The Horror stories.

Today i wanted to do something different and recap on some of the personal and my fellow colleagues horror stories when it came to the building merchants, How customers reacted to news, how we as supplies balls up and just some stories on this nature.

So first up a customer was building a new build from the ground up, he got to the stage where he was laying his block work (normal 4", 7n) , he was talking 2 loads a day (12 packs) for two weeks straight, it was a massive development and he was getting to the tail end of this stage and noticed that the blocks were crumbling, obviously a little worried he contacted us and asked if the blocks were indeed 7n, we contacted the supplier (no i can't give the name) and they assured us even in that state they were indeed 7 newton, well our customer who saw the state of these blocks on a daily basis got more and more concerned the more he saw these blocks, so he hired someone externally to test the strength......turns out they weren't 7 newton.

So the job is on hold, guys on site on a day rate, all the block work has to come down including the mortar that was used, i mean this really was a colossus mistake, he got from our supplier:-

All the blocks replaced (this time they were 7 newton!)
& £12,000.

He settled for this.

Second up a customer wanted a brick match done so i sent out our sales rep to match them up and let me know what they were so i could get a price, the customer was happy with the price and needed them pretty fast, the best i could do was 5-7 working days as they were wire cuts and needed to be brought down from somewhere, so 5 working days pass they came into our yard and I ring the customer, he wants them straight out so off goes my delivery lorry........i get a call saying these are no where near what's existing, i jumped in the car and went down there, the sales rep had matched up the house directly across the road from the job and the availibilty of the bricks he needed? 3 weeks specially made. He went ballistic.

He got his bricks in the end and apologised to me personally as it was me who got the brunt of his anger, nice bloke overall though.

Third one up a big misunderstanding and the very first and only time I've fallen out with a customer, The bloke wanted an artic load of light weight foundation blocks i gave him a price but unfortunately the supplier only had the tongue and grooved blocks at short notice, i explained to the customer that if he wanted them in the time frame that was given he would have to pay about £3 a square metre more for the T&G but said the time saved using these ones means he will get them around the same price overall with the labour saving so he agreed.

A month later he comes into the branch screaming and shouting saying we have charged him loads more when the price was agreed, he was speaking to the manager at the time and i wondered over from my desk and asked what was the matter, he again in a very aggressive manner repeated what was said to the manager and I first said calm down as if he keeps it up i won't even bother to speak to him i then proceeded to explain what was said with him shouting inbetween my words, when i was finished i said "I'm done with this guy, your the manager you sort him out" I'm not an aggressive person but this guy was pressing all my buttons and i needed to walk away otherwise a minute more and i may have lost my job.

This ended up with him getting money back (which was a loss to the order taken) and the area manager wanted to give me a verbal warning, i asked my manager to arrange a meeting with said area manager as i would not except a warning on these grounds, the meeting was never arranged and the warning was dropped.

And finally we suspected a staff member (assistant manager) of stealing and i mean this guy was a brown nosing weasel of a man, he stood for everything i hate in the cooperate game, he took credit for other people's work, he ran from his work load and worst of all? He b*******d his way through life, he said he was an experienced mechanic but when he took out the company van he needed to refill as the fuel was getting low, he went to the petrol station and rang up the branch asking "what fuel does this take?" A VAN!?!

Anyway a few of us noticed a bag down by his desk and he kept sheepishly putting items in there, paint brushes, white spirit, some paint just a few decorating items and we all didn't think anything of it except the next day there was no bag, now I'm not a grass, i wouldn't stab someone in the back to get ahead but with this guy i wanted to make it my business to see if something was going on, as soon as i asked the other staff members if they had booked out any goods for him they all said no and wanted a part in taking this guy down, so i went to the manager and explained what had happened, he checked the camera and he caught him on camera with the bag walking to his car, problem being is without seeing what was in the bag no action could be taken, thinking he had gotten away with it the weasel then picked up 5L of paint and put it next to his desk, i went to the manager again and said send admin on her break and take one yourself and lets see if he puts it in his car, he did! the worst part of all this is that because my car was in the shop that day i was forced to get a lift home with this guy, so we went to leave work at 4.30pm and as we were reversing back the manager stepped in front of the car, came to the drivers window and pointed to the tin of paint at the back seat and asked "do you mind explaining that?" so the weasel turns to me and said in a panic "i asked you to book it out" i was having none of this and said "no you didn't" long story short the weasel lost his job for stealing goods.

I don't really like seeing anyone lose there job but this guy? we weren't that bothered.

Really this post is just to make everyone aware that human error does occur but what makes a good supplier a great supplier is if they learnt from there mistake and how fast they get the mistake fixed.