Freight Forwarder in Chicago flunks y2k "Remediation."

A freight forwarder i use rolled back their computers to 1997 and reused by rewriting over old invoice/shipment numbers.

When we required them to fax us copies of shipment info, they could not comply saying that they no longer can make hardcopies of anything in the computer.

Jokingly suggested that they have a y2k problem, they angrily denied it had anything to do with y2k.

They just lost my business!

(Don't ask for a url. This is a real life situation that we experienced first hand)

-- Sandwich (anon@anon.anon), December 22, 1999

Answers

"They just lost my business"

Bingo! Am I right in saying that's the first first-hand supply problem that's been posted here?

Why do you think they're angry? Angry as in defensive? Defensive as in scared?

Hope you can find a better alternative...

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.

My feeling is that the operations manager was angry due to the fact that we "guessed" correctly what the cause was probably after being warned and threatened by her boss not to mention the reason.

She didn't think that letting us know they are on "1997 time" would be picked up immediately as a y2k remediation trick.

There are hundreds of small to medium sized freight forwarders around chicago and most of them would not be able to afford full-scale remediation and testing.

The error-rate in that industry is fairly high (around 20% or more) but most of it is hidden and extra charges passed to the customer. Most employees operate mechanically and if any hideable trouble occurs, the S.O.P. is to sweep it under the rug.

-- Sandwich (anon@anon.anon), December 22, 1999.