that's an interesting, if depressing, fact.

three years ago, i was in the process of sealing a very large order while in europe. this time, it looks as though the death throes of that customer have begun, just in time for my trip.

i really don't care, as there is plenty of other good stuff in the works, but it's stressing out my father, and that is upsetting to me.

if it were a legitimate competitive issue, i'd be totally fine with it. on the other hand, this is a very large company that has departments, that wonderful concept. the purchasing guy just wants to talk price at the expense of everything else. expediting and quality consistency become somebody else's problem, and that somebody else doesn't make the decisions. transport costs are another department, and that guy doesn't call it either.

wonderful shit. then, you realize these are 80k+/year stooges that have expense accounts and fucking travel budgets, and they go after their suppliers for pennies.

i'm now fully aware of the stupidity involved in dealing with companies large enough to siphon off some of their revenue to pay people as "human resources coordinators" and such.

if you're so big that you can't directly tie your staff to the bottom line, you are bloated and inefficient. basically, american.