So either Tequipment is lying or their ordering systems are broken, they are lying about that, and do not care. I would already have done what is necessary to cancel the order without warning them since they are not providing the service they are advertising.
I get the sense that the more junior employees are not lying, but simply telling things the way they personally see it.
For example, after TQ cancelled my original order, and offered me to enter the new replacement order, I looked again at their website listings, and saw that most of the items I had ordered, that were previously "out of stock", were now showing "In Stock" with quantities more than sufficient to fill my order. Almost a whole month had passed, so I figured, the items had just come in. So, while I didn't have to place this new order, I could have gone elsewhere, it looked as if the items were now in, and the only problem with the previous original order, was that one "Protective Caps" item that was discontinued. So, why go elsewhere? Why bother to go looking at other re-sellers websites and checking who else carries these items, when the items were now "In Stock" right here, in front of me?
So, I contacted Tequipment, and Customer Rep Latoya said she'd enter the new order for me without the "Protective Caps", and within a few minutes I got an email confirming the new order.
When I looked at this "replacement order", however, I noticed that the total cost was "higher" than the previous "original order." But, I had just removed one item, so how could the total cost go up? I looked carefully at all the line items, all the prices for each item were exactly the same as the old order, but the shipping cost had increased. So, I contacted Latoya, and asked her how the total could have increased, when we "took out" an item. She said, she noticed that also, and thought it strange, but that is what the "computer said."
So, here I got the impression that Latoya is completely honest, she is just doing her job, and has limited knowledge about the systems of operation.
I discussed this issue with other tequipment reps, who could not really explain the increase, but since this order was so close to being fulfilled, and the price difference was small enough for me, considering all the discounted prices I got from tequipment over the years, they had built up sufficient "goodwill" in my accounting book for me to overlook this, and I decided to go ahead with the order anyway.
The next day, I get an email from tqeuipment "Your Order has Shipped" !
So, excitedly, I scroll down the long email, only to find out, to my disappointment, that only the Fluke 87-V meter shipped. But, this was a "Ship Complete" order, like the original order, and the other items were showing on tequipment's website as "In Stock", so why didn't those items ship out with the Fluke? That's when I got into this dialog with Brian about what was really "In Stock", and he insisted that those other items were not "In Stock." Brian's view of In Stock, is the same as my view, items on-hand available for immediate shipment. Brian seems not to know, that the tequipment site lists these things as "In Stock." or if he does know, his role is to focus on what "In Stock" means to the inventory department.
What is the meaning of the term "Ship Complete"?
During my conversation with Brian, I mentioned that it seems that tequipment had "Partially Shipped" an order that was marked "Ship Complete." They didn't wait until all the items could be assembled and sent out as one shipment.
At that point, Stacie jumps in the conversation, sending me an email, to "clear up my confusion." She explains "Ship Complete", does not mean that all the items in the order will ship together at the same time, it means each warehouse will "Ship Complete" the items that that particular warehouse typically carries in it's inventory, as soon as that warehouse can assemble the items it's responsible for.
So, it might look like "Partial Shipments" of my "Ship Complete" order, but it's really "Ship Complete" from each warehouse, and that's the meaning of the term "Ship Complete" when my order is so marked.
But, I pointed out to Stacie, that the explanation couldn't explain why the Fluke 87-V meter didn't ship out immediately in the original order placed in the beginning of May. Since, it was now apparent, that this was the only item that their main warehouse stocked, so the Fluke part of the "Ship Complete" order was already complete from the start, yet got rescheduled to June 22nd 2017, when the other items were expected. I asked how could the term "Ship Complete" change meaning, between the original order and the replacement order, consisting of mostly the identical parts?
Here is where I think that the employee is using her own private interpretation of the term "Ship Complete", and honestly trying her best to clear up the situation.
Now when an order is marked "Ship Complete" on tequipment's website, there's also a message below it that says,
"
For orders marked Ship Complete, We can partial ship upon request if the customer is willing to pay shipping charges of each shipment."
So, the buyer can request partial shipments, if he is willing to pay more for shipping, but otherwise he'll usually have to wait until tequipment makes the one shipment. I was worried that, somehow, I was getting partial shipments and would be required to pay extra for this, since all my previous 9 orders over the 5 years only included one shipment. Tequipment assured me that even though I was getting partial shipments in this case, only one shipping fee, charged on the first shipment, would appear.
Since I've played the role of financial analyst during my professional career, I came to understand this "Ship Complete" in terms of financial contracts.
In my previous universe, "Ship Complete" was like a forward contract, between buyer and seller, where the seller agrees to ship all items out together, in one shipment, at a future date, to be determined by the seller, and the buyer would accept this one shipment, and "wait" for all items to be shipped out together, even though some items might be available immediately. Because the seller had the right to determine the actual future ship date, this was like a forward contract with embedded option to set the date.
In my new parallel universe, according to Stacie, "Ship Complete" is like an option written by the buyer, and held by the seller, that gives the seller the right to ship out any items at any time, at the sellers convenience, and the buyer must accept partial shipments trickling in over an undetermined period of time, and although the buyer would not be required to pay any extra for these additional shipments, the buyer would forfeit his right to examine the complete order at one time upon receipt, to determine if the order was in fact complete or contained flawed or incorrect items.This is so, because the buyer doesn't know anything about the complex collection of warehouses that tequipment might have, and tequipment could just as easily ship all partial shipments from the same one warehouse, at different times, according to their convenience. All items appear to come from tequipment, so from the buyer's perspective, these are just partial shipments on his order, and whatever "behind the scenes" warehouse activity is generating these partial shipments, in some "Ship Complete" manner, is irrelevant to the buyer.
So, Each person seems to have their own unique perspective, personal definition of the terms, and private "delusions" of how the company operates. But, they don't know what is going on behind the scenes in the business. The more senior employees, try very hard not to lie, by using "misdirection" and changing the subject when asked direct penetrating questions. It's clear to me, that different people at tequipment have either "more" or "less" actual knowledge of the true business practices, depending on who they are, and the senior ones aren't telling the junior ones the details either, so it's not just the client that is being kept in the dark.
Why assume good faith on their part? They are responsible for the behavior of their customer representatives in one way or another.
Well, everyone has a reason for doing things. People do what they think is right. Trying to see things from the other person's perspective, helps to understand why they do what they do.
In the world of commerce, we pay money to be right. Whoever pays the cash, is the one in the right. The problem here, is that tequipment prices are often discounted more than other suppliers at the retail level. That "discount" is what "they pay us" the buyers to lie a little to us to get us into the trade. If we are upset and self-righteous, we can cancel and go elsewhere and pay more to get better service. So, there's always a cost involved. At the end of the day, what does the buyer want?
The most important thing the buyer cares about, is the eventual delivery of his product, and that it be the "right product", with "no flaws". So far, tequipment has not failed to deliver that. Sometimes the "timing" of delivery is important, so each buyer may have his own priorities set differently on some aspects of order fulfillment.
But, the buyer also cares about how "smooth" the transaction went for him. Typically, as a buyer, I don't want to do any "work" to make my order fulfillment a success. That's the seller's job. This is the perspective, of course, of the "end user" buyer. I'm not a dealer. So, I don't expect to work both sides of the trade.
Most of the work the buyer does, involves researching his potential product. This takes a tremendous amount of time. Once this work has been complete, and the buyer has made his decision, the buyer just wants to point and click, and receive his part. This is my own view. Maybe some buyers enjoy the ride of the haggle and the game of the actual purchase itself. But, I'd think most buyers are like me, and just want their product without a fuss.
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