And, no supplier is perfect. There is a spread of product quality and
service that is a reality for every supplier of anything, be it a product or
service. It could well be that most are completely satisfied with what they
get from this supplier; Bob's experience may have been the exception rather
than the rule.
At one time, years ago, the business I owned had grown to 150 people on the
staff. I had barely even met about half of the staff members (well, at
least I didn't know them well, didn't directly supervise them), but I daily
met with the half a dozen or so managers who did interface with the staff
and who reported to me. I observed that we had a range of quality in the
product we produced. Some was excellent quality; some was average (by
industry standards) quality -- but by my own personal standards, barely
adequate.
I had occasion to observe out-going product, though, and one day, on an
important deadline, was embarrassed to see some of the quality we were
producing. But, it was more important to the client that the work came in
on deadline than that it be "perfect." Well, it was far from perfect... but
it had to go out. "Rework," after the fact, could be done if that's what
the client wanted. (Note, safety was not involved; it was an information
product -- printed documents.) I was (pleasantly) stunned to get letters of
commendation, a few days later, on the high quality of the work, and "Please
have the same people work on our work in the future who worked on that one!"
I knew for a fact that the "excellent work" was in fact poor work.
Interestingly, in this same time period we put out some work that I had
personally checked and it was excellent, virtually perfect. We got a nasty
letter from an irate client, saying how terrible the quality of the work
was. A complaint letter was put in our file (it was contract work for the
U.S. government, by the way), and I and some of my managers were called in
for a face-to-face meeting to explain why this work was so poorly done and
what steps we would take to ensure that it would never happen again. It was
a ticklish situation, how to explain that the work was actually, for a fact,
excellent. The client refused to specify the particulars of what they found
so troublesome and refused to listen to the demonstration (and I was "armed"
with the ability to clearly demonstrate that the work was in fact
excellent) -- just wanted some sort of groveling on "our" part I suppose.
It's sometimes difficult to know, in such situations, whether groveling to
appease the client is the wisest approach, or firmly standing up for
yourself is best -- because standing up for yourself is often not
appreciated, even if you are absolutely in the right. Sometimes you can
sort of walk a tightrope in between somehow, let them have their pride and
retain your own self respect at the same time.
Longer term, you let contracts with those sorts of people expire and you
eventually find more reasonable clients to be your "bread and butter." And,
you get your quality up to the "consistently excellent" by making decisions
within your business. In my case, for instance, I no longer have 150
employees; I have me. I do as much work as I can do myself, turn out
quality that I know to be excellent, and I do not (at least not actively,
yet) try to grow beyond what I can do myself.
Said another way:
1. You need to know what you're doing and not turn out a sub-standard
product
2. You need to directly produce the product yourself so that you can be
sure to turn
out an excellent product or...
3. You need to ensure that your production process is directly supervised
by people, like yourself, who know what they're doing, to ensure high
quality.
The flip side: As consumers, we need to appreciate that nearly all
producers "have a bad day," or have a staff member who is fired a week later
because their work was sub-standard, or some other factor that causes their
quality to be poor some of the time, even if it's excellent most of the
time. The best producers eliminate all the "poor momoents," but that may
take time to work itself out, and then there may be future rough spots when
a key person leaves, until replacements can be brought up to the same high
standards. And, some producers of product are consistently better than
others. It's the reality of the maketplace, even setting aside "dishonesty"
or intentional deception, etc. Even those with the best of intentions do
not always put their best foot forward. And there are plenty of people who
do not have the best of intentions; but they tend to not stay in business
forever or even for very long.
73 - Rich, KE3Q
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Henning" <paul@amtelco.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 10:46 AM
Subject: RE: ***WARNING**** DISHONEST SELLER K4IDC/KB4IDC : [TowerTalk]
Large Mast For Sale...last one
> Here we go again. Your post on this subject was enough!
>
> I too had a problem with a transaction with Robin. Unlike you however the
> problem was dealt with by Robin quickly and completely to my satisfaction.
> I
> am completely happy with both Robin and the product he sold to me.
>
> Again - once was enough!
>
>
> Paul N. Henning
> K9PH
> Director of Research and Development
> Amtelco
> 4800 Curtin Drive
> McFarland, Wisconsin 53558
> www.amtelco.com
> paul@amtelco.com
> (608)838-4194
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
> Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with
> any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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