speaking of vutures

I am reminded of a situation from a job a while back. I was moved from Technician to Sales. Seems my "in route" sales far exceeded the other technicians. Was a lateral move rather than a promotion, as the raise in pay was guaranteed regardless of my choice to stay as service, or move to sales. So I moved to the sales dept. The job was a full sales venture, create the lead, do the estimate and close the sale. I was payed x for the week, plus commission for the money over $10,000 a month. Essentially I had to make a successful sale at least every day. Well, I would work the extra few hours at the shop 3 nights a week to make cold calls, set up estimates and run them. Extra time being about 6-9 pm on top of running estimates all day.
Did pretty well March to May, then the bottom drops out of the Lawn Care Sales. One time, and I'm sure it happened more now that I look back, I had work stolen. The potential 'customer' will be referred to as Mr Smith. In my after hour office time I call Mr Smith and he decides he will take the estimate, I go out the next day and run the estimate, leave him the papers and 2 nights later, I call to talk with Mr Smith. "Let me think about it" is the end of the conversation. A few days later I call Mr Smith, he tells me "I accepted your estimate and thank you." A sale I did not get credit for! Man I was steamed. Turns out the girls in the office were also offered commission for sales made. So when Mr Smith called back to accept the sale, I didn't answer the phone, one of the girls in the office did, and got the credit for my work. Well I had been documenting my phone calls and such, and with a long list of notes, not home, call back, let me think about it, I bring the documentation to my boss. He looks at me and says, "Well this is obviously 'your' sale. One victory, but I still wonder how many of 'My Sales' were taken by the girl that did nothing more than luck into a phone call produced by my hard work.