Supplier wants to change quote after order?

[John105]

We had a scenario in late 2021 where a shipment of 11 things valued at approx $3700 each showed delivered, but my site said they didn’t get it. Our vendor contacted the distributor and had them emergency overnight a replacement. The replacement reached them, and so did the original. Ok, let’s get one set returned asap.

My site said hold on, we’re using them.

What?

I told my account exec you can rest assured if they keep both, from where I sit they’re cutting a PO.

I thought my own co was low class and unethical. Think about 2021. It was a time when said things had a 1 year wait.

That whole crew was new. They came from a co likely you and I deal with daily if not weekly on a personal level. Not good and and embarrassing. I could go on the way that unit operates. Prolly what they were used to before they came to our co.

Business, personal, we should act right. My .02

 

[samven]

5 year ago I would have said they should eat the cost if you are a good customer. Today with prices changing almost daily or shipping costs going up without notice I can understand a supplier truly being caught by surprise. It seems the electronics industry is particularly sensitive to supply issues.

 

[michael007]

Happens every day on internet pricing, sales advertisements, etc.

After reading this thread, had something similar happen.

Ordered a set of brake pads and woke up to a message this morning asking me to pay 57% more because I clicked on the wrong listing to pay.

The company uses an automated chatbot to assist their customer service. It sent the wrong link to purchase..

Not sure I'm looking forward to our AI future.

 

[Lubener]

If it wasn't a binding agreement, they have a right to change it as you have a right to walk away. . I would sever ties with them, get a quote that is binding and the supplier has to stand by it.

 

[WylieCoyote]

Just hope that they realize that their mistake can have an impact on relationships down the line from this transaction. If this is a resale situation, you now have to jack the price up on your customer. You may want to treat this as a "fool me once, shame on you" type of deal.

 

[John105]

I learned something in 2020. We were all working from home, abruptly, since March 16, 2020.

As a result, things for work started to get shipped to our homes.

One day, I got 27 boxes. I didn't check them until 2 weeks later (if ever again, do that).

Well, wouldn't you know, I should have gotten 28 boxes. The one that was missing contained an item worth $16k.

I was beside myself.

I contacted my account exec who was a bit agitated, because FedEx showed delivered.

I looked to find something that would illustrate I'm telling the truth--the box in question? It showed delivered 5:53 PM EDT, when all others were 9:xx AM EDT. That in itself is fishy. Since when does FedEx come to a residence more than 1X per day? Only someone who works there can tell us. Can a driver enter something in manually, without a scan? You can't do it in a DC, because that causes massive errors, like with an oLPN.

Our vendor rushed a replacement. What they did about the loss, is something they never told us, and we don't need to know.

This is business, not a social function. And after that? I have a strict policy nothing for work is shipped to my house, ever again. It was in fact stressful for me. Processes need to be in place so that things work. The pandemic was an exception.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

We had a scenario in late 2021 where a shipment of 11 things valued at approx $3700 each showed delivered, but my site said they didn’t get it. Our vendor contacted the distributor and had them emergency overnight a replacement. The replacement reached them, and so did the original. Ok, let’s get one set returned asap.

My site said hold on, we’re using them.

What?

I told my account exec you can rest assured if they keep both, from where I sit they’re cutting a PO.

I thought my own co was low class and unethical. Think about 2021. It was a time when said things had a 1 year wait.

That whole crew was new. They came from a co likely you and I deal with daily if not weekly on a personal level. Not good and and embarrassing. I could go on the way that unit operates. Prolly what they were used to before they came to our co.

Business, personal, we should act right. My .02

My wife deals with this all the time. Seems to be generational issue as old school players would never try to beat up a customer on price AFTER they took a PO.

 

[John105]

My wife deals with this all the time. Seems to be generational issue as old school players would never try to beat up a customer on price AFTER they took a PO.

This bothered me. Our vendor bent over backwards to get a rush replacement order overnighted. Then when both turned up, they decide maybe we need 22, not 11? And again, there was almost a 1 year wait for said items. Which is why they decided to grab them. But that's not professional. I will add, this same site said we want to return 28 items, 6 mos later. This got political and our dept. said we're going to tell them no. What was really not cool was the GM said we could have simply refused the deliveries. Again, that's not normally what a business does. It would have been a LTL where a tractor trailer pulled up and dropped the items off.

 

[tessaseveride]

Happened to me once for a couple drums of brake cleaner when we switched to a local supplier. It was an emergency order because the last drum of brake cleaner we had got hit by something and developed a hole, leaking all over the shop floor. The price they quoted was at-cost because the salesperson was brand new and still learning. The shop was desperate for some brake cleaner, so we ended up paying the full price when they realized their mistake, which was about 50% above what we were quoted. The new salesperson turned out to be the daughter to the owner of the local supplier and future orders were discounted to 10% above cost as a "thank you" for not being difficult with them on the price and not making a big stink about it.

 

[Hall]

We do business with them often

Sounds like an honest mistake. I'm guessing they tried to adjust it as minimally as possible to at least cover their costs or just not lose (as much)

the box in question? It showed delivered 5:53 PM EDT, when all others were 9:xx AM EDT. That in itself is fishy. Since when does FedEx come to a residence more than 1X per day?

Don't work for Fedex but simple explanation: Driver found (27) of your boxes when they made their delivery and couldn't locate the 28th box. Later in the day, as their truck cleared out, they found it. Or a different driver brought it when it got sorted onto the wrong truck or it didn't get sorted earlier in the day at all, so it went out in a later truck.

 

[John105]

Don't work for Fedex but simple explanation: Driver found (27) of your boxes when they made their delivery and couldn't locate the 28th box. Later in the day, as their truck cleared out, they found it. Or a different driver brought it when it got sorted onto the wrong truck or it didn't get sorted earlier in the day at all, so it went out in a later truck.

