Question of the Day

By Michael C. Dennis

QUESTION:? Recently, my employer finally convinced a big box retailer (I won’t mention which one) to carry our seasonal products.? The first few sales went well but now we have a problem.? ?When I contacted them to ask about payment for the last shipment of the season (and when I was finally able to speak to a human being), I was told they did not pay the invoice because the contract we signed said (in summary):?

If we have excess inventory of your products, we can either (a) take an extra 90 days to pay you, OR (b) return the goods to you, at your expense, for a full refund.

The problem is that this language was buried in Appendix 3 to the contract.? Apparently, no one here read (or perhaps understood) the implications of signing a contract containing this language.?

My question is this:? What do we do now?

ANSWER:? Ask senior management which of these options you would like to ASK the customer to accept.? Why ASK?? Because my guess is that the customer has the OPTION of choosing A or B.?? No matter what happens, this is not a YOU problem.