Date:         Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:59:36 -0800
Reply-To:     Old Volks Home <oldvolkshome@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Old Volks Home <oldvolkshome@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Bus Depot Report
In-Reply-To:  <6da579340601250957m296128cas86d9fdad3f083347@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

This is where a Vendor "cuts corners" when assembling their database for
their webstore and often it's because their in-house system does this as
well.  Why?  In the past, hard disk space was a premium, but now with cheep
& huge hard drives, this shouldn't be the case.  In addition, some cheeper
shopping cart programs only allow a limited amount of part numbers, causing
the Vendor to "cut corners" that way as well, bundling several part numbers
into one "catch-all" part number - VERY dangerous for both the Vendor & the
Customer.  Some Vendors don't realize that spending just a few $$ more for a
professionally done system (either commercially available or custom
made) will go along way in allowing separate part numbers for those mid year
application changes.  Places that do that - I don't usually do business with
them or if I have to, I call the order in with the necessary info at the
ready to give them.

In the years before internet shopping became as common place as it is now,
my in-house system (Real World Accounting) for my biz is/was rather high-end
and in some cases overkill for the size of Sherwood Auto/Old Volks Home.
But after using a number of similar systems at several importing warehouse
distribution suppliers, I found it was a good investment (several thousand
$$) for the last 10 years I was open full time.  I continue to use it today
because it has excellent cross-referencing attributes not found on most
systems even available today (it's written in COBOL compiled for DOS, which
with some tweaking runs just fine on my WinXP Laptop).  Too bad Real
World got swallowed up eventually by Microsoft and support/upgrades
disappeared as well.  Would have been nice to have a GUI Interface and
better export capabilities.  What's really nice is I have
customer/invoice/purchasing history clear back to 1989, which I have used
when the situation calls for it.

And yes, when I had to call the customer back for any verification I ALWAYS
told them if something was backordered and whether or not they wanted it
shipped complete or send the backorders later too.  It's just common sense
as well as good service.
--
Jim Thompson
84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
73 K Ghia Coupe "Denise"
72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
oldvolkshome@gmail.com
http://www.oldvolkshome.com
**********************************
On 1/25/06, John Bange <jbange@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> As for finger pointing, it really kinda seems to go both ways. I once
> ordered a dozen critical parts from a vendor to be sent UPS Next Day Air.
> They called to verify I wanted the expensive shipping. Next day, package
> shows up-- with half the parts on BACK ORDER! I figured they'd have
> mentioned when they called. Apparently I should have asked. Another time I
> ordered a tune-up kit. Order form says "fill in VIN (here) because there
> was
> a mid-year variation in parts". They called on my cell two days later
> while
> I was 50 miles away from my van on a job. Took 'em five minutes of me
> insisting it was there to find the VIN in the box where the ASKED ME to
> fill
> it in. Sometimes you gotta think if maybe the problem isn't the customer,
> but the vendor's system. Maybe there should be separate part numbers for
> each color of poptop decal, so people don't get caught in a "you should
> have
> read all the instructions twice" game. Maybe that tune-up kit should be
> two
> part numbers, with the customer shoosing based on his VIN. Maybe you
> should
> have an auto message on your email that says "thanks for the email-- hours
> are M-F, etc." It's a constant struggle, but part of the eternal "fun" of
> running a business is minimizing or eliminating ways customers can shoot
> themselves in the foot. Instead of complaining that they don't read the
> warnings when we hand them loaded pistols, we really oughtta' be looking
> for
> ways to eliminate the loaded pistol situations altogether.
>
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"