This company was in Virginia and just moved to Arizona in the past few months. Unsolicited phone call to our office assistant who has (had) authority to order up to $500 in office supplies. Caller identified herself as SIDNEY MADISON, told our OA that she had great deals on close out office supplies.
For example, Pentel RSVP ink pens for $1.49 per dozen, 3/4" 3M Frosted Scotch Tape at $2.29 per dozen and many other items at very low prices. When the invoice for the order arrived, every item on it had been billed individually at the quoted per dozen price. For example, the Pentel pens were $1.49 each or $17.88 per dozen. The total bill came to over $6,100! A call to the company phone number was answered by an answering machine that instructed the caller to leave his name, phone number and the invoice number being called about.
The call was returned later the same day by a woman named PATRICIA NELSON, who claimed to be the Comptroller of the company. She said that if my Office Assistant had claimed that she was given a per dozen price then that's what should have been billed. With little or no discussion she immediately agreed to reissue the invoice, this time at the correct pricing.
What this tells me is that this is standard operating proceedure for this company. They inflate the bill and then hope that it gets through the Accounting Department without being caught. Their per piece price is high, but not out of line if it was from a mom and pop office supply store. Obviously they are trying to generate high volume sales, hoping that no one questions the prices or quantities purchased. They did reduce my bill, but I'm still mad as hell about what they've done.
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