While talking to a HUGE customer, he told me about how a company they bought out now had a lot of excess capacity. They decided to make and sell consumer items to Wal-mart. He gets an invoice from Wal-mart for just over $4,000 and calls their accounting department. He gets a very curt woman, Joyce, on the phone and she starts into a tirade about getting the bill paid for damaged, mismarked and shortages of their order. She says that if he doesn't pay the invoice promptly that Wally-world won't do business with them ever again and there will be no samples of the mismarked and damaged goods sent back. He, trying to get a word in but she bowls him over every time. He finally insists on 30 seconds of her time and she grudgingly agrees. He says to her: "Joyce, I understand your being upset with this, our first order but...we haven't shipped it yet."
NO SHIT!!! Apparently this is common with the big retailers. Pferd Milwaukee, an abrasives and brush company supplies Sears. My friends there tell me that Sears has reported shortages and discounted 5-7% of EVERY order they ship to them. I remember when I was a wee lad, my dad sold to Black & Decker and they tried to screw him so he refused to sell to them even when they offered cash up-front. Did you know that Home Despot takes everything on consignment AND charges slotting fees? They have approach us numerous times and we told them to pound salt. However, McMaster Carr is a CLASS operation, pay on time and work well with their suppliers.