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A few customer stories that have built up (mostly about paying their accounts):
selective hearing
This customer pays us a significant amount of money each month. We have an ongoing battle with them about when their payment going to be made: In our bank account by the end of the month or if they've bothered to raise the payment (with a week delay before sending
).
The last two months they've got it into our bank account before month end. This month they send me a payment mid month for some older stuff they've only just approved and I've sent them a reply saying "Thanks, can you confirm month X's invoices will be paid into our account before month end?" and get no reply. Its only on the third follow up they say "no, we aren't releasing it until after month end"(+a weeks delay remember!).
Automatic systems vs. bosses orders
Another epic account. They also pay us a significant amount each month. With this customer we've had full confirmation from the highest management level that all invoices will be paid on X day of the month.
So last month they did not action this and blamed their automatic system. We even email them a few days before to remind them. I've confirmed the stuff is approved, all they have to do is add it to the payment.
I emailed them a list of what was missing and called them to say that this needed sorting NOW. I follow up with a phone call two hours later (on bosses hours) to hear that they haven't even opened their emails today - not even the ones marked urgent. They ended up sending us a rush payment and apologising. That time it was about half of the payment that was missing.
So I think this month they won't be a problem. Instead they send me a quarter of what I normally receive. Apparently no-one looked at that - especially after last month and thought "perhaps I better check this..."
I spend all of that day trying to get hold of them and can't - no-one in that department will pick up the phone or answer an email. The next day they have to send us another rush payment.
Any bets they will try 3 for 3 next month?
This is how you repay me?
Background Note:We have a clear policy - mentioned time after time on every document we send - that you have to tell us if you have a delivery discrepancy within 3 working days or we are not responsible. To be honest we will give you the benefit of the doubt as long as its relatively quickly notified (say a month). If I really believe we shorted you I will approve it even after that. They also have a system of notifying discrepancies, returns and problems. When they do notify us we have to reply within a certain time and prove its not our fault or we get fined (big fines!). We have multiple checks in the process for this client so the chances of all those checks failing is minimal.
So one of the big clients has been having some receipting problems. They are not telling me anything about this until I ask them to confirm what invoices are approved ready for this months payment..... two months later! At that time we get told its on hold and not fully receipted. This is happening to a good portion of the invoices
To find out what is wrong I have to go into their system and check every single invoice line in their stock records. This is because if I leave it to them to it they won't find out the problem and it will sit in limbo forever. I then advise them what they've got wrong or not receipted. Usually a high £X000.00 invoice will get put on hold for a single line of less that £100!
Quite a few of these held items is because they mistyped delivery note 3102267 as 1302267. Same date, same number of items, obviously not related to anything else. It has never been in doubt that the parts where this is not the case were received - they just weren't booked in. It is just a case of the right people doing the right things and actually sorting the system out to enable payment.
Well resolution of these has been limping along and more each month have been added to the list of ones with issues. Its to the point that management for both them and us are involved, as are shipping, reciepting and all levels in between. All levels on their side want to blame another level for the problem or claim that they don't have the power to sort it but won't give the information to the people that can.
So we've finally started to clear them down. Due to the clients size and importance we haven't put them on hold despite some of these invoices now being over 7 months old! I can finally see the end of the tunnel though.
So we've just had an audit and as part of the debt verification this customer was contacted. They tell the auditors that they dispute these charges, don't have delivery notes and invoices for them. Now I have to prove the actual issue to the auditors and that we are carrying out checks and chasing them adequately- thank goodness I have a long file of emails going into full detail dating back to the date the issue started including their replies.
Even worse is the fact that they are way out of time to dispute this and would have to pay it anyway. They know this and have done so for prior issues in the past. We have discussed this with them recently and they acknowledge this in passing, just claiming they need to sort it out in the system. So why did they make it sound like we were the problem to the auditors?
selective hearing
This customer pays us a significant amount of money each month. We have an ongoing battle with them about when their payment going to be made: In our bank account by the end of the month or if they've bothered to raise the payment (with a week delay before sending
).The last two months they've got it into our bank account before month end. This month they send me a payment mid month for some older stuff they've only just approved and I've sent them a reply saying "Thanks, can you confirm month X's invoices will be paid into our account before month end?" and get no reply. Its only on the third follow up they say "no, we aren't releasing it until after month end"(+a weeks delay remember!).
Automatic systems vs. bosses orders
Another epic account. They also pay us a significant amount each month. With this customer we've had full confirmation from the highest management level that all invoices will be paid on X day of the month.
So last month they did not action this and blamed their automatic system. We even email them a few days before to remind them. I've confirmed the stuff is approved, all they have to do is add it to the payment.
I emailed them a list of what was missing and called them to say that this needed sorting NOW. I follow up with a phone call two hours later (on bosses hours) to hear that they haven't even opened their emails today - not even the ones marked urgent. They ended up sending us a rush payment and apologising. That time it was about half of the payment that was missing.
So I think this month they won't be a problem. Instead they send me a quarter of what I normally receive.
Apparently no-one looked at that - especially after last month and thought "perhaps I better check this..."I spend all of that day trying to get hold of them and can't - no-one in that department will pick up the phone or answer an email. The next day they have to send us another rush payment.
Any bets they will try 3 for 3 next month?
This is how you repay me?
Background Note:We have a clear policy - mentioned time after time on every document we send - that you have to tell us if you have a delivery discrepancy within 3 working days or we are not responsible. To be honest we will give you the benefit of the doubt as long as its relatively quickly notified (say a month). If I really believe we shorted you I will approve it even after that. They also have a system of notifying discrepancies, returns and problems. When they do notify us we have to reply within a certain time and prove its not our fault or we get fined (big fines!). We have multiple checks in the process for this client so the chances of all those checks failing is minimal.
So one of the big clients has been having some receipting problems. They are not telling me anything about this until I ask them to confirm what invoices are approved ready for this months payment..... two months later! At that time we get told its on hold and not fully receipted. This is happening to a good portion of the invoices
To find out what is wrong I have to go into their system and check every single invoice line in their stock records. This is because if I leave it to them to it they won't find out the problem and it will sit in limbo forever. I then advise them what they've got wrong or not receipted. Usually a high £X000.00 invoice will get put on hold for a single line of less that £100!
Quite a few of these held items is because they mistyped delivery note 3102267 as 1302267. Same date, same number of items, obviously not related to anything else. It has never been in doubt that the parts where this is not the case were received - they just weren't booked in. It is just a case of the right people doing the right things and actually sorting the system out to enable payment.
Well resolution of these has been limping along and more each month have been added to the list of ones with issues. Its to the point that management for both them and us are involved, as are shipping, reciepting and all levels in between. All levels on their side want to blame another level for the problem or claim that they don't have the power to sort it but won't give the information to the people that can.
So we've finally started to clear them down. Due to the clients size and importance we haven't put them on hold despite some of these invoices now being over 7 months old! I can finally see the end of the tunnel though.
So we've just had an audit and as part of the debt verification this customer was contacted. They tell the auditors that they dispute these charges, don't have delivery notes and invoices for them.
Now I have to prove the actual issue to the auditors and that we are carrying out checks and chasing them adequately- thank goodness I have a long file of emails going into full detail dating back to the date the issue started including their replies. Even worse is the fact that they are way out of time to dispute this and would have to pay it anyway. They know this and have done so for prior issues in the past. We have discussed this with them recently and they acknowledge this in passing, just claiming they need to sort it out in the system. So why did they make it sound like we were the problem to the auditors?
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