You regulars may have seen my rants about my local yard that seems to be unable to get a delivery right. After the most recent saga with some Closetmaid wire shelving stuff, I vowed to NEVER get anything from them I couldn’t go and pick up at Lowe’s or Depot.
Here is what they did on a simple lumber order (faxed in) for some primed pine FJ trim board.
Ordered 5 pcs 1x6x16 S4S. Got shipped 5 pcs 1x8x16 S4S. Called manager, asked for a fix. Received 5 pcs 1x6x16 S1S2E.
Couldn’t get manager on phone after the second blown delivery. Spoke with some dope down the totem pole. He says they will correct this ASAP. I’m not holding my breath.
These guys have done stuff like this to me over a dozen times in the past three months. No one has ever said, “We’re sorry.”
I just laugh, now.
Replies
I wonder if Mr. Macro has these problems?
Al
Could you rip the 1x8 down to 1x6 and just pay for what you ordered? And send the rips back so they can sell them to somebody who orders 1x4's.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Edited 1/25/2004 6:21:48 PM ET by ELCID72
My late grandfather had a iron clad policy he stuck with and it worked real well for him in regards wrong or poor quality lumber delivered to job site by local yards.
He ran a commercial GC company and was loyal to his suppliers and paid in full on time. But he had a stipulation with them that he always stuck to. If the local yard delivered a bad load he would back charge the yard for material handling.
I don't remember how much he charged for this but for him it was a real leveler of the playing field. Like you, his having to cope with poor service from a supplier just sent him up a wall for all the hassles and expenses it caused him. He would not do business with a supplier who would not agree to a handling charge for the wrong material, (his company was big enough to get away with this), and he said it drastically reduced the wrong orders showing up and especially the sometimes poor quality of lumber his men in the field received.
I remember him telling me that without using tactics like this he never could have stayed in business. His company is now run by one of his grandchildren who he trained and they still do business this way. They now have been in business for over 85 years.
I guess sometimes you just got to knock some people up the side of the head with a back charge till they figure out you mean business and if they want your business as a customer they better give you good customer service or it definitely will hit them where it counts, in the wallet.
Cork in Chicago
how did he get away with it. Around here the yard will tell you what to do with it. I got material ordered friday before xmas, suppose be here two week later. He told me last week he will call me monday and tell me when, not that it will be delievry monday. No other place , nothing I can do. And the order was only $4500.
Just last week, I had a conversation with my supplier's manager about this. I was there in his office about other things and when I turned to leave, I noticed a bold lettered notice on the wall,
"Attention all drivers
Check your loads and count items before leaving the yard"
I asked him, "How long has this been up here?"
"Oh, about a year I guess"
"Doesn't do much good does it?"
He explained how he just had a meeting with his drivers and got red faced and practically jumped up and down twoo weeks prior but that the complaints kept coming in regularly. That too many excuses amounted to, "But Jack put that order up for me..."
I suggested puytting more respoisibility on the driver himself to put up the order so there is less finger pointing and they know who will take the blame.
From my end, I treat the driver good, tips occasionally, and visit with them, sometimes giving a heads up when a big order is coming in and where I would ike it placed, etc. One guy goes out of his way to do me right and we work to gether to make it all happen for both of us. In other words, he is part of my TEAM!
We all make mistakes. it is easy to deal with people, but harder to deal with an errant SYSTEM. If the management has a system in place that encourages errors or carelessness and they won't change, it is tiome to dump them and shopp elsewhere.
Excellence is its own reward!
Might wanna find out what these folks are smokin' out back on their breaks. After all, they're buyin' it with the paychecks you help provide.