Unfiltered Story #120175

(I am manager of tech support for software used by Fortune 500 companies. We have one customer that complains our product does not show his bill of materials data correctly. After researching the issue, my Indian programmer asks for help convincing the guy he is wrong.)

Me: “This program was written assuming X value would be setup this way, XYZ.” *numbering logic*

Customer: No! Mine are setup THIS way (he just numbered things 1,2 3,etc.

Programmer in my ear:(that is NOT how you do a BOM!! And not how the manual says.

Me: Well, we could reprogram it, but it would be a very costly project and take a long time!

Customer: I have been doing BOM for 30 years! [click]

Programmer: One year 30 times over maybe!

The exact same thing happened with a General Ledger, the underlying basis of a company’s accounting system. We had a joke – don’t buy stock in those companies!