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Companies will often bend over backwards to help a customer with an urgent order, but if it backfires on them, that courtesy will end fast.

That is what happened in this story, where the company normally guaranteed a 12-week lead time for a specialized product, but years of experience allowed them to deliver most orders much faster. When one customer found itself in a bind and needed parts immediately, the team offered a creative workaround that got the customer what it needed right away.

Everyone involved seemed happy with the arrangement, but then the company filed a bad review on a public forum about the interaction.

Management reviewed the paperwork, confirmed the team had done nothing wrong, and decided that if the customer wanted strict compliance with the contract, that was exactly what they would get.

What happened next left the customer waiting the full 12 weeks for every future order, even when the products were finished months earlier.

Ask us to do you a favor and then complain? We can work to rule.

I (F33) used to work for a company that, among other things, made a particular product that was sold in reasonable quantities to a number of customers.

Having a predictable manufacturing schedule can be really helpful for a company.

These products were quite large and expensive, but had a (relatively) short service life, so there was a predictable trend to when customers would order replacements.

Let’s call the customers in this anecdote Lombard and Orange. The products for each company were slightly different, so we had to change some tooling and machining processes when swapping between the two.

All very reasonable so far.

Furthermore, as part of the manufacturing process, we painted the products. Orange’s were, unsurprisingly, orange but Lombard requested we left the products unpainted.

This was due to some form of copyright issue with their paint swatch, but it wasn’t a big deal as they were happy to paint the products themselves.

This seems like a minor issue.

Lombard was a larger company than Orange, and their orders used to outweigh Orange nearly 2:1. The product lifecycle was well-established at this point, so we knew roughly when orders would be placed, and could tailor manufacturing to suit.

We had a minor issue when Lombard placed an order on behalf of a subsidiary company they were starting up – it wasn’t anybody’s fault in particular, but the subsidiary company wanted products painted yellow, whereas the first few batches we completed were accidentally left unpainted, assuming it was a Lombard order.

They came up with a smart way to handle it, and it should work out really well.

Because of the way the products were made, we didn’t have the ability to paint them once fully assembled, so we just left them in storage pre-empting another Lombard order, and re-made the products for Lombard Jr. No problems.

Orange got in touch one day, and said they had an issue where they’d got their paperwork wrong or something, and urgently needed a (smaller) batch of products as soon as possible.

Hopefully, they can figure out a way to meet their needs.

Our contracted lead time for the product was 12 weeks; however because the contracts were so mature, we could generally get that down to about 4 weeks (as we’d start manufacturing ahead of an official order being placed).

This particular issue with Orange came up whilst we were in the middle of manufacturing components for Lombard, so we didn’t have an easy way to stop production and switch to the Orange tooling.

I would think these would both be good options to consider.

We gave Orange two options. Option one was to pay a 33% premium and we would start manufacturing straight away, which would technically take 12 weeks but realistically would be about 6 weeks.

Option two was to take from the unpainted Lombard stock we’d previously made at the normal price, available immediately, but we would also supply the add-on bits (at a minimal cost) that they would have to swap themselves, and then paint if they wanted to.

Let’s see how this situation goes wrong.

Orange took option two. No issues so far, we still had a small amount of Lombard stock left and Orange were happy to sort out the extra work from their side. Everybody wins, right?

Well, that’s what we all thought. A short while later, our senior management organized a conference with us. We turn up for this conference, expecting to be congratulated for appeasing a customer in a tricky spot, or at least given some form of acknowledgement for reducing stock.

But that is what they asked for.

Instead, we were given a dressing down because the seniors from Orange had complained to our management that the last order they received was wrong, and wasn’t in their colours.

They’d written as such in their official customer satisfaction reports, which were open across the industry as part of ethical practices.

Oh wow, this could really hurt their business.

So, any company that wanted to order from us would now be able to see that Orange had received unpainted products in the wrong configuration.

To say we were mad would be an understatement. The general feeling was quiet, simmering rage – the kind where you know everybody is absolutely livid, and wholly displeased at what should have been a positive outcome.

Good. The management team understands the situation.

The management listened to the explanation and took notes of the screenshots we shared (of emails agreeing to taking the Lombard order).

They sympathised with us and confirmed we’d done nothing wrong, even going as far as to say that they knew this particular process worked well and had therefore left us alone, so they were surprised to hear of an issue.

What will the management team come up with for revenge?

Technically yes, we were breaking our contract by supplying non-conforming parts, but as this was a rush order, they (our management) appreciated we’d done our best to help Orange, even if they threw it back in our faces.

It was actually our management’s idea for malicious compliance – going forward, everything ordered by Orange would be 100% to specification. Including lead time.

This will be too funny.

They told us to keep doing what we were doing, but instead of sending orders to Orange, send them to our warehouse down the road. They could hang onto them until the 12 week deadline and then deliver them on the last day possible.

Once we got back to our facility, we had a surprise message from our foreman.

At least this company is still thrilled with its service.

Whilst we were at this conference, Lombard’s management had got in touch with our management to reiterate that they were very happy customers, as reflected by their customer satisfaction reports, and that the team (us) were a pleasure to work with.

I assume this was to try and prevent any changes to the process, which was working well for Lombard, but we were very grateful nonetheless.

