Consultant brings fish into his office. He threatens to fire fish if fish tells his boss about the other proposals. The decision is made, consultant tells fish. We're going with the company I've selected.

A few weeks go by. Fish's boss asks him to sign off on a proposal from the consultant. It meets all specifications and is $50 under the $60,000 budget. Fish signs it, but he's puzzled -- how did they get it under budget?

He finds out a few weeks later, when the equipment arrives. "It wasn't the same as what I signed off on," fish says. "The core engine was only Layer 2, and there was no VOIP support.

"I showed the sign-off sheet to the vendor tech, and found out that the sheet was from the original spec but the price was changed to reflect what we were spending on this order. On this equipment that didn't meet the requirements. And still cost more than either of my proposals. And the price quoted did not include tax, shipping, or the new power equipment we had to install to support the new core.

"My boss fired the consultant and the consultant's consultant. The vendor agreed to discount an upgrade.