Buyer missed one option and got 1% of the cable they needed

Every Monday morning The Register kicks off proceedings by asking the same question – “Who, Me?” – the title of the reader-contributed column in which you share your tales of the occasions on which you didn’t quite nail the brief yet somehow found career relief.

This week, meet a reader we’ll Regomize as “Terry” who told us that in the 1970s he worked for a defense-related company.

“I needed 100 meters of RG8 50 ohm coax cable, so ordered it from an ‘accredited’ supplier,” he wrote. “What I didn’t notice was that there was an option for ‘partial delivery’."

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Terry’s order duly arrived, all one meter of it – plus paperwork explaining that the other 99 meters would be along presently, thanks to the partial delivery option.

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“Needless to say, the one meter was not enough to span the distance between the two laboratories I was trying to link with an RF connection,” Terry wrote.

Offering the partial delivery option cost the supplier their accreditation.

Terry later learned that a junior employer at the cable supplier was sacked over the matter, after admitting he thought sending one meter of cable was a jolly jape.

“I did not think it was a joke at the time,” Terry wrote.

Have you made a procurement error that ended up costing you, or your supplier? If so, don’t short-change your fellow readers! Instead, click here to share your story with Who, Me? Our mailbag is a little short on stories, so contributions of any length are very welcome. ®