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Longish Boss Rant
Let me preface by saying that I really do love my job. I like my boss, too. I just wonder about some of the things that go on in this company...
Background:
The company I work for sells computer systems to small retailers. The software is an inventory management/point-of-sale package. We're a small company (7 people) and I'm THE technical guy in the D/FW metro area. I work from home, have about half my rent and utilities written off my taxes and get paid to drive just about anywhere I go. It's a good gig, and I make good money doing what I do. It's a niche market, and there's not a lot of people that can do what I do or have the level of experience with the product we sell.
Situation:
So here it is, Friday night. I'm on call this weekend, as my number came up this weekend. That's no big deal, as I do weekend duty about once a month. Right now, retailers are all doing physical inventory, so they can report to the tax man. If you've ever worked retail at this time of year, you know what a pain in the *** Physical Inventory is. It's never fun.
A client of ours is on an older version of the software. They bought their store from the previous owner, including the system we sold them however many years ago, before I started with this company. It works, but it's no longer supported and certainly isn't the ideal. They, like many other retailers are doing their physical inventory this weekend.
They received some portable terminals from us. These aren't anything special. THey're just scanners on a dumb terminal to scan barcodes and enter quantities. They really are overpriced for what they do, but they work. We also rent them, and this client opted to rent three of them to do their physical inventory. I can't say I blame them, considering how much they cost for the functionality they provide.
Doing physical inventory on a Friday night with staff staying late and making time-and-a-half.
That in and of itself isn't all that unusual. It's a lot easier to count all your merchandise if you don't have customers doing wacky **** like buying your products. But that's just me.
Here's where the problems started. I got on the phone with the client shortly after 7pm tonight. They need some help with their P.I. I'm expecting this, although I don't really like taking calls this late. But a client needing some assistance is really expected. Our clients aren't geeks like you & I. Hell, many of them have difficulty figuring out how to left-click and right-click.
so I call the client to find out some really interesting information:
1) They never got trained in how to properly use the software to do a physical inventory.
2) They rented these units and were given no instruction in how to use them.
3) The units aren't picking up the barcodes they printed correctly. They're picking up some number vastly different than what the barcode represents.
This is where the anti-boss rant starts. I'm ****ed. I've been jacking with this client for a couple hours now. They've had to start all over from scratch, as the counts they've scanned into their three rental terminals can't be trusted. I'm having to train them on the fly as they're doing the physical inventory, which is not the ideal time to be doing training. The client as wasted a good amount of time doing what they believed to be the correct thing to do (and in all reality, it WAS the right thing to do) and they've got to start over because it's likely going to result in a screwed up inventory for them.
That's what I UNCOVERED in working with them. The original nature of the call was because they didn't know how to even use the equipment we rented them. We basically shipped them three units for rent at $100 per. No documentation. No training. No nothing, other than a return address. Now I'm having to train a client while they're in the middle of doing what they need training on. Am I the only one who thinks this is ****ty business practice?
It is, as they say, a cluster****. The client doesn't appear to be ****ed as far as I can tell, but I think they have every right to be. I'd be wholly surprised if they are just hiding it from me. And i think they've got every reason to tell us, as a company to **** off and they'll get their support from someone who gives a damn. It certainly doesn't appear that we gave a damn when we rented them this equipment.
My boss is the one who handles all the equipment rentals, so that's who this rant is aimed at. It just amazes me that there was no foresight to ask the client if they might like to learn how to use the equipment they're about to rent from us. Hell, if nothing else that generates training revenue for us! So not only are we making the client feel like we care about their needs, but we also make money in the process! What could be better?
I don't understand, and maybe I'm not supposed to.
Fortunately, my girlfriend bought a pizza and some beer for me. I'm going to slowly wither away the hours before this client calls me back, because I'm reasonably certain they'll need to. I'm going to ***** and moan under my breath while I imbue the beer until I get tired of *****ing and moaning. I'm sure the client is doing the same thing, albeit without the beer. I guess I'm just lucky in that regard.
[END OF RANT]
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