It’s always funny when the biggest “system failure” turns out to be something completely different.

So, what would you do if a major automotive customer accused your company of sending incorrect part numbers and dragged your whole team into a heated meeting? Would you assume the software was glitching? Or would you dig deeper until you found a tiny detail that everyone else missed?

In the following story, one tech support employee ends up in this exact situation and finds the problem. Here’s how it all played out.

Part numbers

This was not my doing, but it became my problem.

I was tech support for an automotive part manufacturer. My company manufactured both OEM and aftermarket auto parts for dealers.

They were the same physical part, just some went directly to the factory, and some went to the company’s dealer, repair, or part distribution. Two different orders and two different shipments.

The customer claimed they were receiving incorrect data.

Anyone dealing with automotive knows that it is heavily EDI-based, which is where I came in.

When an order was shipped, an EDI notice had to be sent within 30 minutes. The software was on an old PC in shipping with a 56k modem on a dedicated phone line. Any hiccup and I’d get called.

Then we received a complaint from the customer: we were sending incorrect data. I checked the transmission logs, and all looked good. But it wasn’t 100%, and eventually it came out that it was only the repair parts orders.

Eventually, the customer demanded we attend a meeting in their Detroit offices. So, to Detroit we went: IT, Production, Shipping, Sales.

Then, he found the problem.

After 45 minutes of getting yelled at, roasted, threatened, etc., they said we were sending bad part numbers.

Huh? I pulled out the logs.

See, here is a production order Part# 1234567-10075; And here is a repair order Part# 1234567-10075 (they were the same part).

Yes, they are the Same Physical Part, but the number is wrong for the repair part – See manf is 10075 and repair is 1oo75

So, some brainchild in one of the Big 3 decided it was a good idea to use the letter “O” instead of a zero in their part numbers… try getting that idea through to third-shift shipping clerks.

Wow! What a great idea!

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit have to say about it.

They sure did!

An in-house system is probably better.

That doesn’t sound good.

This is the worst!

That was a waste of time.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.