When does 24 hours = 3 months

Some people make fun of the government on how slow we are to adopt new technology, and how we use outdated computers. Well I'm convinced that it's because the procurement process is sooooo long and complicated that they can actually get more work done with a P1 300Mhz computer than if they take the time to fight the system and get the new stuff. It didn't used to be like this, I remember when we could buy what we wanted and get it the same day. But Alas some people abused the power and now the bureaucrats must approve all exposes over 2500.

This often is an entirely different headache, but for this rant I will stick to a recent purchase that was less than the direct buy limit. This means that we are authorized to buy it on our credit card. So we contact GSA schedule and find the product MS Visual Studio Ent Dev Edition it had all the bells and whistles we wanted and so on June 9, 2004 I placed the order.

In accordance with GSA pricing the contract went to the vendor with the lowest price. We were promised the software in 24-48 hours. After a week we called the vendor to complain. The vendor (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) informed us that they misrepresented the item in GSA schedule and could not provide the software. Frantic we looked and looked but another week went by before we had authorization to purchase from Microsoft.

Why did it take so long, well we needed a waiver, because Microsoft is a LARGE company, and the government has a policy that we can't not make purchases under 5 million from large companies. Quoting the operational nature of the software and how we needed it ASAP to support troops in the field, and the prior failure of GSA, we did indeed receive permission to purchase from Microsoft.

shop.Microsoft.com gladly took our order, and once again promised software in our hands in 24-48 hours. I believed them too, because it's Microsoft software after all. 5 days later we are informed that the product had NOT shipped. We contact Microsoft and found that our billing address did not match our shipping address and the order was canceled.

We pulled out our credit card statement and corrected the shipping address to match (exactly) the billing address for the credit card. A week later it's the same story, still not shipped the order was canceled. They would try again.

Four days later I called Microsoft to get a tracking number and found the order was canceled for the third time by their computer system. I spoke with a manager named "Danny", who apologized. I complained that I could easily download a cracked copy but MS refused to take my money, and allow me to use a legal copy. At this point the 60 Trail copy we were using had expired. And we now had to change computers to continue development. At this time Microsoft promised to make a paper order and route it around by hand so that their computer would not cancel the order.

A week later I called back, no one including "Danny" could remember making the paper order, however he assured me he would personally place the order and talk to the fiance office to verify our shipping address matches whatever they have in their database as our billing address. It was Thursday afternoon, and "Danny" promised to call me back by close of business Friday. Five weeks later I still have not heard from him, and have not seen the software nor have I been charged for it.

Last Friday I gave up all hopes that Microsoft could take my money and sell me a copy of Visual studio, so I went to CDW-G. Our account rep "Eric" gave me a quote that was less than what Microsoft wanted when we tried to buy it direct from them, and it included a free upgrade when Visual Studio 2005 comes out. Once again we we promised 36-48 hours. I didn't believe him. CDW kept their word Monday afternoon I had the software in my hand and a procurement I started on Jun 9, 2004 was delived Sep 21, 2004. I can't belief how long it took, but I'm glad I can now write some code. The lesson to be learned is an obious one, Microsoft sucks and CDW can make the impossible happen.