John Linton
.....and hasn't paid its staff for three months.
I wish someone had let me know that as I've been working as usual for the past three months and as I never check my bank statements I don't know that I haven't been paid. Typical that I'm always the last to know what goes on around me and I'm surprised that Annette or Steve hasn't raised the issue before I have to hear it from a total stranger!
In fact the first I heard of this depressing change in Exetel's fortunes was from a very small, relatively new, supplier to Exetel who wanted immediate payment for services he had not yet billed to Exetel and he was going to hand carry the invoice round to our office and wanted my personal cheque as payment. Now I'm not known for my ability to tolerate fools (or foolishness) with any sort of tolerance and never have been for as long as I can remember but I was so taken aback at his claim and even more so by his aggression and his 'phrasing' that I was, momentarily lost for words which he apparently took as confirmation of the situation as he launched into one of the most vitriolic steams of personal abuse that I have ever heard.
When a suitable pause occurred, and really resenting the words he had used and their total inapplicability, I told him to STFU and get himself under control. This served no purpose except to 'set off 'another vitriolic tirade which although repeating much of the previous one was mercifully shorter. When he seemed to have, at least momentarily, run out of breath, I asked him how he had come to this belief as there was absolutely no truth that Exetel's business was in any shape other than better than it had ever been and that, as far as I could see, business in December and January showed no signs of anything other than continued profitable growth.
His response was breathtakingly inane and was - "XXXX (a much larger ISP than Exetel to whom he also supplies) had told him that they had been approached by Ferrier Hodgson to bid for the Exetel customer base as they were being appointed as administrators by Telstra to whom Exetel owed millions tomorrow (today as I write this) and they needed a very quick sale before the business totally collapsed.
After a stunned silence (while I tried to understand how anyone with more neurons than there are spots on a king domino could possibly believe such an unsubstantiated statement to the the point they would then act in the way he had just done) I told him to bring his invoice around whenever it suited him and I would give him cash as payment but before he did that perhaps he would like to consider:
1) His previous bills (including the ones in the period where Exetel was apparently not paying their staff) had all been paid on time and in full as usual.
2) Apparently his Exetel competitor contact had information that was totally unknown to every other supplier to Exetel, any sort of media and to every Exetel employee.
3) Perhaps the fact that this "fact" appeared to be also unknown to all the usual 'scandal mongers/ill wishers' was some sort of indication that it may have no truthful basis.
and that before he made any further decisions, and especially shared his current views wth anyone of any relevance, he should check the FH web site for a notice that they had been appointed in the way the Exetel competitor had stated or if that was beyond his capabilities then perhaps he could wait until tomorrow to see if what he was told was true.
To which his reply was that it must be true because the XXXX account manager had provided so much detail and he had known him for years and he was always totally honest.
From the slight slurring of his words and the emotional language he used plus the time of day (4.30 pm) I reached the obvious conclusion and told him to stop being a total idiot and go and sleep off his liquor induced hallucinations. I actually used rather different phrasing and vocabulary to convey that 'advice'.
What is it in the stupider element of human society that makes them so prone to believe the very worst they hear irrespective of how likely it is?
I suppose the real question about the stupider elements of the species is what makes them attempt to spread such stupid lies that, in this case, will be shown to be lies within the 24 hour time frame the liar included in his "so much detail".
PS: 3.00 pm Tuesday 3rd February. I got a call a short while ago offering "sincere apologies for my unforgivable abuse to you yesterday..... it was caused by too much too drink". He was right about one thing - it was/is "unforgivable" - and having too much to drink (is there such an amount?) doesn't change a thing. I told him I was relieved to hear that Exetel hadn't gone broke while I dreamed away the past 3 months but we would not be doing any further business with his company as his words were so offensive that they could never be 'un-said' and neither could their affect on my view of a person who could say such things.