Help me form an argument

I’m going to have a discussion in a little bit, and I’d appreciate any finesse in articulating my main point that y’all might provide.

I have received an invoice for some tape copying work. In the usual course of events, a job of this sort would cost ~$300-400. Due to some peculiarities of the data set involved, the job ran $4500. There was no way for me to know that in advance, but I did order these tape copies.

Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to telling my boss about this, so I must discuss this with the vendor this afternoon. My thought is that even though we requested the tape copies, when the vendor realized that this would be such an anomalously expensive job, they should have consulted me before proceeding.

This is not the primary transaction involved. It is a reproduction charge ancillary to a data license I purchased for several tens of thousands more than this invoice. I was preparing yet another such license acquisition from this vendor this morning when I received the tape invoice. Any additional licensing is on hold for the moment.

So, thoughts anyone? Spin me some silver, if you please.

The job isn’t over until the paperwork’s done.

Get copies of every single piece of paper with writing on it that has anything at all to do with this project, and document the paper trail so you can establish exactly what was known about the project at every single step. If there’s a point where something screwy happened, you need to find out where that point is and pin it to the blackboard for everyone to see.

If you do the paperwork properly, the argument should argue itself.

I have nothing of value to contribute, sweetie, so I just thought I would pop in and give you a ::huggle::

Oh, and good luck. That is a BIG discrepency between what you authorized and what it cost. Yipes! My boss would have a stroke. [sub]I know that isn’t very comforting, sorry. :([/sub]

Hey, if the complete job is going to be worth a whole lot of money to the vendor, maybe he/she would be willing to make a cost reduction in light of the future profits from a continuing business relationship with your company?

Well, we played phone tag today, so talkin’ the talk won’t be until tomorrow.

Hmm…, 'scuse me while I think out loud here. The company in question is one of the dominant players in their part of the business (purveyors of seismic data, both proprietary and brokered) and it would be difficult for me to carry on if the relationship went totally to hell. But not impossible. They’ve PO’d their share before.

The company has grown to a point where they’ve built their own very nice building and employ many folks all over the country. OTOH, I’ve know the Pres/CEO and Exec. V.P. for over 20 years, since they were just a tiny startup. OTOOH, during the decade+ that I was an Indie, I was in direct competition with them. There’s been some bloodshed.

But that’s all been OK since I jumped back on the other side of the desk and have become a client again. Admittedly, I always use a broker when I do business with them, which chips 'em for a nickel, but that’s OK with them, they understand my reasons and they’re still getting business out of me. I take care of my broker.

My ultimate worth to them as things have been going is probably $400-750K per year in revenue. If I burn bridges (or if they do), I’ll still have to conduct some business with them, but it will be the minimum.

And there’s more. The tape copying is done by their wholly owned subsidiary and that is run by a guy who worked for them in the early '80s (whom I’ve known for 17 years) and broke away and started his own competitive data brokerage business in about 1987. His former employers were not happy, and pursued him until, in 1999, they swallowed his company and he has since become the head of their media reproduction.

So, he is his own cost center and, while I know and he knows that he’s been in the biz plenty long enough to understand that this was an anomalously expensive job and he should have advised me before proceeding, his bottom line will be less effected by losing the larger data license revenue (which goes through the parent company) than it will by eating a substantial portion of this invoice.

And the whole company is BIG now - they’ve become accustomed to stonewalling and I anticipate that’s what I’ll get in the morning. I already know a lot of what I’ll say, but I’m not yet firm on the ultimate plan/contingency plan.

I doubt I’ll be able to negotiate a lower price. I will register bitches up and down their chain of command about their handling of such a situation, but that’s unimportant to the tactical situation. At this point, I’m thinking my best resort is to just send the tapes back and tell them I’m adjusting the invoice. Fireworks to follow.

I’ve got another proposal into them today (much smaller; ~$15K) that I wanted to get on the table while we talked this over. I realize that to the tape guy losing another ~$200 job is nothing compared to the $4500 job, but if I have to stir it up the big dogs might want not only the $15K over the $5K, but the ultimate millions they’ll lose over the next few years if they burn a bridge with me tomorrow.

I hope we can settle it at the tape guy’s level tomorrow.

I’ll be absolutely amazed if anybody read this through; I just needed to think it out myself. If you’ve got a comment or insight, fire away!

How about “…affected…” (sigh)

And thanks, Scotti, for getting me focussing on that trail.

hey, guy, I read it all the way thru. I have nothing to say except that I’m sure you’ll handle it very well.

Jim

Thanks, Jim.

::slam dunks coffee::

Heh, we shall see.