An Unbelievable Story..... But True

In the world of my business, a lot of crazy things happen. A few weeks ago I was contracted to build an entertainment center for one of my customers. I needed to have the center finished before her company arrived before Christmas. This required ordering two base cabinets, which I found at Home Depot. I was told that the cabinets would arrive in about three weeks. Cool. So after three weeks I decided to check on my order. No, they hadn't arrived as of yet. So after four weeks I checked.... still didn't arrive but was told they were shipped and would arrive the following week. So I checked the following week, and no they were not in but were scheduled to arrive on Dec. 15th. So on December 15th I went in to check, this is six weeks by now. No, they hadn't arrived but they would check on the status.

So they checked, but could not get accurate information. First I was told that they had arrived but the customer sent them back. I knew this wasn't right since I was the customer. Then I was told they were at a warehouse dock somewhere, but they couldn't locate the dock. Then I was told that they were returned to the manufacturer, but the manufacturer could not find them. 

I needed the cabinets the next morning by 8:00 AM to finish my job, or I would have to cancel the order and build the cabinets. Well, the lady at Home Depot was working very hard trying to track down the cabinets, I spent 3 hours at the store. That evening she called me and said the docks were all closed now and that she still had not located the cabinets. I was told that they could be back in Ohio for all she knew. 

The next morning I called Home Depot again, she checked again, and again no cabinets. Five minutes later she called again and said that the cabinets were at the manufacturer's warehouse in town. For some reason they made it to the store but were returned to the warehouse. What I am wondering is.... how could the manufacturer not know that they were in their own warehouse? Were they just putting us off when they said they checked the first two times?

 

I got the project done on time..... barely!