We are a restaurant andone day received a box with paper rolls for retail printers from Redwood Paperand 2 weeks after that an invoice for $258.50. I, the general manager forthis business asked my managers if anyone had order such items since Im theonly buyer and I use POs for this sort of things; all of them said no but oneof them mentioned a phone call where he was asked to confirm our address forshipping an item that had been previously ordered. I suspected a scam and proceeded to callRedwood Paper to the phone number on the invoice and I only got an answeringmachine every time I called. I never gota reply to my messages. Two months later, we get a phone call from Stacey, who made sure to tell me she was the owner ofRedwood Paper demanding payment for the shipped goods. I told her that we have never ordered suchitems from her or her company and immediately she got belligerent and raisedher voice which under the circumstances was amusing since you get more flieswith honey than with sh*% and after all, she was trying to sell me something orcollect payment. I told Stacy that she was running a scam and again raised hervoice, threaten me and acted condescending. I comely explain to her that no one but me was authorized to purchasesuch good and she immediately told me that my manager had told her he was theauthorized buyer which I know it could not be true since we have been workingtogether for 6 years and questioned in depth about his conversation with her; Imean word by word. Stacey proceeded totell me that she had a recording were my manager says he is the authorizedbuyer?! I thought it was interestingthat she had a recording of such conversation and I asked if she had warned mymanager that the conversation was being recorded because it is illegal to do sowithout the consent of all the parties involved and she said yes, I told him. At this point and to finish a senselessargument, I told her that if she played the recording and my manager had saidhe was the authorized buyer I would fire him and paid for the paper. She produced the recording within a couple ofminutes and I could hear my manager saying our address and But Im notauthorized to purchase anything, so do not put my name on the invoice incidentally, there was never mention that the conversation was being recorder. Stacey told me after she played the tape thatHer attorney told her the tape would stand in court I laughed and, again, found interesting that she had already consulted with her attorney about suchconversation since the invoice in question was only 2 months old. Stacey again raised her voice and at thispoint I told her that she should learn to do business ethically and legally andhung up on her. If she sends me apre-paid return label, I will return the merchandise. I do see why we need to pay to return thismaterial. This whole incident botheredme so I began to investigate and this is what I found out: The labor law, at least inCalifornia, states that the seller must insure that the order came from theauthorized buyer for the company and this is the reason why Stacey was so hotabout convincing me that my manager had said he was the authorized buyer andthis is the reason for the recording and the manipulative talk. Train your managers anduse POs because there are plenty of imbeciles out there running similar scams. I hope you found this posting helpful andamusing.
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