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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!peora!pesnta!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Free consulting service; what's the catch?
Message-ID: <2584@phri.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Jan-87 11:14:30 EST
Article-I.D.: phri.2584
Posted: Fri Jan 30 11:14:30 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Jan-87 16:40:23 EST
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Distribution: world
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 24


	I just got an interesting phone call. Somebody called up and
introduced himself as working for a new computer consulting firm.  What
they do is come in and work with me to evaluate what kind of system I need
to buy and then put me in contact with various vendors who offer products
that match my needs.

	He said it is free, and when I pressed him on this, we explained
that the service is paid for by a number of computer companies, like IBM,
etc.  He said he has no interest in which company I end up doing business
with, or even if I contact other companies on my own outside of the list of
contacts he gives me.  When I suggested that it sounded like he was a
salesman working for a group of companies, he said that's not what he was.

	Has anybody ever heard of this before?  Somehow, it sounds like a
scam to me, but I can't figure out what it might be.  Could this really be
a cooperative advertising and sales effort on the part on several large
computer vendors?
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016

"you can't spell deoxyribonucleic without unix!"