Keeping an eye on stock

[Mark Amies]

I don't want to teach anyone here how to suck eggs, but please do think about your stock at busy times of the year like now.

This morning I had to deal with a customer who had ordered mounts on Friday, to be delivered on Saturday ( which is a more expensive delivery rate). He apparently needed the mounts for a big job he was doing on Saturday night.

Now, it was my luck to take the call this morning ( even though I don't do the order). You can probably see where this is going. Yes, the delivery did not get there. At this stage I do not know why , but it is clearly the delivery company to blame. Of course this time is prone to all kinds of potential problems- adverse weather, overload of work, agency drivers, etc.

What become interesting is that the order was done by a shop , on behalf of the customer, so it becomes even more convuloted.

I then hear, secondhand from the shop owner that the customer is liklely to make a claim against us. The reason? Well apart from the obvious, the guy had said he had to cancel the event job he was doing. I asked if he had media , and he said yes. So I said , well, you could have printed images. That didn't go down to well.

The point here is , and I have raised it many times before, why leave yourself short of stock?. If you do teh job of event photography you should really endeavour to have stock ready at all times.

Saying that you had to cancel a job ,and then say you will be making a claim, is all very well, but it does leave me wondering how people decide to run their businesses. To leave yourself in such a dire situation , and yet still take a job on ( presumably at short notice), without back up stock is a wee bit daft. It palces a greeat deal of responsibility on the supplier, who is dependant on the courier, who in turn is dependant on other factors.

So please, do bear this in mind. As the old saying goes " Be prepared".

Please.

[Mike Weeks]

The other point on this is networking, do you know local photographers who have the same printer? do you know who may be able to help with mounts? do you know who might have a spare printer? - yes you should have all this yourself but I prefer the belt and braces approach. Things go wrong, make like the boy scouts and be prepared.

Do you have a stock re-order point? Mine is to keep enough stock for 2 or 3 typical jobs, so if a short notice job comes in I order more stock to replace my reserve - not trying to teach my granny to suck eggs though.

Mike

[colin_falcon]

Common sense should dicate that you keep enough stock of media/mounts as the silly season approaches, and if the guy wants to claim Mark it should be against the courier, not you.

Once the order is in the hands of the courier it's beyond your control

[Mark Amies]

Indeed we will Colin.

[David OShea]

I agree Mark, It is only common sense to insure full stock of all types of media, print and mounts etc... The nerve of some people saying they are going to make a claim. I wonder, is it the shop or the shop's customer making the claim? And on what basis are they going to claim? Their own lack of fore sight or inability to run their own affairs properly...:?:

[Mark Amies]

Well I have a feeling it is the end recipient, but that could prove to be an issue , as the order was invoiced to the shop.

[Stuart Morley]

I see this happen EVERY week......

No delivery company in the UK will guarantee their deliveries will definitely turn up next day, life just isn't like that. There are to many circumstances outside their control.

If you where going on holiday and it took one hour to drive to the airport and you had to be there at 9am, would you leave at 8am? Of course not.

As photographers we use this stuff often so it should come as know surprise that we need media and mounts

As for a claim, the customer has their contract with the supplier (Photomart in this case) and not the courier (Photomart has the contract with the courier) so if Photomart didn't deliver then it's their responsibility and not the couriers.

I can't see that Photomart did anything wrong, it's just hard luck that the courier let everyone down.

As for a claim, what is the customer claiming? Loss of earnings etc? If so you should find most terms and conditions don't include consequential loss so no claim can be made unless the supplier stated that the delivery was guaranteed (and the guarantee might only be for refund of delivery charge).

In my book it's the customers fault for not ordering sooner and they have themselves to blame IMHO.

We see this with rentals, customer rents printer and it's delivered two days early. Customer doesn't test it and takes it to an event. Customer has never used the printer before and fails to set it up properly and can't print. No fault with the printer, just the operator.

We all need to take some responsibility for our actions here if we are in business.

Stu

www.systeminsight.co.uk

[Stuart Morley]

I agree Mark, It is only common sense to insure full stock of all types of media, print and mounts etc... The nerve of some people saying they are going to make a claim. I wonder, is it the shop or the shop's customer making the claim? And on what basis are they going to claim? Their own lack of fore sight or inability to run their own affairs properly...:?:

You would be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) what some people try and claim from the supplier. I am sure Mark at Photomart and us at System Insight could write a book.

Stu

www.systeminsight.co.uk

[Mark Amies]

Well, to date I have heard nothing more on this. That is not me being negligent - far from it. I called the shop keeper yesterday and he said nothing more.

I am hoping someone has seen sense here.

Re claims - yes well it would be initially against Photomart, but we would get the money from DPD. However this incident is pretty complex due to the way it was done.