Nigel Orr wrote:
> And to keep the discussion on track, I've had a couple of terse
> emails from Olimex (purchasing a product, not a PCB).  I appreciate
> that in a personal reply, it gives the impression he's getting on
> with his business rather than spending lots of time on possibly
> unnecessary detail.  If I need more detail, I can ask.  If he tells
> me to RTFW, I can do that and avoid wasting his time / putting up his
> costs.

I'm not objecting to information being on the web site, in fact I would
object if it wasn't there.  My gripe was that they do something unusual from
all but one other PCB house I've looked into.  I was asking for generally
accepted "baseline" capabilities, and was treated a bit like a criminal for
not having bothered to check that they don't match the specs everyone else
does.

As far as being terse, I would also want them to waste as little time as
possible.  However, their information is so terse that it sometimes takes
extra messages (and therefore wastes extra time) just to get everything
communicated.

For example, I asked them for a quote for turnkey production of some boards,
including populating the parts.  Instead of quoting what I asked for, they
quoted part of the job but the message was ambiguous and it wasn't clear
what exactly I was getting for the quoted price.  It turns out that he put
"NB" beside some lines, and I was supposed to understand that meant "no
bid", and that therefore those items were not included in the price.  He
could have just said "we don't do turnkey for volumes below xxx units",
which I have no problem with, but it took too much wasted time on my end to
figure this out.  All along I felt I was being treated as an annoyance
instead of a potential customer, and that his emails were sent as quickly as
possible without regard as to whether they told me what I needed to know or
not.


*****************************************************************
Embed Inc, embedded system specialists in Littleton Massachusetts
(978) 742-9014, http://www.embedinc.com

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