Incredible Management

I should mention how I use sarcasm as means of explaining things that are beyond civilized conversation.  This morning’s conversation with John Moore Services’ upper level management has my blood pressure up over the acceptable level.

I’m getting ahead of myself.  I’d done locksmith work on a service vehicle belonging to John Moore Services which was done after hours and therefore did not have a purchase order assigned to it.  The fellow who ran the dispatching for such work promised it would be taken care of; that never happened within a reasonable amount of time and we were told to email a copy of the work order to their accounts payables office.

The fellow in accounts payables told us he couldn’t pay the work order because there was no…wait for it…no purchase order number assigned.  The fellow who originally requested the work said not to worry (famous last words), that a purchase order number could easily be issued since the work had been authorized.  That never happened and eventually I hand carried a copy of the work order to the dispatcher’s office and handed it to the young woman charged with assigning purchase orders.   She assured me it would be taken care of; it never happened.  Did I mention this work was done in 2011?

The entire amount owed was just over a hundred dollars; not enough to make my business go under.  It was enough; however, to remind me not to do business with folks who don’t pay their bills.  John Moore Services was now on my Do Not Service list; at least until they replaced all the folks who had dropped the ball.

A new crew replaced the old crew and we got a call from the new dispatcher requesting locksmith service.  I explained how John Moore Services owed for some previous work and how we considered the work order as past due.  He assured us that we’d get paid; but he didn’t exactly follow up with issuing a purchase order so a few more months went by and still nothing. 

We did get paid on most of the new work; but that old work order was still collecting spider webs.  I took a copy of the work order to the new accounts payables lady, a new employee of only a couple of weeks.  We supplied her with a copy of all outstanding work orders to include the one that was from 2011 and within a week we got paid in full.

I sent the following email and included an attachment, a picture of a very nice flower arrangement:

Daphne Green
John Moore Services
Accounts Payables

Daphne,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for getting done what others had not.  It's a real shame when a vendor has to almost beg to get paid from a large company or wait over a year because somebody dropped the ball. 

These flowers have been sent to others who deserved to be rewarded.  I'm frugal so I save the picture and use it often.

Thank you
TF Stern

That brings us to this morning when the phone rang and, Jim, a member of John Moore Services’ upper management wanted to know what was going on.  Apparently as he put it, “I don’t like the tenor of your email, that we don’t pay our vendors”.  He didn’t want to hear about the work order that didn’t get paid for two years, all he wanted was to brow beat me for thanking the only employee at John Moore Services who actually performed their job properly. 

I can’t say I’m pleased with what I instructed him to do or the way I hung up on him; but I hope he breaks his back attempting to complete the impossible sexual maneuver.  With Incredible Management displaying how things get done, or not, John Moore Services is now on my Never Service Again List.

TF Stern

T F Stern & Company