A year or so ago, when the Tektronix MDO3000 series scope was released, I signed up to win one from Tektronix. At the time, I used my personal email and home phone number since it was a competition (why would I used my office phone)? Shortly after, the calls from Tektronix started asking me if I wanted to buy anything, was looking to buy anything, etc (sales/marketing calls). Most of the time, they’d just call early in the morning (8-9am), or somehow, right when my one year old was taking a nap. =/
They would also send an email follow up, though they wouldn’t leave a voicemail. After the second time it happened, I emailed them back and said “please don’t call my home phone, call my work phone xxx-xxx-xxxx”. No response. Then a mouth or so later, another call and email. Respond to email, no response. The third time, I finally got a response to the email saying they would have to talk to their supervisor about removing me from the list. A follow up resulted in nothing, but also no calls for at least a month. Then another call at 8am one day, and I lost my patience. I emailed their main PR/Marketing email address on the Tektronix website with something rather stern, and commenting that I grew up across the street from Tektronix, and many of my family members, as well as my wife’s father, worked there for years. For a couple weeks, I heard nothing, but then I heard from a Senior Communications Manager apologizing, and saying she would look into where the process failed, and had me removed from their lists. Also, she said she was going to mail me a gift as an apology. I provided my mailing address, and a couple weeks later, got an overnight notice from UPS that something was due for delivery. What did it have?
Another meter repair everyone! Anyway, as usual, I purchased a Fluke 12 off eBay listed as the buttons not working, but the meter itself worked as long as you were measuring diodes, or VDC. After a quick search online, this appeared to be due to the elastomeric strip between the buttons PCB and the main PCB being dirty, or failing. I contacted the seller to make sure the case wasn’t broken (as this meter seems to be on Fluke’s “Repair by Replace” list, I didn’t want to fall into that trap again), and after he said it was all intact, I ordered the unit for $30 + $6 shipping. 