Bait and Switch: Astaro
Over the last year or so I have been looking at the Astaro Firewalls to replace a Cisco PIX 506e at one of the companies I work with. The needs for the firewall were modest, but the company has outgrown the existing PIX and with some upcoming projects, most notably the implentation of a new IP PBX we definatly needed something with a little more “Uumph”.
After working hearing about the Astaro Evaluation program on the TWiT Podcast, I decided to give it a try. I ordered an evaluation ASG220 unit. After the 30 days or so it looked like the firewall was a winner, except I did not think that the model I evaluated still would have enough “Uumph”. So I worked with the engineers some more and decided that the ASG320 was a better unit for us. But alas, some budget cuts forced me to delay the purchase by 6 or so months.
Recently Astaro began offering a 20% PIX trade in discount on new models, so I asked the sales rep at Astaro, who had been pestering me as well as my Insight sales rep about this purchase from day one, to provide a quote to me. The quote was for the hardware, a 1 year service contract, 1 year of web filtering service, and 1 year of email filtering service. My first issue with the quote was that I did not ask for the filtering subscriptions, nor did I want them, as we already have other solutions in place for these needs. My second issue was that it did not reflect the 20% discount that was advertised, even though the rep knew that is what I was after. After sending an email to the nagging sales rep, the response I got with regards to the unwanted subscriptions was, “No problem, just don’t order them, you can order them when you are ready”. I guess that he did not understand that I did not want them, ever. As for his repsonse to my issue over the discount, he told me, “Sorry I forgot, just take 20% off of the prices I quoted you”.
Another 30 days goes by, with this sales guy calling myself and my Insight (my reseller of choice) rep a couple times a week wanting to know when I was going to place an order, as if I was obligated to do so, but I finally was ready to place the order. I dropped him an email telling him so and asking what I needed to do to ensure the 20% discount that was promised. The response that I received was that in order to get the 20% discount I would have to order a 3 year service contract not the 1 year that he quoted me. When I called him out on the change he simply stated that it was his mistake, but there was nothing that he could do.
This left me with two options spend $2000 more to save 20% or spend $1000 more and get no discount. Not liking either option, I contacted Cisco to see what they would offer me. They have decided to offer me an ASA5510 with the 20% trade in discount. I placed my order for the Cisco today, and in the end I spent about $1500 less than what I was planning on spending in the first place with Astaro.
I guess that Astaro does not stand by their quotes or what their sales people promise, but I guess it does not matter because they lost the sale and have turned me off from their products for life. Furthermore, it was one of the most high pressure pre-sales experiences I have ever had with a vendor, which ultimately contributed to my decision to go back to Cisco.
