Hi Glenn, OK let's talk about this vis-a-vis ASND. Let me relate a story. Some months back, a friend of mine who is a computer "geek" (the friendly moniker I use since I am very ignorant in the area), told me that a friend of his had ordered a $150 card from ASND. Instead of the card, he received a 10 grand box with no invoice. He was tickled that he got a piece of equipment for free, and had no intention of notifying anyone unless the screw up was uncovered.
Being a shareholder, I called ASND and asked for IR to find out who I could talk to regarding this "little" mistake. Quite by accident I was put through to a senior executive, (every salesman's dream come true...) He was quite cordial. I expressed my concern, not because of the "little" mistake, but to let him know that if there was one of these "mistakes" there might be more, and my concern was that the company be aware of the invoicing glitch. 10 grand a pop adds up fast.
This senior executive, who was good enough to take my call and listen to my gripe, expressed legitimate concern. He offered the usual excuses, big company, maybe the product numbers were similar, etc.
But he also assured me that he would kick some serious booty. I believed him.
Now, I never checked back to see the outcome, because this man is a senior executive, and he has more to do in his busy day than to start an ongoing dialog with me.
The point is that he responded just as I would have had I been in his shoes. Which is about all I can expect. ASND is a huge company, and shinola occurs. What matters is how the management handles the shinola and I felt fine about the handling. I know of no other way to make a judgement about company management. I believe I'm a pretty good judge of character, and I was happy with the response.
Lawyer reform? Yeah, I agree. The truth is that for every slimeball who wants to scrape some money out of a deep pocket, there is an attorney somewhere that will gladly help him out (for a slight additional charge, thank you.) Handling this stuff is not the major concern of the company. It's a yapping dog running along side the train. You handle it as best you can and you move on. When a company's stock tanks, expect the yapping dogs. |
