A Supplier Nightmare and Why Should You Go to Trade Shows

The order was placed in June and now it's almost September. Three weeks were lost trying to get resolution with their sales manager who told us he would get right back to us. Our initial conversation was promising. Typically those who are in this position are empowered to take care of things like this. That didn't happen here. Unfortunately, he failed to return our calls, despite our ongoing follow-up efforts. I understand people in this position are always on the road, but this additional delay made a bad situation worse.

In the end, ultimately the two options presented by the supplier were not favorable resolutions. One offered a significant discount for the client to keep the mugs. My business savvy wife brought to my attention that accepting that offer basically says that we can't deliver a quality product. This isn't the image we want to present, nor is it the way we want to take care of our clients. The other option was to return the mugs so the supplier can review them. Hundreds of dollars in freight costs would be incurred and they would then charge us only for the mugs they determine are good. This of course would add another 2 to 3 weeks on to this mess.

We are well past a reasonable time of resolution at this point and have already gone through enough of these mugs to know that many have crooked imprints. We felt this was also an inadequate resolution. The supplier's cost to redo the mugs correctly would have cost less than shipping them back and forth. Call me crazy, but I think sometimes good business is just taking care of the customer. That's what we are choosing to do with our client who was caught up in this mug order disaster. Unfortunately the supplier here does not feel the same way.