Archive for May 2009
Negotiating (part 2)
First I send him an email asking him about the promo.
A cuong cho hoi toi doc trang nay http://data.fpt.vn/khuyenmai/ thay ghi la giam gia 20% hd tren 4tr. Vay neu toi thue easy server 6 thang (6thangx800K/1thang) la 4.8 co duoc giam 20% ko a?
Dat
Here is his reply
Chào Anh Đạt,
Giá trị Hop Đồng trên 4triệu, bên em sẽ giảm 20% cho bên Anh,
Em gửi Anh họp đồng mẫu 6 tháng, Anh xem ở file đính kèm nhé.
Anh Liên hệ với em theo thông tin bên dưới, em sẽ tiếp nhận thủ tục là triển khai cho Anh nhé!!
Thân ái
Duy Phát
Anh để lại số đt để em liên hệ nhé!!
That was easy. However I looked over the contract and there was still that pesky 1-time registration fee (which the old sales guy agreed to drop). So I emailed him back, citing an invisible friend
Hi,
Thang ban no cung thue cai server nay ben a hom bua a dau tin Phí khởi tạo dịch vụ dau.
A sua lai hd gium Dat nhe.
Dat
But he refused to drop it, unless I was on a 1 year contract
Chào Anh Đạt,
Em hỏi lại sếp rồi Anh Đạt ơi, Nếu bỏ phí khởi tạo 500, Anh đăng ký 1năm nhé.
ĐK 1 năm:
1.Miễn phí khởi tạo
2.Giảm 20%
Được không Anh, Anh Đạt thuê cho công ty àh
Thân ái
Duy Phát
There was no way I would do a 1 yr contract because a. it was a lot of up front money and b. within 6 months fpt would drop the price. I decided to cite my invisible friend again
Hi,
Ko duoc dau a. Ban minh no lam hd co 6 thang ha.
Ma hoi do minh thue host cua cty a dau co bao gio phai tra phi khoi tao dau.
A xem lai nhe
Dat
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t bulge.
Chào Anh Đạt,
Em hỏi lại rồi, bên fpt không giảm phần khởi tao dịch vụ được.
Nếu mình đăng ký 1 năm thì giảm mới được anh ơi!!
Thanks
Duy Phát
At this point I decided to walk away. A day later, as I expected, he emailed me to check up, telling me how the deal I got was already very good
Chào A.Đạt,
Sao rồi Anh, Cty mình có thuê con VPS để chạy không Anh?
Giá của VPS hiện tại là dow xuống rất nhiều rồi đó Anh, kèm theo giảm giá 20% nửa.
Nếu được thì mình làm HĐ trong tháng để được khuyến mãi 20% Anh nhé!!
Thân ái,
Duy Phát
I wouldn’t buldge
A phat,
A khuyen mai phi khoi tao+20% off (hd 6 thang) thi minh lam.
Tai gia tren mang no nhu vay ma`.
Dat
At which point, he folded
Chào A.Đạt
Gửi lại Anh HĐ VPS đăng ký 6 tháng (Miễn Phí Khởi Tạo + 20% off), Anh in ra 2 bản nhé
Khi nào bên Annh mới lên đăng ký vậy Anh
Thanks
Duy Phát
The final cost 4224000 (compared to 6600000), a saving of 36%. Plus I got double the mem!!!
As an after note, the old sales guy called me half a dozen times, all of which I ignored. He also sent me an email, pleading his case
Dear anh Dat,
Anh vui long cho em hoi la hop dong moi anh tien hanh xong chua? Hom nay la 20/5 la ngay het han cua hop dong cu, theo quy dinh la sau 03 ngay het han hop dong ma khach hang khong duy tri tiep thi ben em se stop server cua khach hang.
Ve viec khuyen mai cua dich vu EasyServer thi em da giai thich cho anh roi, con khuyen mai ma anh doc duoc tren website ” giam gia 20% hd tren 4tr” la ap dung doi voi dich vu Hosting chu khong phai dich vu EasyServer, day la 02 dich vu hoan toan khac nhau.
Anh con thac mac them gi thi cu cho em biet nhe.
Han hanh duoc hop tac cung anh.
Than chao anh!
Today he called me again. I picked up and told him I found a better deal… from the guy sitting next to him
How a market is formed
11:05am-A cycle stops laden w/ shoes stops
11:10am-Motorcyclists and pedestrians stop. The bargaining begins
11:20am-Deals are cut. Market disperses
Negotiating
A few weeks ago I received an email from FPT announcing my hosting contract is to expire soon. To continue the service, I had to pay 6.6mil for 6 months. But I vaguely remembered I only paid 6mil so I emailed him back:
A Nhan,
Sao lan truoc co 6tr lan nay len toi 6.6tr?
Khanh hang lau nam phai giam chu??? Dang nay lai tang.
Dat
His reply:
Dear anh Dat,
Lan truoc cung la 6,6tr chu khong phai 6tr, anh xem lai gium em.
Thanks anh!
So I checked my old contract and indeed he was right. Upon further research I realized Fpt only charges 800K/month for new contract. So I emailed him again
Ko a,
easy server gio chi co 800K/thang .
khuyen mai giam 10% nua.
Gia 6tr6 ko duoc dau a.
Dat
At this point, he realized I knew the current price.
Dear anh Dat,
Bang gia do ap dung cho KH moi tai thoi diem hien tai, neu anh muon ap dung gia do thi anh co the huy hop dong hien tai va ky hop dong moi thi anh se duoc gia 800K, neu anh muon giam 10% thi anh phai thang toan 12 thang.
Anh co gi thac mac thi anh vui long cho em biet nhe.
Thanks anh!
