I have to kick myself because I did it again. Sometimes I think I will never learn. Nobody wants to pay more than they should so when I somehow pulled a muscle in my neck while sleeping, I found myself in the pharmacy looking for a heat patch to soothe the pain

The generic brand had signs on it "Compare to Thermacare" so I purchased it. I saved a bit… I don’t even know how much but it was likely a few bucks. I figured, heat is heat.

Fast forward 15 minutes to my office where I applied the heating pad to the back of my neck. When I lowered my arms I felt the adhesive stretch and finally loosen its grip. I reattached the adhesive strips a few times but no luck as the adhesive quickly wore off.

I had to throw the first one out and try again. The second one stayed on my neck for about 30 minutes and then got lose. Throughout the day I had to reach back and reapply it before it fell down to the bottom of my shirt.

Before I left for the day I applied yet another generic heat pad. As I left the car to go to my Valentine’s Day dinner with my wife, I felt the pad come loose again. I reattached it and went into the restaurant. As dinner progressed, I found the pad loosen and I would have to reach into my shirt to keep it from falling.

This happened repeatedly and made for a crappy dinner experience.

At night, I went into our medicine closet and found an authentic ThermaCare heating pad. I put it on and it lasted all night and into the morning. It was great.

My neck is a lot better now but not 100% yet.

I have learned once and for all that you do get what you pay for. You have likely heard stories about Cisco gear that is grossly under priced that often turns out to be counterfeit. The same can be said about communications equipment.

In addition, if a company gives it away, the equipment may indeed be good but the company behind it may not be around to service it in six months. The other reason a company gives products away is because it is crap. Riddled with problems that you don’t know about until you purchase it.

The same can be said about resellers… You go with the cheaper reseller and then find that service levels are not what they should be.

This of course relates to your phone system… The way you communicate with your customers. This is an area you just don’t want to mess around with.

Likewise in the field of marketing. I see companies go the cheap way with their marketing. They just do PR or look for a pay-per-click solution that does not brand them at all. Moreover some companies just focus on lead generation and don’t spend a dime to tell the market who they are or what they do.

In other words, they don’t get potential customers comfortable with their company.

They then wonder why the clicks and leads don’t convert into sales. Duh!?

The story has repeated often in my life and I have finally learned my lesson. I have seen it repeated in business as well and I hope this article reminds you of the pitfalls of getting what you pay for.