By My Estimation, You’re Not Listening

I work for a distributor, and we do not have a public front. EVERYTHING is done online with phone calls only as follow-ups. Unfortunately, our company’s growth has outpaced our website updates, and while it LOOKS very pretty, some of the functionality is dubious. One big issue is a glitch nobody can figure out.

Although we show “current” inventory levels, it isn’t a live feed but rather updated about seven times a day. If the update program happens to run at the exact right time while product is getting received in, it will show the entire received stock order as “available” even if there’s not enough on hand to cover existing backorders. This leads to conversations like this one.

Me: “I know, I’m sorry there was that issue. It’s known and being worked on. But if you check again now, you’ll see that it’s correctly showing zero on hand.”

Reseller: “Look, this just isn’t professional. If your site shows ‘current inventory,’ then it should show current inventory!”

Me: “And we agree, sir. That is why it shows, ‘Current estimated inventory; please contact your sales rep for exact volume.’ We are working—”

Reseller: “Well, that’s what I’m doing now, isn’t it?!”

Me: “Unfortunately, sir, I’m not your sales rep. I—”

Reseller: “Then why the h*** do I keep getting emails from you?!”

Me: “As I was trying to say, sir, I’m on the order management team. I enter new orders into our system, make order revisions, and invoice the outgoing shipments. Anything involving those processes, one of us six members of the team handles; you’ve most likely gotten emails from others, too.”

Reseller: “So, what you’re saying is, you won’t help me here.”

Me: “What I’m saying, sir, is that I don’t have the ability to help you, but I can connect you with someone who might be able to!”

I forwarded him on to the sales rep; they’re better at finding diplomatic ways to say, “Shut up and let us do our jobs,” than I am!