Friday Was A Big Pile Of Doo-Doo

Well, that's not entirely true. The day ended up being fun, but from the time I woke up to the time 5:00 p.m. came around it was an uphill battle to keep from running outside and yelling out loud at the top of my lungs.

I woke up on Friday morning, and as usual I looked outside the bedroom window to see if Hotness had left yet.

Sure enough she had, I just didn't hear her car leave.

I also noticed that MY car was gone.

I'm racing through my mind how on earth that would have happened since both sets of keys were in the house and you can't start my car without the proper code (embedded in a chip in the key).

Did I park my car on the other side? Why would I do that? It wasn't late when I got home, so how come I can't remember why my car isn't there? Should I call the police?

Then I started to realize I had to go to the bathroom and it occured to me.... I was dreaming.

So I got out of bed, looked at the alarm clock (4:30 a.m. - an hour before I usually get up) and looked out the bedroom window. There was Hotness's car.... and mine. Right where I left it the night before.

Grrrrr! I'm awake now. No sense going back to bed when I know I won't be able to sleep now.

I get to work and as I'm pulling in, my boss also pulls in. We're both getting out of our cars and he informs me that our operating system for our company is dead and not working. Nobody can sign on, put in orders, look up pricing, etc...

Just great. Thankfully I got the bulk of work I had on my desk finished the day before, but this hindered me from doing anything new once people started calling and emailing.

About on hour into the workday, he managed to get things up and running so we were able to work normally.

Then around 11:00 I had a customer who didn't pay attention to pricing I'd given them on a special ordered item.

They thought their total amount to pay was going to be around $25.00, but in fact was going to be about $250.00.

I'm scrambling to find my notes on what I quoted them but of course can't find them.
To cut to the chase, the customer had my handwritten quote which had "$25.00 / C" (/ C = 'per hundred'... in case you didn't know).

They took it to read as $25.00 for a 1000 pcs. since they though I'd written a "K" instead of "/C".

As it is, there were lots of moments of awkward silence and debate on the phone.

After a talk with the boss, we ended up only charging the customer for the total cost of the part and not for the special process that was done. Plus we sold them just the 100 pcs they originally only wanted and kept the remaining 900 pcs. that I told them they had to get in order to get them in. In effect totally getting shafted for this part.

Just on the heels of this crapfest, another customer called looking to get samples on a part.

They needed to finish a job and only wanted 20 pcs.

This customer used to buy from us loyally and frequently but has droppped off dramatically in the last 3 months to get their parts elsewhere.

So I told them "I'm sorry. I can send you 5 pcs as a sample, but if you need more you'll have get enough to make a purchase order minimum."

After all, why should I give out free parts so they can finish a job they're going to get paid for?

I don't think so. I'm happy to help a loyal customer, but when you're buying your groceries from another store don't ask me for a free lunch.

As soon as I hung up the phone, one of my co-workers had to open their mouth and say,"I think $0.60 in parts isn't too much to give them if they want them."

I just about took his head off and said if that what he wanted to do, then he could do it.

The remainder of the day was uneventful and I managed to keep everything caught up so I don't have to start Monday under a pile of paperwork.

Finally, 5:00 rolled around and we all headed our separate ways.

I was actually going into Seattle to meet up with a friend and help him get his own blog started up. I'd talk more about it, but he's still getting things going with it and there really isn't much to see or read yet. As soon as it's "live" I'll let ya'll know and post a link up.

I hung out at his place for about 2-1/2 hours and finally said I needed to get home.

On my way, I stopped at Dick's Drive-In on Holman for a couple of 'deluxes' and a chocolate shake. And fries, of course.

So it ended okay. But man! What way to start the weekend.