Re:Never Be a Customer's Doormat
by DanBC on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @09:09AM
(#6172525)
I was working for a small (50-100 employees) manf firm. We out-sourced some difficult, technical work to a local specialist. We had tight unusual requirements, we weren't paying much, and we wanted a very tight delivery schedule.
The guy did wonders - worked really hard and delivered excellent product, on time.
He issued us with an invoice.
We didn't pay.
He followed up - asked why we hadn't paid.
We hadn't paid because his paperwork didn't conform to "what we needed" in some obscure bureaucratic way.
It took him a few weeks of back-and-forth to get his payment.
Needless to say, he declined all our other offers of work, and we got worse quality product, from less flexible suppliers, at greater cost in future.
The guy did wonders - worked really hard and delivered excellent product, on time.
He issued us with an invoice.
We didn't pay.
He followed up - asked why we hadn't paid.
We hadn't paid because his paperwork didn't conform to "what we needed" in some obscure bureaucratic way.
It took him a few weeks of back-and-forth to get his payment.
Needless to say, he declined all our other offers of work, and we got worse quality product, from less flexible suppliers, at greater cost in future.
Payment departments can harm your company.