the_new_scum

The capsule version is that I now work in the warranty dept at my company. Our stockists carry out warranty work and then put in a claim with us to get paid for it. It's a good idea to check with us beforehand to make sure we're actually going to pay it though, just incase you put in a claim only to find we can prove it shouldn't have been covered anyway because the customer is an idiot who cant look after their stuff.

One of our distributors has a reputation for just doing the work and then sending in an invoice without any kind of notice beforehand. They will also completely exaggerate how much work was actually involved to get more money. The long and the short of it is that a lot of their claims have built up over the past 3 years or so and havent been paid. I have now had to make a fucking spreadsheet with details of all of their claims, have to go through them all individually checking them out because the majority arent even justified, let alone reasonable. Theyre shouting at their account manager that we owe them 6000. I'd be surprised if it turned out to be more than 1000.

The kicker is that their account manager (our employee) is fairly new to this game and doesnt quite seem to get that theyre taking the piss with a lot of claims. I'm now getting hassled about why its taking so long to process this outstanding stuff. Well, the reason for that is that individually going through over 100 claims and getting the details, and then trying to convince the factory to pay out on a 3 year old claim without any kind of evidence isn't really very easy. I'm chipping into it but unless I devote all of my time to it and start ignoring the phones it's unlikely it'll be done anytime soon.

I shouldnt have somebody who's quite well paid within the company asking, without a hint of irony, why we can't just send this distributor the 6000 they claim we owe them.