Just need to vent

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cjmst3k

cjmst3k

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Apr 25, 2006
Posts
4,414
One of our large suppliers, whom shall remain nameless, but that we mostly all have in common is giving me a nervous tick in my eye.

We just got a large painting in that we had custom painted for the holidays, and rushed by the artist to meet the Thanksgiving / Black Friday / SBS art shoppers that we have in the gallery.

Ordered a large moulding that doesn't fit on our saw chop & join on Friday Nov 16th for delivery Tues Nov 20th.

Tuesday comes and they delivered a frame that was cut too small to fit the liner they also cut and joined. We usually cut liners, but needing this to be correct and on-time, ordered both the liner and frame cut-and-join. Since Thursday is Thanksgiving, them replacing it the next delivery is not possible. So, we loose a week and miss our chance to feature this custom painting for the BF/SBS traffic, with promises it will be on next Tuesday's truck.

Tuesday comes again, and hey... no frame. My employee says the main office called the afternoon prior to say it's not coming Tuesday either, and might not even come Thursday. They don't have any moulding. ...this would have been good to have been discussed LAST week when they could have shipped moulding to the local branch.

My rep emails to say it will be here this Thursday, because he's going to have the moulding overnighted from another branch to guarantee it arrives joined Thursday.

I'm a bit peturbed.... but fine. Thursday. We'll just make it work.


Thursday comes... Seriously? No frame again?

Turns out that branch didn't feel like overnighting anything to make the promised Thursday delivery.


Now I'm told "Hopefully next Tuesday".
If they actually do this, this'll make 2.5 week turnaround, rather than the 2 business day turnaround it was supposed to be.



I know the quote goes "Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me."
Are there additional lines to this quote that I should be aware of?
 
And after all of that they are going to charge you extra to stack those frames. Seems to me that is going to deter many of us from ordering things chopped and joined. Sorry Chris. They just don't get that all of this tracking and other b.s. you are dealing with literally is taking money out of your pocket. Make sure you are the squeaky wheel and maybe they will make it more tolerable for you.
 
If it does go wrong, it goes wrong completely doesn't it. Nothing good to offer you...hope you feel a bit less angry after your vent.

Make sure they make it up to you though, don't pay for extras and they better do something really really nice for you to keep you happy and ordering from them.
 
Every business has it's occasional frustrations, I guess.
 
pwalters said:
And after all of that they are going to charge you extra to stack those frames. Seems to me that is going to deter many of us from ordering things chopped and joined. Sorry Chris. They just don't get that all of this tracking and other b.s. you are dealing with literally is taking money out of your pocket. Make sure you are the squeaky wheel and maybe they will make it more tolerable for you.
Click to expand...


I don't know about charging extra. I had emailed my rep with the sizes, and a note to wait to cut the outer frame until the liner was made, then cut and join the frame to fit that liner, which was not done this way.

I like my rep a lot, so I think the most squeeky I've gotten has been saying "I'm frustrated with all of this, as we needed this last week". He had offered to pick it up and bring it down himself last wednesday before Thanksgiving, but I know it wouldn't have fit into his car. Had I known there was another 2 weeks I'd be waiting, I may have considered that option.

I had another option with another vendor that knowing what I know now I would have taken... but it's already been about 2 weeks. What's another 5 days I guess. Just frustrating.
 
And how. Rawr. :icon9:
 
Wow Chris. That's pretty smelly customer service. Hopefully it's just a one-time glitch. Over the years, we've had similar incidents, and usually they are isolated incidents. One thing I've come to realize though. Unless you actually grouch at them a little and tell them WHY it is such a problem, they don't get it. The attitude is kind of 'oh well, it'll be on the next truck'. They don't deal directly with customers, so they forget that it all depends on their (our customers') happiness.
 
Welcome to the new reality.

Out of stocks will no longer be shipped from other distribution centers at their expense and certainly not ever overnighted.

Then new guy was brought in with one thing on his mind, that is to increase profits no matter what it does to customer service. The ones I feel sorry for are the reps. They are placed in the middle and are handcuffed by these new corporate policies that are the complete opposite of what built their company.
 
One other thing that I believe is happening is that some companies have new CEO's (and even the ones that don't) are trying to cut costs at every level.
Part of this is to replace long time competent employees with benefits with new, cheaper employees that maybe aren't so competent. (same with the Reps.)
I have never seen so many wrong products sent or bad moulding sent and we are supposed to be their quality control as customers at the end of the chain.:shrug:
 
If this is the vendor I'm thinking it is, then I've had some issues with joins lately too. We've switched to getting a large number of our frames joined by them for various reasons (less time now I'm back at university, our equipment is iffy on most frames designed and created after 1980, speed...). I generally love this vendor, from the reps to the delivery drivers A+ all the way, but I have noticed some glaring quality control issues with their joins (I had a frame with a giant nail sticking out inside the frame this week). I figure if I'm paying this much extra for it it should be perfect. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt since it's getting busy and they're probably training new hires etc., but if this stuff is happening on my last minute holiday orders I will NOT be happy! I hope this isn't a trend with them, it's been so great in the past to have one shining beacon of reliability in an otherwise wonky world.
 
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