So as I sit here in my office, waiting for a delivery, I thought I'd drone on a bit about inept suppliers...
The entertainment industry being what it is, creates insanely short deadlines. Those deadlines in turn mean that the suppliers that a shop uses, really needs to be on top of their game. For instance, my lumber supplier is usually pretty good about letting me know if they are out of something almost immeadiatly, without letting me find out when the delivery truck shows up. That lets me either change how I was going to build something, or put in a second order with another supplier, or wait for my main supplier to get in their next shipment. Often, I can wait, simply by working on something else, or because I keep a stock of the usual materials in house, and the order would simply replenish that stock... Some companies don't seem to work that way. For many years, I was relitively happy with my metal supplier. They did have the occasional delay they did not inform me about, but that wasn't the norm. Unfortunatly, they decided they'd had enough, and closed up shop, sold their land to a developer, and all moved to Florida to retire. Since then, I've been useing a few different options to find one I'm happy with. As of today, another one gets crossed of the list...
It was a small order, and I understand when small orders don't quite get the priority they need, but this is rediculous. We were told that the material in question would be delivered on the 13th hopefully, but they couldn't be sure, however they did assure me that it would be in on the 17th immediatly following president's day. That would have been just fine knowing my delivery schedule. Well the 17th came and went, and I honestly forgot about it... then the 18th, and on the 19th I remembered my wayward material just after the supplier closed for the day. Fortunatly, the scenic units they were for are currently on hold, so I really didn't need this stuff... So the 20th I was in Philly, meaning I couldn't call them untill the 23rd. Yesterday, I called them to find out what the story was, and they got snippy with me since apparently they sent a truck here Friday and I had the indecency to not be here, nor did I inform them of my would-be absence. Being in something of a pleasant mood yesterday, I appologised for missing them, and explained that we don't keep regular hours since we do not have any walk-in customers, that is why we always schedule deliveries... Well they told me they could send the material out on the truck today, and drop it first thing, as long as I assured them I'd be here at 8:30am... I did that grudgeingly, since we have no current projects, and I was planning on sleeping in, but I was here at 7:30am, just to be damn sure... Guess what... No material... So I called them around 1:15pm, and I was in a foul mood already from something else I imagine will end up as a post. (just not yet... need to see where the dice fall at the moment) I got the same person on the phone, and was told that she was sure it had been delivered. Naturally, I explained that it had not, and she asked if it had perhaps been signed for by someone else and misplaced... Sure, that's logical right?... My shop is 30' x 60', and I can see just about every square inch of this place from the window I sit by in my office... There are no employees here at this time to sign for anything. I assured her that that was not possible, and asked her to check the shipping manafests for the day... She then comes back with, "I don't see you anywhere here, are you sure it was for today?" It is at this point I snapped, and started yelling... I didn't need to request a manager being put on the line, it just happened suddenly... After chewing on that poor guy for a while (hey, he wasnt the one that set me off) I was told they would look into where my material was, and they'd call back. This process should take about 30 minutes... Go through all the manafests for the day, and call the driver that has the material, or find the material still on the rack in the warehouse... This isn't hard... Their warehouse isn't that big that they could loose this stuff... They only have 6 trucks... The time is now 2:42... I think I'm going to make another phone call...
Posted by Backstage at February 24, 2004 04:55 PM