Rid here: I have been in business for 35 years. I have never come across a situation like this before. You see, I have been an ad guy my whole career. It's a deadline business. That means there are deadlines. The reason they call it a deadline is, if you miss it--you're dead. Plain and simple.
Our co-packers have a deadline now....and has for the last three weeks. It's Sept. 27th. Thats the day we are supposed to go into production. Well guess what? It aint gonna happen. And you want to know why it aint gonna happen? GUESS.
Im ready to call the suicide prevention hotline. Maybe Michael and I can get a 2 for 1 deal. Or we could arrange a conference call with them. because we are slowly losing our minds.
Our co packer guys dont return our calls. They dont return our emails when they say they will. They say something is done--and its not. They claim they will "send it right over" and don't. They don't know if its done. They think the other person was supposed to do it. They think, they think they know what is happening and who they think is looking into it and when it will be ready to be sent to us but it's not because there is another client in the plant that day. (that made no sense, right?--welcome to our little saucy world) They think it will be ready by EOD. It's not. They think, think, think, and know absolutely nothing. The best part is, when Michael calls, they answer with a cheery, "Hi Michael, whats up?" It's our blood pressure that's up, dude. Poor Michael...he came over last night and his eyes were so small I couldnt find them!
Sept. 27th is just 16 days away.
Right now we need to know the list of final ingredients and get the nutritional labels from them. It's been 3 weeks. When we asked them early last month how long it took to do the nutritionals, they said it would take about 4-6 hours to create them. No problem.... Yesterday Michael A. was on the phone to our contact person (whatta yuk) and he told Michael the nutritionals were wrapping up and he would send them over via email. He didn't.
We need to get them on the labels with the ingredients so we can get the f**king labels printed in time for the 27th. Im starting to wonder--Sept. 27th of WHAT YEAR?!
We need the box dimensions and weights of a loaded box so we can get a quote from the fulfillment house. And add this info to our data sheets, which also need to get printed. It aint happening-- they suggested we use a new 6-pack carton instead of the standard 12. We took their advice. Cool. Now they tell us that there are no 6 pack cartons out there that will handle our sized paragon jars. WTF on steroids.... they are going to keep looking. Meanwhile, we need answers. Maybe we stick with the 12 pack carton? Stay tuned.....
Looks like production will be in October...no, November....no,.... how 'bout, before I die.
Lastly, when Michael A. was talking to our contact guy (OY!) about this n that and complaining to him about how nothing is getting done, our contact guy replied, "well Michael, we DO have other clients you know".
Huh? He said what? You're kidding. No. He DID say that?
Upon hearing this tale from Michael, I thought that if I said that to one of my ad clients because I was late with a project?.....I would no longer have that person as a client. You gotta be f**king kidding that anyone would say that to a client, no matter how small the client is. You might infer it--but in a way that's not insulting or rude. Try using tact.
So we wait. We lose another week. And the co packer guys prove once again that they dont care about us. We are small potatoes. What THEY forget though, is our next run after this small one will be 1000 cases. And after that? Maybe 2000 cases. That's of each sauce....
"well, we DO know other co packers you know".
No comments:
Post a Comment