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Paul in Mich
12-09-2005 06:27:55
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Re: Yankees and buying parts.... in reply to NC Wayne, 12-08-2005 20:56:20
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Wayne, I doubt very seriously that just being north of the Mason-Dixon line has much to do with your experience. I agree wholeheartedly that it is poor business practice that inhibits the ability of customers to do business during business hours, but I"m sure that that goes on anywhere, North, South, East, and West. I will, however, add a thought and possibility to your situation, and this may indeed be a "Northern" born institution. It may well be that the supplier whom you tried to do business with at the noon hour was a Union shop, and from experience, I can tell you that with these Union guys, that when the noon whistle blows, its lunch time no matter what, and they wouldnt answer a phone, or lift a finger if their job depended on it, for to do so would be percieved as a betrayal of the Union. We experience this even in the farming business to the extent that the one elevator that we are contracted with is Union, and their union hours supercede farming hours. As anyone knows that during harvest, it is necessary to be in the field when field conditions permit, regardless of the hour or of the day of the week, since here in Michigan, our growing season is short, and very unforgiving. Many times it is imposssible to combine soy beans or other edible beans until after noon because of morning dew and damp conditions. One would think that the elevator would yield to these conditions, and extend their hours, especially at peak times, but when the 4:00 whistle blows, the Union guys are out of there. That gives us farmers sometimes a 4 hour window to get a truck loaded and get to the elevator before it closes. We try to work within the system and have trucks loaded at night and be at the elevator at 8:00 am to dump, but that isnt always possible either, as everyone has the same idea, and the line is sometimes 3 hours long. The owners of the elevator don"t like the system, but the union has a stranglehold on how the company does business. i"m not anti-union, but I do see where they are not always customer focused, and can cause many problems within a business. The very business they depend on for their livlihood. I won"t say that this is the case with your bad experience, but I wouldnt rule it out either. And yes, unions do make the business atmosphere different here in the north and mid-west.
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