confidentiality agreement for gift wrapping?

So, I’ve been looking for a good looking CD Gift Wrapping System for our Visual Thesaurus and approached a few merchants that I thought might be a good fit. I introduced myself as the Designer of the Visual Thesaurus and explained that we are looking for a longterm partner for gift wrapping and that our mangement would like to see a sample before committing to a bigger purchase. As expected, 3 of the 4 approached companies wrote back “sure, no problem!” One reply (to our very basic request) had us scratch our heads though:

Hi Tina
Thank you for your enquiry regarding our unique CD design. I’ll be more than happy to send a sample and brochure. Before we can do so would you be kind enough to please have a director/principle sign the attached confidentiality agreement and fax back to me. +44 XXXXX many thanks.
Kind regards
XXXX

We looked at the confidentiality agreement and it was 3 (!!) pages long and very ‘non-descript’ to say the least. I wrote back a very friendly email saying that we are not a competitor and that it doesn’t seem to make sense, having to sign a non disclosure agreement taking the nature of our potential business relationship.

After all, all we wanted is to see a gift wrapping sample, not his grandma’s secret meatballs recipy! Oh my!

The reply to my very friendly email, made our entire company laugh and shake our heads in disbelief:

I find any organisation or business who has an excuse not to sign a confidentiality agreement has something to hide. Most credible companies wanting partnership would never do that. I think my response speaks for itself.

Ok, then! Thank you for your time! Ha ha!