Contract negotiations advice?

[jimi.thompson at gmail.com (Jimi Thompson)]

First thing is to be an educated consumer.  Know what going rates and sla s cost for a given service.  Also check the rep of the vendor.  I find that competitive bids work well.  Unless your a gov or something you dont have to take the lowest bid - take the best one.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Giagnocavo <patrick at zill.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 10:32 AM
To: NANOG <nanog at nanog.org>
Subject: Contract negotiations advice?


I am dealing with a large telecom which purchased the small telecom I
signed a contract with.

Despite signing only 1 contract with them, the two racks, and the
bandwidth which feeds 1 rack (I connect privately to the second rack at
no charge) all have different termination dates.

How signing one contract resulted in 3 different end of term dates,
months apart, I can't quite figure out.

Can anyone point me to a mailing list or discussion forum containing
advice on dealing with such issues?  And the wider issue of negotiating
good rates with telecoms?

Cordially

Patrick Giagnocavo
patrick at zill.net