Have you been caught off guard by people who don’t seem to want to negotiate with you, but you wanted to negotiate with them?

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I was reading the Wall Street Journal last night when an article caught my eye. NBC Starts an Apple iDuel (Weekend edition, Saturday/Sunday, September 1-2, 2007, Section B, page 14) Apparently, GE, through its subsidiary NBC, is in a dispute with Apple concerning the cost of NBC’s video downloads and the “antipiracy” protections Apple offers.

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This is line from Dilbert. It is meant as a joke, but to me it’s not funny.

Not Funny Because It’s True
The first and most disturbing reason is that it is true. And, that realization makes my blood boil. It’s true that companies, whether large or small, often employ this tactic. Those who do are met with everything from frustration to black listing. Yes, you read it correctly. Black listing.

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A friend of mine emailed me the link to this blog entry.

It is a fascinating letter and reply letter well worth reading. The gist is this: Angus and Robertson (an Australian book seller) wrote a childish, swarmy letter to an Australian publisher. The bookseller ranked all of their suppliers based on how much net profitability each supplier made the bookseller. Then, calculating that the publisher fell below a certain amount in net profitability charged the publisher the difference due immediately. That’s right. The bookseller was not making enough profit, so it said, and it felt compelled to charge the publisher the difference.

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