It really is no big deal

Jan. 1, 2020
Have you ever noticed how it's never a 'big deal' when whatever it is that's happening around you really doesn't have anything to do with you?

Have you ever noticed how it's never a 'big deal' when whatever it is that's happening around you really doesn't have anything to do with you?

Have you ever noticed that there really isn't anything to worry about when the world is crashing down on someone else's shoulders, especially if you aren't standing too close?

It's easy to be a magnanimous, to remain calm and to ignore the chaos and the confrontation when you're not a passenger on the train that is just about to fly off the tracks!

It’s often no big deal to others if your time is wasted — if you get sent on a wild goose chase for apparently no good reason at all because of a supposed miscommunication. Miscommunication?

Miscommunication is what happens when the server brings my eggs scrambled instead of over easy. It isn't what's supposed to happen when you send someone off-site on a 22 mile adventure only to find out the part that "missed" the last scheduled delivery truck of the day — the only part holding up a fairly large job promised for that evening — is no longer at the warehouse, but had been sent out on the next truck, which wasn't supposed to go out until tomorrow morning.

I know — I should be grateful we were able to get the part at all. Sure, I'm aware of both the cost and the difficulty involved in stocking everything for everybody and everything. I know, perhaps better than anyone else in my industry, just how much additional expense finds its way into the cost of a part because of the vehicle owner's insatiable need to have that vehicle serviced, maintained, repaired and returned the same day! But, I'm not sure that's the point.

The part was in stock just waiting for someone to whisk by and snatch it off the shelf. It was yearning to find it's way on to a pick-ticket, into a truck and across the valley to our shop. The issue is one hand not having a clue what the other hand is doing. The point is doing the backstroke in a sea of misinformation.

I've been around a while and this is not my first rodeo. I understand deadlines and scheduled delivery. If you can't get the part I need to me tonight, I can live with that. If I can’t and it means putting a driver in a car and pointing him at your warehouse — he's on his way... it's just that simple!

I was told I missed the last truck of the day, and I responded by saying, “Put the part on will call, I’m sending a driver for it right now.” What I don’ understand is then having my driver call me 30 minutes later to let me know the part had already been sent out on a subsequent — evidently, secret  — delivery run.

I knew how expensive delivery was before this happened: 44 miles round trip, fuel, traffic, wages, insurance, benefits, wear and tear on the vehicle — you know the drill.

What I'm having trouble with is a lack of communication that always seems to leave us — people like me, people who do what I do — bleeding. That, and the kind of cavalier reaction that generally occurs when it does happen, the kind of cavalier attitude and rhetoric that forces you to wonder if anyone really gives a damn, the kind of response that questions just how big a deal whatever just happened really is.

Well, for the record, it really is a big deal, especially to me and shop owners like me. It is big enough a deal for me to make second calls first calls and vice versa.

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