MediaMisfit

Just say "I need a hi-res, version of your logo or the print quality will be really bad."

Then address the questions from there. If they don't know what you mean by hi-res tell them "a really large JPEG or a .eps vector version of there logo."

I've dealt with a lot of companies in the past and heard exactly what you mentioned. The best way is to send them a quick statement and see what the DO understand and then go from there. Usually if they don't know what you talking about your statement will at least get them to ask the write questions or get you to the person who does know about what you need.

Usually you'll be able to pull a logo off a PDF document as well. Just open it up in Illustrator and the logo might still be in vector format. If they've given you any .pdf's of already standing collateral you might want to try it.

Lastly you can try recreating there logo which usually sucks to do but I've done it before just because it too SOOOOOOOO long for some really big companies to get back to me.

Good Luck.