A couple months back, another company, let's just call them SCUMBridges, started a service similar to ours(Syner-G, low cost messaging to/from the Philippines). To me, this is honestly fine since it is better for the market and better for the customer to have a choice. The world is better served when there is a Pepsi/Coke, Nike/Adidas, Ford/GM rivalry to keep things honest.
It irked me somewhat that they were entirely sneaky in the way they conducted themselves
leading up to their launch. They were actually a reseller of our service so I had a good standing relationship with the owner and his store personnel. (Unbeknownst to me he was getting ready to stab us in the back)
We found out about their rival service about a month before their launch(Our customers who went to their store told us). Apparently they were informing OUR customers that went to their office to reload that they are coming out with their own service. Sneaky... but not illegal mind you, it just business ethics at its worst(This should a warning to all those that might be looking to partner up with them).
AND THEN... when they officially launched their service, they put out radio ads specifically designed to confuse our customers into thinking our RIVAL services were one and the same in an attempt to confuse our customers into going to their store. When the customers gets there, they would explain that the services were different and they should sign up with them. Bait and switch. Sneaky and I think there are some legal issues there.
Now, those things I can let pass. What really got to me, and I what can never forgive, is what he has been telling anyone would listen. He started claiming that he first came out with the idea for the service and we just built with help from him. I CALL BS!! We didn't even know him when we first started our service. When he called us up to ask if his store could resell our cards, we were already in full operation. In fact, when I met the guy, he told me, "Ang galing ng idea nyo ah!" (Your idea is great).
Basically I am all I am saying is: Stop poaching someone else's ideas and passing them off as your own! That is just wrong.
Remember :
"It is better to FAIL in originality than to
succeed in IMITATION.”
9 comments:
"Commerce is as a Heaven, whose sun is trustworthiness and whose moon is truthfulness. Therefore they bring nothing but complete and utter Darkness." =D
Gabriel-Tech will continue to Innovate (Be the first) and Serve (Honestly and Truthfully)because that is the Gabriel-Tech Way. ;)
They on the other hand, well, you be the judge. I do wonder though how do they sleep? =P'
"Gabriel Technologies, Inc., Imitated, but Never Duplicated." ;) I like that, maybe we should use that. =D
Scumbridge? So do you! Business as usual and we're better of....
JF...
Wow, look who decided to drop by, Hi JF. I cannot verify that it is really you so we are going to publish the comment with a grain of salt.
BTW, it is supposed to be "better off" not "better of".
Well looky who dropped by for some shall we say,.. "Research"? ;)
Reminds me of this article. =D
Hello. I am a customer of both your services (Scumbridges and G-Tech). I bought your products before and as far as I am concerned both of your products were good. And I am happy that there were competitions to improve both of your services. So stop screwing each other. It is not fair for us customers perhaps I believe that your services (both G-Tech and Scumbridges) were not legal in the Philippines (I believe this is a loophole, but as soon as someone pass a bill from the congress in the Philippines regarding this it will not good for me also). It's like buying a pirated DVD in Quiapo, Philippines since we benefit from it I take full advantage to save my money. GOD Bless to you all!
Hi Anony.
A couple things need to be said.
First, we are legal, we partnered up with a telco there in the Philippines that has an interconnection agreement with all the Philippine carriers.
Second, if you read the post, you would have noticed that I agreed that competition is good, especially for the customer. What I have a problem with is the back handedness of the way that they conducted themselves. From their unethical business practices, to their misleading ads.
Please note that I considered JF a friend until the day he decided to stab us in the back. I mean come on, people from the local carriers tell me that he has been saying to anyone that will listen that he was the one that came up with the idea for the service and he just gave it to us. His ads also misleads you into thinking his PI texting service was first.
Like I said, I remember way back, when I was delivering our Syner-G cards to his shop one day, he specifically said, "Ang galing ng idea nyo ah!".
Lastly, please tell me at what point did we actually try to screw them over? I just can't recall us being anything but nice to them.
heyy wow, someone is watching this post very closely. he he.. ;)
at any rate, let us analyze "anonymous'" comments shall we?:
"I am a customer.." Yeah, ok, sure like a customer with no personal interest would be this glued to this particular post, right.
"Stop screwing each other." 2 things: #1 How have we EVER "screwed" them? As far as we're concerned we're the ones that got stabbed in the back by our Reseller who admittedly thought that we had a great idea. I challenge you "anonymous" call me and tell me how we screwed them and I'll personally give you some free credit if you prove that we did. We don't mislead our customers with our advertising either. We are the INVENTORS of this technology which is why we now own the U.S. Patent rights to it, which is why we have been doing this since 2001. #2 as a "customer" why would you care if we screw each other? Competition ALWAYS benefits the customer. So if you are a customer then it's not affecting you in any negative way, so again with the obvious personal interest.
"I believe that your services were not legal.." WE have ALL the REQUIRED LICENSES and AGREEMENTS with a partner TelCo to do business, remember, since 2001. You may want to think twice before you make such accusations, they must be coming from somewhere.
"It's like buying a pirated DVD.." Sorry, you could not be more off on this Analogy. It is NO WAY in any angle of light even close to being a valid comparison. A pirated DVD is an ILLEGAL COPY OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY that is being redistributed and resold. We DO NOT MAKE ANY ILLEGAL COPIES of ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY so that comparison is way off.
A better analogy would be this: A Message is like a product being sold on Ebay, and WE are Ebay. Only the manufacturers of the product want to charge 15 times the cost of the product if the person that wants to buy it is in a different country. In comes our Patented Technology which makes the product available for the same price regardless of location. The manufacturer still gets paid at the price that they are selling the product for and the customer at the far end is happy. So, tell me what's wrong with that? As you said, we all save money right? This is all about the GREED of the manufacturer, no more, no less.
"GOD Bless.." I assure you that we are traditional God fearing pinoys, which is why we don't play dirty and burn bridges because we know that HE is watching us. So when you say "GOD Bless You" we hope you understand and mean it so if that is the case then GOD BLESS ALL OF US.
Sincerely,
Manny Gabriel (would you also like to identify yourself "Anonymous"?)
Ok Thanks. I have no rights to be glued in this post anyway as gabtech2 had analyzed. gabtech thanks for your mild manner approach on explaining me your side on this. It seems gabtech2 pissed off a bit and doesn't like my post on this.
Thanks a lot
To be honest, I was also angry that you chose to accuse us of being illegal and trying to screw the competition without first gathering the facts. Wouldn't you mad be also if someone did that to you?
I hope at least you see things more clearly and understand about the things that happened and the reason for my rant in the first place.
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