Bad Omens in Project Design

Recently, I've been designing as part of a project we've been taking on here at work. While it took a couple tries and retries to get things how I wanted them, I felt that I had a circuit that would accomplish just what I needed it to. That was until I started going to fetch more detailed information on components used. The information itself was good; it was in retrieving it that I began to have second thoughts.

For instance, I am using a certain chip in this design. While contacting the company for information, they couldn't find anyone who knew anything about this chip.

Then while getting my information, we had the following (paraphrased) exchange:

Me: I'm engineer at [my company name here].
Her: Is that in [city that is identical to my company name], California?
Me: [silence]..um, no, it's in [city whose name in no way resembles company name], Indiana.
Her: [laughter]

I was given a number for another branch somewhere else, and told they could help me. Well, they couldn't either, but they had a number for someone who could. After giving me a number with no area code, I asked what the area code was. Confused, she asked me where I was from; apparently, she figured I was a local customer.

Lastly, I had to get a mechanical component for this as well, which brought about this (also paraphrased) exchange:

Me: I'll need [a relatively large number] per year.
Him: [silence]...Really?

Well, it's been real. Now time to finish up [haha] those pesky taxes!