I'm sorry I don't understand. The alternative was to have a basic price for the product or service on their website that a person could look up.
Maybe if I'm some big bulk buyer and think I can get a better deal by talking to the salesguy then I'll do that. But if I'm some small fry buying like 1 or 2 of the things I know they aren't going to give me a break, but I still have to go through the "contact the sales person, they call you back, you explain what you want, they generate a quote within 5-7 business days that is good for 30 days after being generated, you end up not buying the thing for whatever reason" rigamarole.
Sidenote: I've never had a vendor balk at me using an "expired" quote to buy something. Our purchasing process never proceeds within 30 days, but turns out the prices don't change either. It is very common to be executing on a quote that's 6 months old.
Maybe if I'm some big bulk buyer and think I can get a better deal by talking to the salesguy then I'll do that. But if I'm some small fry buying like 1 or 2 of the things I know they aren't going to give me a break, but I still have to go through the "contact the sales person, they call you back, you explain what you want, they generate a quote within 5-7 business days that is good for 30 days after being generated, you end up not buying the thing for whatever reason" rigamarole.
Sidenote: I've never had a vendor balk at me using an "expired" quote to buy something. Our purchasing process never proceeds within 30 days, but turns out the prices don't change either. It is very common to be executing on a quote that's 6 months old.