have a very poor mechanism for detecting high quality companies that present them with opportunities.
Good luck with your project Ron.
Note to Mr. Wicker, you got the name wrong for the President of theUEgroup….
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