I work for a small IT constulting business, and instead of being out servicing my clients I am now starting to spend more and more time chasing up my suppliers. It’s simple really, i order something that they have in stock, and by the time i have paid for it they have shipped the goods out to larger clients like the harvey normans or wherever.
One particular item has been on back order for two months, when we ordered it we were told there would be a 1 week delay. This is embarassing for us as the customer is now undersdtandably very frustrated as she wanted the part for her sons notebook so he could start using it at school this year.
And yet we are held over a barrell, being told “Oh, that part has to come direct from the manufacturer. So we dont know how long it is going to be but i will ask the purchasing officer for that vendor and he will call you back” so we wait for a call back and guess what, they never do. So we call again and then we get told “Oh sorry there seems to be a mix up, your order was cancelled by our purchasing officer” OH MY GOD. And it never ends.
It is not as if we could just use another distributor. We have to use them and they know it. Customer service is not in their interest because they do not need to have it.
Talking to other businesses like ours we often recieve comments like “Yeah, they are really hard to deal with but we just use them because we have to”.
I think it is about time someone, or everyone chooses to do something about this. It is unacceptable that we have to pass on the costs from dealing with these idiots to our customers.
Have a nice day
