Everyone knows, regardless of whether they do have or have had their own business, or just order items they require for the general day to day living that a business is only as good as its supply chain and distributors.
Therefore, we have recently been pulling our hair out with a special order placed with our suppliers for of all things letterbox locks. Yep, you read it right, letterbox locks, nothing more interesting or complicated.
The job to replace a simple “or so we expected” letterbox lock came from one of our regular customers in Carbis Bay near St Ives. So off we go to check it out, take measurements and order the lock and some spares. We then spent 3 weeks chasing our suppliers trying to get a due date for these small cam locks. Our suppliers had to chase the manufacturers who are based in the Midlands but we found the locks were to be manufactured in the Netherlands.
After 5 weeks, we got a phone call from the suppliers requesting the information again as the “manufacturers” had lost the original information. This was emailed to them straightaway and we received a due date of a further 14 days. 14 days came and went and a major argument developed which resulted in the order being cancelled and taking the business to another supplier even though they still had to get them from the same manufacturer.
The same day we received a telephone call from the 2nd supplier to inform us they would be with us within 10 to 14 days which we were happy with.
Then to our surprise and delight, just 4 days later an unexpected parcel arrived which contained the locks we had been trying to obtain for the previous 8 weeks!
It certainly made us think, why it is one supplier can manage to fulfil our order in just one week yet another cannot. We do not like to inconvenience our customers and we do not appreciate being made look incompetent either.
It goes without saying that, we offered our most sincere apologies to SW Estates in Carbis Bay for this total fiasco and ensured that they knew how much we appreciated the patience of both themselves and their tenant.
