I knew as soon as I saw the box something was wrong.
Right after Christmas I ordered a $48 piece of backup software for my home computer from one of the country’s biggest software resellers – I don’t want to name names, but just say that last year it was in the top 10 of CDN’s Top 100 solution providers list in terms of revenue. With shipping and tax, my order came to $66.11. I expected a light package the size of a thin book with a single CD and, maybe, a 30-page instruction booklet.
What arrived the first week of this month was a heavy box the size of a PC that obviously wasn’t desktop software. Not even server software with hardbound manuals for a staff of five would be in that box.
The packing list described the contents as 100 black DVD cases. Stamped on two sides of the cardboard box was “DVD Case Double Black 100 pcs.” There was a sticker that said “DVD Black Cases Double.” And in case there was any doubt the seams of the box were bursting and if you looked carefully you could SEE a hundred DVD cases.
Now the guys at the reseller might have thrown in a couple of blank DVDs for backup as a sort of holiday bonus, but empty cases? Not likely.
So I called company and got a sales agent, who I’ll called Bryan, and read him out a bunch of numbers on the packing list. The SKU number was right, he said, but somehow the warehouse shipped me 100 black DVD cases.
Bryan got back within a few hours with an explanation. His company doesn’t stock the products that organizations order, but has them shipped out from a distributor here in Canada. In this case the distributor apparently hadn’t carried this product in a while, deleted it from its database and then at some point reassigned the SKU to a box of black double-sided DVD cases.
The solution, Bryan said, would be for the reseller to cancel the order, send the box of DVDs back to his company (at its expense) and for me to re-order the software, this time direct from the U.S. manufacturer. He checked with the company in California and it had “a ton in stock.” Except in sorting out the reseller’s database, the price of the software had now increased to $58.44. With shipping and tax the total came to $78.03, almost $12 more than I thought I was paying.
Two weeks later I was still waiting for my software, so I called Bryan again. A check of his system came up with a FedEx tracking number which he e-mailed me so I could find out where the thing was. The FedEx site told me the package had been delivered to some place in South Carolina. Ooops, said Bryan, who e-mailed me the right tracking number. It turned out that the software had arrived at my office the day before. Strangely though, while the order had been placed Jan. 3, it was only sent from the U.S. Jan. 19.
Mistakes happen, especially during the holiday season. And Bryan gave me good customer service (except for the fumbled FedEx number). But resellers and distributors are in the IT business, and in 2007 the business is heavily computerized. You’d think today systems talk to each other so things like this can’t happen. Obviously not.
So there were four mistakes here, all of them human: First, the reseller’s database hadn’t been updated to carry the right product price. Second, its database didn’t reflect the distributor’s status on the product. Third the distributor hadn’t let the reseller know it wasn’t carrying the product. Fourth, the distributor apparently re-used a SKU, which ought to be a no-no for obvious reasons.
I could also lay blame on the warehouse picker, for not looking at the order for a piece of software, hefting the box and figuring something might not be right. But he was just following orders. And why the delay in processing the order from the U.S.?
In light of the fact that both the reseller and distributor do hundreds of millions of dollars a year in business, I assume this sort of thing is an exception. “In the five months that I’ve been here this is the first I’ve ever seen it happen,” said Bryan. Or is it? How often do your orders go astray due to mistakes by suppliers and distributors? Please let me know.
