So it would appear I have fallen out with my first supplier. (No doubt it won’t be the last.)
Several months ago, I contracted a small company to carry out some work for me. We got off to a shaky start due to some ambiguity regarding the scope of the work involved, but we sorted that out and proceeded on a basis that, while I wouldn’t say I was relaxed and happy about it, we had both agreed on. However, I ran into difficulty almost straight away when I asked for the dates that the work was being carried out on. The reasons that this info was important were twofold : firstly, I need to have visibility into the calendar of work so that in the event of a problem in a related area, I have the data I need to begin troubleshooting from ; secondly, I have a very finite amount of money and I need to carry out due diligence on where my money is being spent. Value for money is extremely important to small businesses, as well as everyone else 
Unfortunately, this information (which I felt was very straightforward) was not forthcoming. I was continuously reassured that the work was being done, but it took over three months for the dates to be produced. During this time, I requested the info on various occasions, and it was always going to be emailed to me that evening, but it never arrived. Each time I was told that the work was being done, and I felt that there was an implication that I had no right or reason to be questioning it – despite the fact that I was often passing on feedback to the company from other interested parties who were telling me that they didn’t think the work was being carried out. This lack of clarity was compounded by one of the company’s team members (a third-party contractor) telling someone one day in August that this was the first time they had carried out this work, since as far as they were concerned, I had been doing it myself up to now. Now I had been paying for this work to be carried out since May., so naturally I was a little upset when this nugget of information got back to me. When I queried this with the company in question, I felt like I was simply fobbed off : “he probably meant that it was the first time that he had done it, not the first time it’s actually been done”. I reiterated that this was not what the individual had said, but the feeling I was getting is that it didn’t matter, I would get nothing back on this matter.
At this point, our communications were starting to get a little heated as I got increasingly frustrated. An adhoc piece of work was left languishing for three weeks – when I would look for an update, it was always “that will be done tomorrow”, which I would communicate back to the other interested party in the equation. When no-one would turn up to do the work, I looked like a prize idiot. Especially the second AND THIRD times it happened. And yet, the other company in question felt that it was their reputation that was being damaged by being associated with me – they were currently only contracted to carry out a portion of the work we do, but they wanted me to hand it all over to them because they felt they couldn’t trust what might be being done by other contractors, and didn’t want their names associated with it. Oh the irony.
I felt they weren’t doing a good enough job on what they were responsible for already, and that I couldn’t trust them with the full shebang. I was informed that my attitude was terrible, and that I was pissing a lot of people off. “Well good, because I’m pretty pissed off myself”, was my not-very-witty retort. Hey, I can’t be marvellously poised *all* the time They gave me an ultimatum – all or nothing – and I even surprised myself with how gladly I chose “nothing”.
Even a few weeks later, the situation still frustrates me – especially the implication that my attitude was the problem. Disgraceful of me really, looking for information about the service I was paying for. Honestly, who did I think I was? In the end of the day, it all came down to trust. The signal I was getting was that I should have just inherently trusted the company in question. Yet I never felt like they once trusted me. I repeatedly felt like they were doing me a favour, rather than feeling like a valued customer. My requests for visibility into the process went unheard, but I was expected to cough up for the invoices that appeared without questioning them. (And there was almost always something that needed clarification/correction.) Wonderful learning experience though, sleepless nights and angry phonecalls aside.
So what have I learned?
1. Trust your instincts. I think I knew at the start that this had potential to be a difficult relationship, and that there might be a personality clash, but I ignored it and forged ahead because I needed to get the work done.
2. Trust your supplier – and if you can’t trust your supplier, then find a new one. I left this situation drag on for longer than I should, and I’m still trying to figure out why that is. Going looking for new suppliers is certainly a pain in the ass, but so is trying to manage a supplier who doesn’t care about your business.
3. Stick to your guns. There were times when I could have been a bit more forceful and set out my terms and conditions a bit more stringently, but perhaps I was afraid of pissing people off. Since I have allegedly done this already with my terrible attitude, it seems I would have had nothing to lose and I should have let rip a lot sooner! No More Ms. Nice Girl from now on
I’d say part of the problem is they don’t get held to account by customers often enough.
Well done you.
Thx, although a better result (from my point of view) would see the supplier in question being aware of the shortcomings in his service. Instead, he feels that it was his decision to withdraw his services from us. So I have my list of lessons learned, but my suspicion is that he feels everything was perfect from his side, and I was the problem child. You live and learn!
