Newsagents ought to consider establishing a rule that unless the business owner or manager signs for an order, the business will not accept responsibility for the order.
All it takes is one representative from a supplier to order something you did not need or want and you can find yourself in a protracted battle to have the stock which ultimately arrives taken back for a credit or dealt with in some other way.
Since most newsagency businesses do not have agreed order approval policy in place, some supplier representatives can easily place product which might otherwise not have been ordered.
It has happened to me and the runaround process to get to the bottom of $400 worth of stock I did not need, did not want and did not order was almost not worth the hassle. So, I am establishing a policy requiring a signature from myself or the store manager otherwise we accept no responsibility for an order.
It’s my money at risk so I have every right to set the terms.
The best approach, of course, is to place orders only through your Point of Sale software. Some suppliers conveniently do not accept this.
Knocked back a massive drink order today. Rep ordered it on my day off. Just told the delivery guy to take it back. Simple.
Great news John. I hope that more newsagents do this. It is our money and the sooner we start treating it as such the sooner we stop suppliers foisting unwanted stock on our newsagencies.
Our card rep was the only supplier to place orders on our behalf, but we put a stop to that a few months ago when we realised the monthly bill was nearly 3x our sales. Now we are taking control of that as well. Now the only supplies left we can’t control with any great certainty are mags.
Find it hard to believe Wendy that a greeting card company would do such a thing…….it is hard to transfer sarcasm to print isnt it???