So I thought about it and decided to do 6 months only, thinking in 6 months the price would drop more than the 10% discount I would have gotten (had I done the 12 months contract). There was no reason for me not to do a new contract. All I had to do was tell my system admin guy to move the site to the new server (which had more memory and bandwith, along w/ a better price) so I emailed him
Nhan lam hd 6 thang thoi nhe.
1 nam lau qua.
Dat
His reply was
Dear anh Dat,
Em gui anh Bo hop dong moi, anh vui long dien thong tin vao gium em nhe cho chinh xac, khi nao anh lam xong thi anh cho em biet nhe.
Thanks anh!
Upon looking at the new contract, I saw he added a 1 time registration fee (500K) so I asked him about it
Nhan,
Ban minh cung vua lam hd easy server moi no noi dat no duoc khuyen mai phi khoi tao dich vu.
Lan truoc nhan cung khuyet mai cai do cho dat ma.
Nhan xem lai nhe.
Thanks,
This was reasonable enough so he agreed to drop it
Dear anh Dat,
OK, em gui lai anh Bo hop dong, anh xem qua gium em nhe.
Thanks anh!
So the new price for 6 months is now 5280000. I thought that was a good deal (significantly better than the 6.6mil he asked initially) but to make sure I got the best deal, I went online again. To my surprise, fpt is currently giving a 20% off for contracts worth more than 4 mil.
Of course I had to ask
A Nhan,
Dat moi len trang nay
http://data.fpt.vn/khuyenmai/
thay ghi la giam gia 20% hd tren 4tr.
Sao nhan ko giam cho minh vay? Tren day ghi ro rang la giam 20% neu thue host ben fpt ma`!
Dat
His reply was
Dear anh Dat,
Giam 20% la doi voi KH vua mua domain vua dang ky EasyServer, dong thoi thanh toan 12 thang moi duoc giam nhu vay.
Neu KH khong mua domain thi khi dang ky EasyServer se duoc giam 10%, dong thoi thanh toan 12 thang.
Con ben anh thi thanh toan 06 thang nen chi duoc Free phi khoi tao thoi.
Anh con gi thac mac thi anh vui long cho em biet.
Thanks anh!
This meant in order to get the 20% discount, I had to have a 12 month contract+purchase of a domain name. Of course this was total B.S since nowhere on Fpt’s promo page anything like that was written. At this moment I decided to stop talking to this guy and ignored all his calls (5 total). Instead I started talking to another sales guy in his team.
Things I do to cut costs
For my bookstore, I have done the following:
-Use fan instead of AC. Electricity bill before the fan: 1.8mil. After 800K.
-Use in house talent to design posters, biz cards, flyers, etc.
-Print what you need. Vietnamese always tries to upsell. When I first opened the shop, I agreed to do bulk prints which ended up costing 3.2 mil for 4000 flyers, 3000 of which I still have, collecting dust in a box underneath the stairs. Recently I had to print biz cards again. I opted to print 1 box (60K/box, as opposed to 25K/box if you print 10).
-Lay off/cut hours some staff. For the days which I stay home, I watch the store myself. Well I actually work upstairs w/ my software guy. When someone comes in, a bell senses his motion and goes ding dong. Then I (or the software guy) come down.
-Hire staff who can do other stuff for me, like designing, cleaning, delivering books, online-marketing,inventory, and account management. All the students have a laptop. I just have them enter what books are sold for how much in a shared file on Google Docs.
Achitecture
I dont know what is going on but one of the top schools in VN cant even spell architecture
A restaurant on the st
In Sg, buying and selling things on the st is a very big thing. Practically at every corner, you are bound to see:
-sidewalks used as a parking lot
-sidewalks used as an overflow of all kinds of businesses (repair shops, restaurants, clothes shops,etc)
-occasionally I see a st vendor putting his goods on the st (coconuts, lottery ticket tables, etc) or a xe om guy parked on the st but this is the 1st time I see a legit establishment (in this case a restaurant) laying out tables on the sidewalk AND the st.
–
Spam
The more my online job site grows, the more spams it gets. The following snapshot is from 1 single user in the span of 1 month:
So I told my team to blacklist her email and popped up a warning. Upon seeing the warning, she just changed to another email and kept on posting. So we decided not to pop up anything, leading her to believe that her post was successful and it worked (as recently as 5/7/09)! Of course we could also blacklist her IP address but it seemed like every household had a unique IP address, not every computer, so we decided not to do it (fearing we may block everyone in an Internet cafe or the whole company).
Our best defense right now is to rely on users to flag posts they think as spam. There is no way we can do this ourselves. It is too much work and my time is better spent elsewhere. Saigon is too much fun to be staying home and flagging spam.
My online bookstore
Some of you may know I have a bookstore in District 1. A month ago I partnered w/ blogsach.com and sell my books there. Right now we only have a few selected titles. Depending on how things go, I may add more in the future.
If you look closely you will see the Obama books. In fact it was the 1st book that was sold on blogsach.com. Just to show you how popular our president is all around the world.
The kid who washes bikes
Like most people in the service industry, he works on tips. Usually when he washes a bike, which takes around 1/2 hr, he is tipped a few thousand vnd. By the end of the day he goes home with a pocket full of small change, dirty, torn and smelling like soap. Of course he has to use that money for various expenses such as rent, food, clothes. And you know what gets me? What I keep thinking about during and after the bike wash? What keeps me awake at night?
“Where does he change his money?”
Obviously he cant go around paying w/ 2000 vnd notes. Especially if he is on a date. I may be wrong but I think there is an old fat geezer sitting in a dark shop somewhere near his house, whom the little kid comes to every friday nite to change money, just so he can go on a date w/ his girl.
dat's diary 