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I took a phone call from a school system purchaser. She had faxed us a PO in October and they still hadn't received the shipment.
I asked for the PO number and what she ordered. She told me.
Then I asked if they had been invoiced for the product. No, they hadn't. That's good.
So I passed the call along to Hanna, our accountant, so she could find the order in the system and track it down.
Hanna couldn't find it and asked the caller to fax it again. The caller told Hannah that she had already faxed it once and, when it wasn't received had called us and snail mailed it. She was pretty miffed that we apparently lost the same order twice and how could she trust us not to lose it a third time?
Hannah took her name and number and assured her we'd call her back in five minutes to let her know if we got the fax. Thank goodness she got the caller's number.
As soon as she hung up she went right down to the fax machine and watched it come in. And had a hearty laugh.
The PO was a computer printout. It did name our product as the item being ordered. It also had our address and contact information listed as the vendor. The prices were correct.
But some things were missing. I'll list them:
I think you all can see the problem here. All of the information necessary to ship and bill for the order was missing AND there was no way to even call and get that information and even to know WHO to call to get that information. My guess is it was a printed report from their procurement software intended for their internal use. Most purchasers would then take the information and use it to fill out a proper PO to send to the vendor.
Apparently she skipped that last bit. Three times.
And even though you guys can see the problem, the purchaser did not when Hannah called her back. Her exact quote was:
"I've always used that form and nobody else had a problem with it."
So Hannah just took the information we needed and we filled the order. I suppose sending out orders that are nearly impossible to fill or bill for is one way to save money in the budget, but...
I asked for the PO number and what she ordered. She told me.
Then I asked if they had been invoiced for the product. No, they hadn't. That's good.
So I passed the call along to Hanna, our accountant, so she could find the order in the system and track it down.
Hanna couldn't find it and asked the caller to fax it again. The caller told Hannah that she had already faxed it once and, when it wasn't received had called us and snail mailed it. She was pretty miffed that we apparently lost the same order twice and how could she trust us not to lose it a third time?
Hannah took her name and number and assured her we'd call her back in five minutes to let her know if we got the fax. Thank goodness she got the caller's number.
As soon as she hung up she went right down to the fax machine and watched it come in. And had a hearty laugh.
The PO was a computer printout. It did name our product as the item being ordered. It also had our address and contact information listed as the vendor. The prices were correct.
But some things were missing. I'll list them:
- A cover sheet.
The return fax number.
The customer's billing address.
The customer's shipping address.
The customer's address. Period.
A phone number to call with questions.
Contact information of any kind.
I think you all can see the problem here. All of the information necessary to ship and bill for the order was missing AND there was no way to even call and get that information and even to know WHO to call to get that information. My guess is it was a printed report from their procurement software intended for their internal use. Most purchasers would then take the information and use it to fill out a proper PO to send to the vendor.
Apparently she skipped that last bit. Three times.
And even though you guys can see the problem, the purchaser did not when Hannah called her back. Her exact quote was:
"I've always used that form and nobody else had a problem with it."
So Hannah just took the information we needed and we filled the order. I suppose sending out orders that are nearly impossible to fill or bill for is one way to save money in the budget, but...