I am having an experience with my uniform supplier whom I have apparently had a contract with for the last 5 years. In the past five years we have had the same uniforms with the same outdated logos and the same worn out uniforms. We have been overcharged for things we did not need, had price increases on things we did not even know we had and even were charged for renting things we owned! As a business owner who provides a service I have sympathy for mistakes, even poor communication but when the contract was up the company told us that we needed to give them 90 days notice in writing or it renewed for approximately 3 more years at at least 70% of our current service.
When telling them we wanted to cancel, they kept coming and would not stop, they kept delivering uniforms even though we had purchased our own and were having the techs wash them themselves. When I saw how much we were paying for shop towels and seeing them lay all over the shop we started purchasing heavier duty disposable ones. They got an attorney and came up with a number of 70% of our current service in a year to settle.
Now being in the service business with written agreements, we understand that both parties have to be happy and in our agreements you can cancel anytime. We also have services we have canceled in the name of saving money and then returned to using them again. Like @Road GPS in our trucks and our janitorial services in our stores. We found out we needed them and came back to them. We also have had many customers come back to us or new ones where people who have serviced them are out of business and their equipment is not running as well as it was when it was being serviced every frequently. Some customers have service less frequently that are on contracts as they are slow and we understand. We are in the relationship for the long haul. We see the big picture.
In this case, the vendor is forcing us to do business with them. We did sign a contract and we did not see that we had to give them 90 days. That is our responsibility. They did however offer to re-sign us with a one year for much less service and when we decided not to do that the gloves came off. It is incredible in the age where we are looking inward to how we can become a better vendor that companies still operate like this or can even survive.
Companies have to provide a benefit to their customers. We hope that you find doing business with SCE valuable and productive and that our relationship enhances your business. If not, we wont get attorneys involved or hold you to a contract. We will just try to improve and get better. We need you, the customer or we dont survive. We have made many changes in the last six months and learned a ton through out this experience. There are things we do well and areas we need to improve. Like many compnaies we are a better, stronger company for looking inward. But nothing matters if you arent seeing value and dont need us. Thanks for reading.
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It is amazing what is thought to be customer service. I have personally on two separate occasions had to deal with similar issues discussed in the Blog. One from a uniform company (a trend possible with the same provider?), and one from a bottled gas supplier.
ReplyDeleteOn the gas front we did not have such luck on the transition – and this was with a supplier that had done business with us for over 20 years, granted there were a few acquisitions along the way that caused the name to change to an overseas version of . . . . . This is a story that could be used as a text book case of how not to do business.
A letter of poor service was communicated to the supplier notifying them of our decision to change our services. The response back was one of “we will sue to have you fulfill your contract”. The requirement on this piece of paper that had self renewed several times over the years was to give a one year notice of non renewal within a 30 day window of the anniversary date. Basically a 13 month cancellation letter!
What is most amazing is that this was the first response, not a response of what have we done to deserve a notice of poor service and what can we do to improve. Our notice to cancel was truly based on poor service. The representative seldom visited, we were constantly running out of welding gas, we ran to the supplier to pick up product several time per week that did not make it on the delivery truck. It was costing us internally more to manage our gas than the gas bill actually cost. It was truly a time for a change.
The story continues . . . The next level of communication was more “we will sue for contract completion”. So we did in fact rescind our notice letter and do business with this supplier (with a new account representative) for the remaining time of the contract.
If you were keeping count, this time would be the remaining 11 months on the contract, then the 12 months following the notice of non renewal – we were held hostage 23 months past the original letter date.
The good news is that the new account representative did manage the account well; our problems disappeared for the most part. This happened even though the representative knew he would loose the account once the renewal date came up, plus 12 months. There was nothing he could do to keep us from leaving a company that had forgot how to tackle the problem without using the word “sue”.
The notice was sent out on the date put on many calendars, the old supplier responded with a “what can we do to keep you” meeting (new management now in place that understood service?), we made the change to a new supplier and things never missed a beat during the transition.
Key learning’s – never sign a contract without knowing the cancellation clause details, cross out all self renewing language, cross out all CPI language, remove any other language you do not like, and add some you do, and do a price review occasionally to make sure you are still in a competitive position with what you are purchasing.
If the supplier is good, this will not be an issue as long as you are fair and not asking for free service or crazy terms. If they balk, rethink your position and if you still think you are correct find another supplier! You should enjoy seeing your supplier as they make the rounds to truly be a partner in your business.
A final on our gas business - we have now operated several years with a one page contract that spells out liability, pricing, and processes, that either party can cancel with 30 days notice. The service is great, pricing remains competitive, we have expanded our welder purchases and repair business to them also, and most important - we truly like to see the representative show up each week, even if it is just to shake a hand and say hi!
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