Have You Ever Made a Costly Mistake in Your Business?

[GourmetGirl]

So I made and ordered Vistaprint stuff for everyone in my cluster (they reimbursed me). Well, I got my director's area code wrong on EVERYTHING! Well, we went and ordered everything again, however ordered 2000 business cards with a glossy finish (she's a member of bni). So here's the kicker, somehow the area code was wrong again! :cry: I all of a sudden today had a bad feeling in my gut and checked... So I ordered everything again, with the correct area code and paid for it out of my pocket ($50!). Then I sent her an email apologizing. So now I have that lump in the throat feeling and feel like a total donkey! :cry: :cry: All I can say, is thankgoodness for business write-offs! Please tell me someone else out there has an embarrasing business-related story to make me feel better...

 

[chefjwr]

How the subject--How did you have a $5273 show? I am impressed. Do tell.

 

[katie0128]

Not a PC story, but I did the same thing when I was working for a hospital. I was doing the business side of setting up a new physician's office and had to order EVERYTHING... and I mean EVERYTHING from BP cuffs to an EKG machine to exam tables and ALL of the business office stuff as well. The only thing he had when I started was the physical location - no chairs, desks, paperclips... zip, zlich, nada...
Anyway, with so much ordering I was checking, doublechecking and TRIPLE checking every order. Everything was PERFECT... then we received all of the printed materials (letterhead, business cards, appointment reminder cards, etc.). I had switched the phone number and fax number!!! ALL OF IT had to be reordered and then done as a RUSH job because we needed it immediately!

Fortunately, the MD (who had a great sense of humor and I had already developed a strong environment of trust with) had also looked at and approved the layouts for everything (at my insistance so I didn't "miss" anything), so all of the blame didn't rest on my shoulders, but I still felt like a complete idiot for a LONG time.

There... make you feel better?

 

[Dawn4]

I did the same type of thing. I ordered large post cards from Vista that said something about joining my team. I put a whole bunch of them in the mail and then I realized it said, "the The Pampred Chef." I feel soooooo stupid!!! You know what, we're only human!!!

 

[GourmetGirl]

Thanks Katie and Dawn... i think I need the reminder that we are only human more often... I am too much of a perfectionist!

and Julie, my high show was a fundraiser... unfortunately they cut fundraisers from all sports teams the following year (this year), as they felt that it was the same group of people getting hit up to buy something over and over... dang it!

 

[GourmetGirl]

and I would love more stories... I am really kicking myself about this!

on the up side, it has me totally cleaning (something I have been putting off!)... what can I say, when an OCD perfectionist makes a mistake she wants to make sure that everything else is perfect around her so she can handle the backlash of the mistake...

 

[KellyTheChef]

Alison~

On another positive note...I LOVE YOUR BUSINESS CARDS!!

I have ordered different business cards through Vistaprint a few times...and I am sooooo loving the way you have yours worded and set up!!

(For anyone who is thinking just how the heck I have seen her cards...she is participating in the business card swap that I am "hosting" so I am seeing EVERYONE'S cards!)

Oh...and you are SURE the second time was your mistake? Not sure if I am reading your post correctly....you just had a feeling that you re-ordered them wrong and checked? They haven't even arrived yet?

How come it cost you $50?? Didn't they have any "free" specials right now?

I am soooo sorry that you are experiencing this! I am quite the OCD/perfectionist too, and I can totally relate! Just remember- you are only HUMAN!! I have to remind myself of that quite often!

 

[GourmetGirl]

Kelly... thanks for the encouragement... My new cards actually have my email address and consultant # on them at the same place my website and phone number is (after hearing people's suggestions). Feel free to use them and make them your own! What I actually did was each person in my cluster chose a color (none of us were the same) and made everyone's stuff with their branding (the apron in their color). It looks really cute!

I was able to check, as you can sign into vistaprint and view your orders. You can then click on the item and preview it at a large size.

The reason it was $50 was she ordered 2000 of them ($20) and then she had them made glossy ($16.99). Then you add shipping and voila, $50... I also added all the free stuff that we had ordered before, to help say sorry for the mistake, and it only raised shipping $2, so it was worth it for $300 worth of stuff!

 

[sfdavis918]

Here's my story...

I was the office manager of an orthodontic office at one time. We made up these little forms for the front office to communicate with the back office when someone had an "emergency". We had the forms made up into pads of 100 each. I thought I had ordered 500 pads. Well, I actually ordered 500 boxes with 100 pads each. OMG!!!! Luckily the printer split the difference with us. I never lived that one down for the rest of the 3 years that I worked there! (Thank goodness that job is long forgotten!!)

 

[katie0128]

We are STILL using the post-it notes that a former secretary purchased at work... nearly 5 years ago! And the really sad part... she KNEW she was ordering that many. Apparently, she had a post-it note obsession!

 

[chefann]

This one wasn't me, but it affects me...

There's apparently a custom dress shop here in town that has a phone number similar to mine. And they apparently had invoices printed that transposed numbers in the last 4 digits - making it my number! (We're 0121 and they're 0212.) Every now and then we'll get calls for them. Usually messages, which we just ignore. But there was one customer who called every hour with a long story about how she had bought a dress and needed to return it and the 30-day period was over today but she couldn't take it in because she was an invalid, blah blah blah. Every time, I told her that this was a private residence, and what was the number she was trying to reach? She'd read my number off her paper, and I'd tell her that it was, in fact, my number and therefore not the shop's. She'd hang up and call again an hour later. This went on until MIDNIGHT!!! Why did she think the shop would be open that late? And she didn't think to look in the phone book, either, because when I asked for the name of the store and got her the right number, she was surprised that I could have gotten it from anyplace other than the invoice.

I keep meaning to call over to the shop and ask for Ann, then get all huffy when they say it's a business. (Of course, I'd call from work so the number on caller ID isn't my home number.)

 

[MamaChef]

When hubs and I got married, I had his cousin's (who was our best man) name misspelled in our program. Being that he and his parents lived out of state, I couldn't get them to see it before we printed the programs. But, I double checked the name on something that my MIL had sent me to make sure I had the correct spelling, but her writing tends to be a little extra loopy so her u looked more like an e. Nobody had a problem with it....but I felt like a total bozo...here I am marrying into the family and all, I wanted to "look good". ACK

 

[jenniferknapp]

I designed programs for my uncle's wedding, and thank god the bride proof read them herself, because I spelled her daughter's last name "Brudges" instead of "Bridges" ....so we just didn't say anything, and she never did either, oops! (Oh and we were designing these the night before the wedding, and assembling them the morning of....the bride wasn't sure whether she wanted to do them or not until then...haha)