I’ve always used wording such as “I’m contacting you on behalf of so-and-so.” If they ask further I usually tell them I’m a consultant. On Feb 20, 2021, at 11:29 AM, Mike Hammett <nanog@ics-il.net<mailto:nanog@ics-il.net>> wrote: Leave aside any conversation about whether the business has the ability (or approval) to pay for it or not. Is it appropriate for organizations that provide services to end-users to require that you are a paying customer to contact their support? Is it appropriate to pretend to be your complaining customer to get support on network-level issues (IP Geolocation, false VPN notices, buffering, despite a clean path to their CDN, etc.)? ----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions<http://www.ics-il.com/> [http://www.ics-il.com/images/fbicon.png]<https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/googleicon.png]<https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/linkedinicon.png]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/twittericon.png]<https://twitter.com/ICSIL> Midwest Internet Exchange<http://www.midwest-ix.com/> [http://www.ics-il.com/images/fbicon.png]<https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/linkedinicon.png]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/twittericon.png]<https://twitter.com/mdwestix> The Brothers WISP<http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/> [http://www.ics-il.com/images/fbicon.png]<https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/youtubeicon.png]<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>