Score One For the Little Guy

I just caught a mistake in shipment that has, to date, cost my company $6,695.00.

The funny thing is, this mistake is the only thing making me feel kinda good today. I don't even feel fabulous or amazingly Sherlock (yes, I just made that an adjective) for finding the mistake. Its not that at all.

Its the fact that this one dude at this tiny towing company is charging us almost seven thousand dollars for holding a piece of equipment we bought over a year ago and forgot to pick up from him. I mean, this dude is out in the middle. of. no where. And he's all telling us what we WILL pay, and my superiors here are getting all antsy, and you know what I say?

SCORE ONE for the little guys!

I don't care that this dude almost didn't get his wire transfer because he doesn't know what a W-9 is. It doesn't matter that he calls me "that girl" when he refers to his point of contact. I don't even care that when I called him yesterday to give him a purchase order number he told me to call back after "supper," meaning lunch.

The company I work for is nationwide. Worldwide, actually. We spend more money than that just to ship some of our equipment place to place. Yet when we find out that we've got to pay a seven thousand dollar holding fee, its all pennies nickels quarters dimes, how much can we talk him down?

"No, sir."
"Excuse me, did you just say 'no, sir?'"
"Yes, sir."

He wouldn't budge on the price. No discount for negligence he said.
I laughed so hard when they told me that. His deep southern Louisiana bayou accent came through across the phone telling me that he would have to drive to the Sherrif's office to fax me the invoice. He didn't have a fax machine.

We made jokes on it all day. About how he probably didn't have email. He probably had our multi-TON equipment sitting in his backyard. About how he was probably rubbing his hands together, knowing he'd got us good.

This morning, when the wire transfer went through, I thought about how close he was to the water. I had google earthed his location. He backed up to a line of water, probably wetlands, that snaked around this bleak looking highway in Louisiana. Only five years ago this month Hurricane Katrina struck the coast not far from his location. And I thought, Seriously, man. This guy probably deserves a break. I mean, I feel better about finding this mistake we made, than about any other sale or reconciliation or redemption I've processed my entire time here.

SCORE ONE for the little guy.