While they should have treated you with more respect, they were probably laughing because it has doubtless come up in their product discussions before. That would be a pretty common request, but also one that there are all sorts of technical reasons why it wouldn't be possible. (mainly heat and drive durability issues...) I imagine the marketing people and the product engineers had quite an argument over that spec. They were probably laughing at that process more than they were laughing at you. Plus, they were probably a little tipsy anyway.
Did you know for sure that they were marketing people? Marketing people should know better than to talk like that, but engineers are usually not allowed around customers for presicely this reason: they're not usually hired on the basis of their people skills. I should know, I are one!
(Heck, I'm usually much nastier than that when I'm sober, especially to my project manager, and get nicer when I'm drunk, which prompts him to buy me beer. I don't mind!)
Again, they should have treated you with more respect, but you also should not have taken it quite so personally. Since it was an informal get-together, they probably thought that they were being humorous. I've been at many of these get-togethers with salespeople before, where they jokingly talk about all the product that my group is going to buy, and I jokingly point out that we'd need to lay off a few people before we could afford their overpriced garbage. And everyone's all smiles...
edit: I should add that the main reason that I have the attitude I do is that I know certain salespeople (and certainly my management) pretty well, and they know me well, and we can joke like that and not get bent out of shape. I don't really think I'd be quite as jovial with a sales rep I don't know. But if one started treating me this way, I'd get right back at them. (You know, my entire family does want iPods, but they refuse to buy an inferior product with a spinning hard drive. When you're selling your 20 GB Flash iPod with 5-day bettery life for $200/pop, I'll buy six!)...
Did you know for sure that they were marketing people? Marketing people should know better than to talk like that, but engineers are usually not allowed around customers for presicely this reason: they're not usually hired on the basis of their people skills. I should know, I are one!
(Heck, I'm usually much nastier than that when I'm sober, especially to my project manager, and get nicer when I'm drunk, which prompts him to buy me beer. I don't mind!)
Again, they should have treated you with more respect, but you also should not have taken it quite so personally. Since it was an informal get-together, they probably thought that they were being humorous. I've been at many of these get-togethers with salespeople before, where they jokingly talk about all the product that my group is going to buy, and I jokingly point out that we'd need to lay off a few people before we could afford their overpriced garbage. And everyone's all smiles...
edit: I should add that the main reason that I have the attitude I do is that I know certain salespeople (and certainly my management) pretty well, and they know me well, and we can joke like that and not get bent out of shape. I don't really think I'd be quite as jovial with a sales rep I don't know. But if one started treating me this way, I'd get right back at them. (You know, my entire family does want iPods, but they refuse to buy an inferior product with a spinning hard drive. When you're selling your 20 GB Flash iPod with 5-day bettery life for $200/pop, I'll buy six!)...