I read the story of an inadequate customer who wanted to get the goods at prices ten years ago, and remembered his youth. We had a small candlestick factory... well, not candlestick, a factory, in fact, an anchor, for the production of paints. For the production of banal pentaphthalene enamel, a pearl mill and components are needed, in fact, from the cost of components and equipment depreciation, a lion's share of the cost of the final product is formed. Conversation with a client, a young female voice:
Q (first phrase): Color is needed, PF, but cheaper?
I: Yes, not the question, but the minimum batch will be from 1 ton, and the enamel will not be according to GOST but according to TU.
Q: Why a ton?
I: Well you want to get a bad paint, so I will need you to run a line on making a bad paint, the minimum load of the line is ton.
Q: I don’t want a bad one, I need a guest with a certificate.
I: Yes, no question, minimum tar 50 kg, price on price, no discount.
Q: I need 2 kg of PF-837.
Here I was slightly sluggish, the client did not say a word that he needed the 837a, the most moving 115 and 266. We are ready to make 837, but order from ton, and if with a certificate, then a minimum period of 3 weeks, and the cost +10% to the price. I explain this to the clown.
Q: But I only need 2 kg, I need to paint the door.
I scare even more, because 837 is benzo and heat-resistant enamel, and 2 kg is definitely not enough for the gate (in two layers, at the expense of 80, and de facto 100 grams per square is just ten squares), and in general, it is a gateway to hell what if they have to hold up to 300 degrees? But the customer is crying, and says that nowhere can get 2 kg of this enamel, which is true, at that time such paints were not sold in retail.
Help me, very, very much needed.
Please hang on the line, I call the warehouse, the neighboring hangar with the hangar-factory, I ask if there is at least one barrel from 837. I found out that there is a barrel with 30-40 kg of base, left of some long-standing order, it would be necessary to mix it, and then it will go well.
I: Let’s come to the office (time between hangars) at... an hour after two.
The girl forgets to ask for the bill and apparently already runs to the car. I give the command to shake the barrel, find two pots for samples under the enamel, and a bowl under the powder, fill it and deliver it to me. I pack in a bag, because the banks are dirty to impossibility.
A beautiful girl who is 18 years old. I politely wonder if she knows how to use this paint, with horror I understand that the girl is going to paint something herself, it seemed to me, I give instructions, I understand that everything is useless, I breathe, and I give banks. I didn’t take the money, I didn’t raise my hand. Then I realized that there was clearly more silver than needed, I told the workers two banks of enamel and a bowl of powder, they were filled with souls, and I didn’t have the girl’s phone, to warn that less than a third of the banks needed to be filled. I breathe.
This would have ended if the maiden, already accompanied by a solid uncle, did not appear in the office without a call.
Uncle stretches the business card, a company for the manufacture of metal products, and on the go offers to conclude a contract for the supply of 30 tons of all kinds of enamels and soils, from PF and to CO and EF. It was our biggest contract that year. Then Uncle split up, he gave his youngest trainee a task to find 837, and we were the only ones who did not send a young girl with her 2 kg, and they did not get scratched, just gave a little bit, said that he often helps, that for his office a little bit, then for some kindergarten to solve the problem with street slopes and slopes.