The company has to put

Our management, who hadn’t seen the message until they got back themselves, forwarded it to us as well the next day.

Anyway, now maliciously compliant, we got back to work. Nice and friendly with Lombard, our regular calls being a pleasant mix of social and business.

If Orange wants to complain, they can forget the kindness.

Whereas with Orange, we didn’t even bother replying to “How are you?” type questions. Strictly business, strictly professional, no flim-flam.

A few weeks go by and Orange place their usual order. Of course, they’d told us in the weeks leading up that they’d be doing so, but we just said “we’ll wait for the official order”.

I hope Orange doesn’t expect special treatment anymore.

This timeframe coincided with Lombard letting us know they wouldn’t be ordering for another few months, with their subsidiary following a similar timescale.

So, we got the Orange order complete sooner than expected and sent to the warehouse, 2 weeks into the 12 week lead time.

I’m sure the team at Orange is expecting things to continue as normal.

Remember I said we could normally complete orders in about 3 weeks? In week 3, Orange asked when they could expect to receive their order.

We told them the lead time was 12 weeks. “Of course”, says the guy from Orange, “but you know that’s just what the contract says. When can you actually get those parts to us?”

This is the type of service you get when you betray that trust.

“12 weeks from the order date.” was the response.

Week 4, Orange had got back in touch to say they were getting close to their limit with their original units, so they needed the replacements as soon as possible. Once again, the reply was that the lead time was 12 weeks.

Week 5 and Orange were getting desperate. They asked if we could focus all attention on getting their units manufactured, to which our reply was a curt “production is scheduled to complete on [week 12] as per the contract.”

A similar conversation occurred in week 6 and twice in week 7.

Their production schedule is not a concern.

Week 8, and Orange had said their original units were expiring this week, so if we could not deliver this week then they would be taking their equipment out of service, as they don’t work without this particular product.

There was more than a little glee in my fingers when I replied, “production is on track to complete in [week 12], we are confident in meeting our contracted delivery date.”

They really did everything possible to deliver at the last minute.

The subsequent weeks go by with more chasers from Orange, with the lorry finally delivering the components to Orange at 16:56 on the day of the 12-week deadline.

One of the factory guys who had a commercial driving licence had volunteered to drive the lorry and was happily sending us images of him sat at a café near the Orange facility an hour before he had planned to finish the delivery.

Maybe they will think twice about making unfounded complaints in the future.

The following week, I’m made aware of another meeting with our senior management. Unsurprisingly, Orange have complained, so the management want to get copies of all of our paperwork to show we’ve adhered to our contract.

The management also let me know that Orange had ended up taking one of their largest products out of service for three weeks, which would have cost them an easy 6 figures in lost revenue.

What exactly were they going to complain about?

I wasn’t present at the seniors meeting but apparently, Orange were preparing to go to the press, but deflated “immediately and visibly” when our management passed a copy of the contract under their nose, with the pertinent points highlighted.

A 12 week lead time was agreed contractually, the product had been delivered within that 12 weeks, so any and all issues were nothing to do with our company, as we had performed 100% to our agreed deliverables.

Good, now they know exactly why this is happening.

Our management also noted that one of our legal team was present to take notes, should any defamatory statements be made to the media.

Orange had no angle where they could make us look like we’d failed – and our management reiterated that after the issue surrounding the rush order and subsequent public complaint, this is how we would be conducting business in future.

It is even better that they now know the products were ready well ahead of schedule.

On a side note, after the meeting one of the Orange team studied the paperwork we’d given them a copy of, which included inspection reports for the units.

He was quite upset when he noticed they were dated 10 weeks prior to delivery – so realistically they could have had them in week 2.

I’m honestly surprised that the management team from Orange didn’t apologize and try to get things back to normal. Or at least find another vendor.

This was raised off the record in one of our weekly meetings (without senior management), to which we smiled and reminded Orange of the 12 week lead time.

I worked at that company for nearly another 2 years. It became standard practice to send Orange units to our warehouse, where they’d then be delivered in the 12th week.

Everything is working out well in the long run.

Lombard and their subsidiary continued to receive their units as fast as we could make them. When I left, this was still the case. Orange had to continue to order 12 weeks in advance, which soon became the norm.

Customer satisfaction scores remained average for Orange, but with Lombard Jr now established and ordering enough to qualify for public customer satisfaction scores, their glowing review easily offset the average one from Orange.

I’m honestly surprised that the company did this since it could have cost them a valuable customer. Maybe they know that they are the only ones who can make the products that Orange needs. Either way, it was a very satisfying story.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a hardware store employee who lost his cool with customers wandering around after closing time.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

Senior management handled this well.

While he doesn’t say, I assume that they would go back to normal.

Ok, this is pretty funny.

This person has one small suggestion.

This person works in the same industry and loves the story.

What did the Orange company get out of filing that negative review? They were the ones who picked the option to get the unpainted products. If that isn’t what they wanted, they could have just paid the extra cost to get the proper products made faster.

They weren’t worried about how the negative review would impact this company, and it ended up backfiring on them big time. I’m honestly surprised that they didn’t offer to take down the review or otherwise apologize to get the better service back in place.