What are the odds?

[mistersqueegee]

I see from time to time guys complaining about how a supplier messed up their order. I have on occasion experienced this myself. In fact in my experience (I've ordered from just about all of them) no supplier is immune to this. Now sometimes these complaints can be more about putting down someone they don't like in favor of someone they do. How then can we tell if it's hype or if one is having a particularly bad time of it?
Really it's all in the math. I don't have exact numbers but in a recent discussion with one supplier he said they can have tens of thousands of orders going out in a month. That's a lot of orders. So the potential for things to go wrong can be huge. He even went on to say that they could have a bad month where maybe 50 orders have an issue. Based on this here's the math on this one (if I did it correctly since math wasn't one of my best subjects) -
20,000 orders in a month
50 incorrect orders
% of incorrect orders = one quarter of one percent
Now if a supplier does substantially fewer orders in a month (say 2000) they would have to have an equally low number to get that percentage (say 5 wrong). The benefit to the supplier with fewer orders is that they can take a little more time putting the order together to keep that rate down.
So the next time you get an incorrect order you can feel pretty special that you are in a very elite number of folks.

 

[Scott Stone]

I have had that happen, and also had it happen where the supplier made a mistake on my order four or five times in a row.

Now, if I could just get them to stop double charging me, trying to pay for their new island retreat, I would be really happy, because my wife wouldn't be in my office wondering what I ordered this time.

 

[offdutyfireman]

Sometimes they send you a can of catfood though, so it all works out.

 

[Scott Stone]

Yeah, those guys, too. I don't use them. Way too many bad experiences with them, and no apologies

 

[offdutyfireman]

I just sent them an email asking them to take me off of their mailing list. I got some postcard from envirospec telling me how for $1500 the Galvin cat from PWNA could tell me how to make $100,000 a year washing houses. I couldn't make payroll on the guys if I only made $100,000 a year.

 

[Tony Shelton]

I just sent them an email asking them to take me off of their mailing list. I got some postcard from envirospec telling me how for $1500 the Galvin cat from PWNA could tell me how to make $100,000 a year washing houses. I couldn't make payroll on the guys if I only made $100,000 a year.

Elitist! Lol

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[danwagner]

I have dealt with four or five window cleaning suppliers and one PW if my memory serves me correctly.
Besides their percentage of accuracy, I think how they deal with their mistakes whether it's a small or large order in their world says volumes. Personally, I would feel way more comfortable with a supplier that makes a mistake one out of 25 times and immediately rectifies it no matter what than a supplier who messes up half the frequency, but doesn't treat you as important (even if in their big picture you aren't important!)

 

[mistersqueegee]

I agree Dan and have only dealt with one supplier that treated me badly on an order. I don't use them anymore.