Supplier - Gone!

One of my suppliers just appeared to vanish the other day, and it irritates me that they chose to simply disconnect their telephone and fax lines. What a classless way to cease doing business. I had taken an order for this lighting company from a customer (and I have quite a lot of floor stock from them), then went to fax it and .....DISCONNECTED! Then I called their land line and that was shut off, too. Oddly enough, I had just rec'd an order from them the prior week, too. On the odd chance that they just didn't pay their phone bill, I send the order in via snail mail, but don't expect much to come of it.

There's a right way to do things and a wrong way. They should have had some decency and let their customers know they can't continue any longer, and wish them well. To simply evaporate and leave everyone in the lurch is just rude and no way to terminate a 20-year business relationship.

I doubt it was their intention to close in such a way. Most suppliers have receivables and closing like that is a good way to make sure you never get paid. My guess is that they held on way too long and got thrown out of their facility and have a mountain of trouble and simply don't have the time - or the customer list - or maybe even the permission - to contact everyone.

But I understand your frustration, its happened to me a few times also. It casts a shadow on your business and its not your fault at all.

One other possibility is that there is an issue with there phone service. It is a long shot, but more and more when people switch phone companies there are issues with dead ends in the network.

Not long ago I changed phone providers (not just long distance, but entire phone service) for my business to a provider that had just layed most of the fiber optic lines in our town. My phone bill was cut in half compared to what I had to pay the big V (Verizon) that had a stranglehold on our area for years. But in the days after, there were a few long distance customers that could not call our number directly. It turns out that they were all Verizon customers from a couple of Virginia counties, and Verizon was dragging their feet updating their system to recognize the new competitor in the area. When those customers would try to call our number they would recieve the old 'check the number' recording. To them it would appear that we were out of business. Phone companies are required by law to recognize new providers, but many times they can be slow to do it.

To be sure, try calling the number with a cell phone, as it will use a different switching path. If it's a routing problem with your landline, you will likely get through. Like I said it is a long shot, but worth trying. If you do get through, give your phone provider a call and let them know that you can't call a number that is active.

I can hope! The phone company message says for both the land and fax lines "The Number you have dialed has been temporarily disconnected." So I sent them a letter which should be there by Monday. If they don't reply be the end of next week, then that will be my answer, I think.

Oh, that changes things. If its "temporarily" disconnected then it probably is a phone co. problem. About every five years we'd get enough water into our exterior connection that it would short the phone lines and since they're so old it would take several service calls to get someone out who knew how to fix it.

Any word if the supplier closed up or just had some temporary issues?

Yes, he replied back after he got my letter. Apparently his phones were down for 4 days and he didn't know it. He said "I thought it was odd there were no calls and no faxes for four days in a row". I was thinking that though his business was probably slow it shouldn't be THAT slow! But he's back up and running now.....

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Originally Posted by drcollie

Yes, he replied back after he got my letter. Apparently his phones were down for 4 days and he didn't know it. He said "I thought it was odd there were no calls and no faxes for four days in a row". I was thinking that though his business was probably slow it shouldn't be THAT slow! But he's back up and running now.....

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Glad he's not gone but yeah 4 days is quite awhile not to notice your phones and data lines are out.