Wanna come over here and sort out our building contractors, window makers and other sundry trades people for me?
Ha, it’s break from ball-busting I need
Its a really dumb attitude for a supplier to take, they deserve to lose your business and more. Micro brewers are prolific socialiser and talk to hundreds of interested people as part of the job. They have a PR profile way beyond their turnover. Those idiots could have harnessed that potential goodwill rather than let things go sour. Lessons learnt? The problem is with the cretinous supplier not you guys in any way. Why should you have to manage someone who is supposed to be professional at what they do?
Hey Grainne, great story. Seth Godin has an interesting perspective on ‘favours’ = http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/10/the-math-of-favors.html
Interesting indeed, thanks for the link!
I’d say also lesson 4:
Always get a clear brief / specification for the work agreed in writing (email fine) from all parties – then you can be clear on what you asked for and what the scope of work, costs & timescales involved is. Then you have this to refer back to continuously if needed. If a contractor won’t engage with you at the outset to agree the work, agree achievable timescales and clear up any assumptions or misconceptions, avoid!
Couldn’t agree more, although I don’t think it would have made any difference in this particular situation given the way things panned out. It’s a sensible way to enter into any sort of arrangement though!
Welcome to the real world Grainne where long fingering and procrastination is a fine art! It’s Ireland’s biggest challenge – “sure it will all be fine what are you on about?”. Set the standards now that you want to keep, let suppliers know you mean business. Don’t suffer idiots – there is nothing like spending your own money to focus the mind. Thanks for sharing!
Interesting…So it would appear I have fallen out with my first supplier… I will be hopefully other new comer to the Micro brewery industry shortly, (with a bit of luck and money Feb 12… look out for me and please give me lots of advice and help)
But after reading this it’s a sad reflection on the current times. The story I do agree with but the supplier should have being a bit more helpful to you, but I much ask the question. How long is this suppler in business? Did you do something to upset them and why were they only contracted to do a portion of the work…
If it was a non skilled contact why did you need them? (I am thinking cost cutting already)
I do agree that budgets are hard when setting up and no money means no money.
Seems to me that you are upset and throwing your toys out of the pram simply because they caught you doing work under there name. We all know that we come from a family of home brewers including me, but what the hell we do make some good beer.
I will certainly vet who I will be using.
Pat
Hi Pat
thanks for your comments and good luck with your new venture! Exciting times
To answer your questions, I don’t know how long this company have been in business, except that it’s a good deal longer than me – several years at least. I didn’t contract them to do all the work, because I simply couldn’t afford to, and they were aware of this from the outset. (And I couldn’t do it all myself because there is only one of me.) They also knew I was road-testing other contractors during the early months, just like I was road-testing them. When exclusivity was brought up, it was a change of direction from what we had agreed initially. It was never my intention to carry out work under their name, nor was it my intention that they would (or should) claim responsibility for all work being carried out for Metalman Brewing.
There’s no doubt that I did something to upset them. (They would hardly still be in business if they treated all their customers the way they treated me, although I know of at least one other company that stopped doing business with them under difficult circumstances. Pity I didn’t do my homework better 6 months ago.) But from my point of view, I didn’t deviate from our agreement and I just wanted simple info regarding the work that I was paying for. When I asked for it I was met with defensive arguments, accusations and was told that I needed to trust them and change my attitude. I suspect they felt I was implying that the work was not being done. Initially this was certainly not the case, but the longer I waited for them to provide this info, the more I started to wonder if it was actually getting done, the increasingly frustrated I got, and the more difficult the interactions became until it came to a head. I wasn’t sending any more work their direction, they were unhappy with this, and what they felt was a sub-standard level of work that was being carried out by others that was damaging their reputation. I was equally concerned about their work damaging my reputation given the feedback I was getting. The relationship had degenerated to a point where the trust was irretrievably gone on both sides and we parted ways. (Their stance is that they withdrew their services.)
Since then I have engaged another company to carry out some of this work. It’s early days yet, but so far they are showing up when they say they will, and the work is getting done. They have no issue with only being allocated a portion of the workload. Perhaps their tactic is “hey, if we do a good enough job on what we’ve got, maybe we’ll get more work out of this client.” (Imagine.) They are also nicer to deal with. Small things? Yes. Standard customer service tactics? Definitely. But it makes a huge difference, and I’m sleeping better