Custom sent wrong drawing. Who should pay?

[CarbideBob]

When you start in any business pretty soon you come across a person who thinks the whole world is ordered to suit him,he never keeps his word,and is angered if held to it,and is always pursuing something new,and abandoning the old,which includes any money owed by him.This kind of guy comes across as enthusiastic and successful,and always has others doing work for him free.

Halfway across the globe and you are running into the same people I do.
As I get it there is a middleman here and as much as I hate the idea there is who should eat the money with another layer.
Depends on you, the middleman and trust back and forth.
Sometimes this layer is golden and I would never turn on them and will protect their accounts to the end, sometimes they are snakes so a bite back is in the cards.
This lack of working and changing things clearly with each other is never a black and white world.
Bob

 

[john.k]

A new employee once said to me (as he quit)..."I hope I never get as bitter and twisted as you are".....Yeah ,B&T ,thats me.Ive been caught taking risks many times ,but never by the straight out cons so many seem to fall for.........an old friend of mine retired and sold out,then put all his money in a investment trust that guaranteed 10%+ p/a return,but promised 100%pa return........he got sucked in because a major bank (one of the big four here) had staff financial advisers spruiking for the scheme,and being encouraged by the bank to offer big loans to investors.

 

[Mickey_D]

Eh that was last weeks problem. Another customer said they would go to China if we could not lower the price on a part that we have not increased the price of since 2006. The basic response to that email was if that's your choice we wish you the best and we are always available for repairs. PO came in later that day.

Anyhow I have been thinking about it and since this run is typically a walk away job ie hit the go button and go work on another machine for half an hour. I don't mind eating the spindle time. The waterjet time and the material though I would like to get something for since that's the lions share of the cost. I'll talk to the plant super tomorrow and we will work something out. I will also politely let the customer know that were fixing his f up and we will no longer be dealing with hand shakes and good intentions.

Whenever a buyer does some crap like this I usually respond that we will re-look at the quote that we provided and see if there is anything that we can do to make it better. I then wait a day or so and add 5% to 10% to the original quote and say that we had previously made a mistake in their favor and caught it in the re-quote. I have never had a customer walk after doing this and it trains them not to try and bully me.

 

[Mr.Anderson]

What is a "light box"?

A light box is a ghetto-fabulous rendition of an optical comparator. It's as if shadow puppets and an optical comparator somehow mated, got impregnated, carried the fetus full term, then birthed the half-breed that was a light box.

 

[gustafson]

It's never that easy though is it? It's the classic caught between a rock and a hard place situation.

If they had re-run the job at their expense they would have taken a one time hit, on the other hand they likely would have retained the customer.

So what do you do? Take the hit, placate the customer and carry on.
Or
Tell them you'll charge for the 2nd set and then lose the customer.
So
Apparently with hindsight my friend would have gone with the second option, whether it would have saved his company who knows.

That was never a good customer, a good customer would never even ask.

quickest way to lose a business is to do work for free

 

[AD Design]

I was working at well known mfg. of die stamped products for home/industrial construction. There was a problem with punch/die clearance one die and the drawings that generated the dxf file for the WEDM were not clearly defined enough. I suggested a full check of both punch/die using measuring instruments and CAD modeling to remedy the confusion. The lead designer printed out the drawing and placed the existing punch over the drawing to compare, suggesting that another .003 (which was the clearance...) be removed from the section causing trouble. I suggested that this was akin to designing with an Etch-A-Sketch. I was right but my humor was not well received. For as often as I've heard "We want to improve" it's very few times that it's well received.

A well known maker of large tow trucks I contracted to used to change the design of components faster than the vendors could keep up with. Quite often an entire shipment of parts that were correct to a print that had since been changed without notice and wouldn't fit. The company leaned on the vendors to eat the costs, feeling that "we pay enough for you to absorb out mistakes". Vendors tried to eat the costs to keep us, a well paying customer. This occurred so often that most of the plasma/water jet/benders in the area refused to do any more work for us. It was only then that a revision control process was put in place to ensure the latest revision was being used by the vendor. The company changed the corporate culture because they were forced to. Sort of The Second Mouse Gets The Cheese syndrome.

Other members here have posted better advice than I can give, it's not easy or pleasant dancing with bad drawings or important customers that refuse to accept the burden of responsibility. I've posted the above as examples that situations like the OP posted are all too common. My only advice would be full documentation per tolerance/importance. An Etch-A-Sketch in the conference room may/may not be a good idea.