It's possible, only I never got the delivery.

Someone who drives for the company can say whether it's possible to close out a delivery without actually delivering a package. We could get into the gps for the driver and vehicle who claims to have delivered it in the suburbs almost 18:00 EDT. My understanding as well is ground are not teamsters and there are all kinds of issues with this service.

My hunch is a driver CAN manually enter a delivery. With USPS, 100%.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

If it's a supplier that you value the relationship with and you feel it's an honest mistake, offer to split the difference with them.

I assure you it's better to keep good relationships and have a good history with vendors/suppliers/clients for when you need them.

Extend the olive branch. See what their reaction is. If they accept, strike it up as a favor to them. If they balk, well, then you need to analyze if you're ready to seek another supplier

 

[Pablo]

Split the difference.

 

[Hall]

My hunch is a driver CAN manually enter a delivery

Absolutely they can. The gotcha for the driver though is it tags their GPS location to where they report it was delivered, so they really can't get away with that anymore.

My understanding as well is ground are not teamsters and there are all kinds of issues with this service.

Ground drivers are employed by a 3rd-party. They are contractors to a contractor, in fact. Fedex "air" aren't Teamsters either, they're non-union, so you might be thinking of UPS, who are Teamsters.

 

[SeaJay]

[QUOTE="I Sorry supplier, that's your mistake for not quoting it correctly. And if you didn't quote it correctly, that could mean your manager is incompetent if they can't quote things correctly. Either way, he's going to lose customers and bad for business.
[/QUOTE]
All that you say is 100% correct. However, the supplier may still choose to not honor the incorrect quote and risk the loss of customers.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

I do work in government purchasing for anything from a few $$ to $ millions. Sure they should honor it but what are you going to do? It's a small purchase so legal action is out of the question. Keep record and try to find a more reputable supplier if this happens more than once or twice. With the environment these days of employee shortages, supply issues, out of control inflation, an error here or there is unavoidable. I would just sweat them a little and let them know you are unhappy and this will take some work to "correct the budget" or something like that. That way they know you will look for another supplier if they keep this up.

 

[John105]

Absolutely they can. The gotcha for the driver though is it tags their GPS location to where they report it was delivered, so they really can't get away with that anymore.


Ground drivers are employed by a 3rd-party. They are contractors to a contractor, in fact. Fedex "air" aren't Teamsters either, they're non-union, so you might be thinking of UPS, who are Teamsters.

If the driver was busted for not delivering that package, that's between FedEx and the distributor, so I would have and have never known the outcome. But I never got the package. And again, to avoid this scenario, no work related items to my residence. Kinda like when I got into a fist fight and this guy ended up suing me for $2 mil. I know he got a nice settlement, but as far as I'm concerned, I never heard of the incident again. My employer ended up paying. Gotta stop watching so much hockey on YouTube I guess. (j/k)

 

[MSCH]

Not looking for a legal answer. More a do you feel this is ethical opinion. It will change nothing in this particular case.

Got a quote - at work so B2B if that matters. It was not a "binding" quote - I know the difference. But it was on the companies letterhead, said "Quote" - not estimate, and was for a very specific quantity and part number. It was catalog items - so nothing changed in scope of work, etc. Just deliver this qty of these small parts. The quote was good for 30 days. We ordered a couple days after receiving it. It wasn't very much money in the grand scheme.

The supplier came back and said there quote was in error. They want to raise the price by about 15% because there loosing money.

My opinion is its there mistake. Its unethical to ask us to pay for their mistake. That's business. You win some you loose some.

If we had not ordered yet, it would be a different scenario. This feels a bit like bait and switch - "thanks for ordering, now pay more"

Do you think this is ethical, or no big deal, take the price increase? Just wondering if my opinion is the norm.

if it wasn't in contract form my opinion is you cancel the order if they dont want to do it at quoted price...

 

[I<3oil]

All that you say is 100% correct. However, the supplier may still choose to not honor the incorrect quote and risk the loss of customers.

Absolutely. It's on them if they want to keep a good relationship with good CS or not.

 

[StumblingElk]

Not looking for a legal answer. More a do you feel this is ethical opinion. It will change nothing in this particular case.

Got a quote - at work so B2B if that matters. It was not a "binding" quote - I know the difference. But it was on the companies letterhead, said "Quote" - not estimate, and was for a very specific quantity and part number. It was catalog items - so nothing changed in scope of work, etc. Just deliver this qty of these small parts. The quote was good for 30 days. We ordered a couple days after receiving it. It wasn't very much money in the grand scheme.

The supplier came back and said there quote was in error. They want to raise the price by about 15% because there loosing money.

My opinion is its there mistake. Its unethical to ask us to pay for their mistake. That's business. You win some you loose some.

If we had not ordered yet, it would be a different scenario. This feels a bit like bait and switch - "thanks for ordering, now pay more"

Do you think this is ethical, or no big deal, take the price increase? Just wondering if my opinion is the norm.

As a person who has worked in Supply Chain for a while I would strongly suggest you question them on this before doing anything. May just be that they had a new person responding to RFQ'S or something.

That said, they need to be willing to honor their quote. Period.

Just don't go overboard pointing fingers or you will have issues down the road wirh them, of course.

Ball is in your court here. A lot is going to depend on how much you need or want to utilize this vendor.

ETA. I have also worked out deals for recurring buys where we may pay (in your case) 15% more today but then get discounted layer on based on tiers/usage/contract.

But yes, asking for more money is generally unethical and, more importantly, poor form.

If PO has been issued then they absolutely need to honor that price. Unless they are the Michael Scott Paper Company or something.