What the heck?!

okay, this happened at work.
I’ve never lost my patience at someone over the phone this badly..EVER..
The woman in question ( a Senior Procurement Executive ) really made my blood boil!

let me first set the scene..

for those who don’t know, I work in a metal fabricating company..and all emails are handled by me (we’re a tiny company)

7th Dec.
We received a request for quotation for some plates.
I noticed that the requirements for Item 2 of her request was odd, as the person was basically requesting for untreated plates that will be prone to rust!
Since there were no further instructions, plus the other 2 items were to be painted, it was decided that we should ignore the weird request and painting was quoted for all 3 items.

14th Dec.
Another request for quotation was received.
The requirements were similar to 7th Dec email so I decided to inform the Senior Procurement Executive that if the plate she required didn't need any painting, they will rust, thus suggesting an alternative material – zinc.

Later that morning, she wrote back, telling us to go ahead to quote for zinc.

Since the requirements were so similar to the 7th Dec request (ie. potentially rusty plate with no painting) , I decided to notify the Senior Procurement Executive that we quoted spray painting for Item 2 and wanted to double check if there is a need to revise the quote so that the alternative material – zinc will be used.

After that email was sent, she called back. I wasn’t the one who picked up the call but apparently she was complaining that she didn’t know what we were talking about.

So I decided to write her a clearer email, attaching whatever related documents and highlighting important points.

She called soon after. WITH THE SAME COMPLAINT.

By then we were really clueless. None of us knew why she didn’t understand the email.

So I called her back.

Tried to tell her about the email but before I could explain myself, she cut me off!
She kept telling me she didn’t want to hear about it.

??????????????????????????????????????????????

Basically, she didn’t want to know or hear about anything other than the pricing of her 14 Dec email.

So I tried to tell her that this is a separate issue.
That this was to do with the pricing for her 7 Dec request.

She cut me off again.

I actually had to ask her if she understood me.

Everytime I tried to explain the issue from start, she’ll cut me off.

She went on to challenged me by asking if I have a Purchase Order number and since I didn’t, there was no point talking about it.

What the heck?!
So you’ll only be concerned with pricing and requirements after you’ve issued an order to a vendor? Wouldn’t it be too late by then if any detail was wrong?

-_-!

I told her we were just being helpful and you know what her response to that was?

“I never ask you what? I only ask you about today’s (14 Dec) quote then you say all this for what?”

best lor.
This woman. This SENIOR PROCUREMENT EXECUTIVE.

I raise an issue and I get shot down for being helpful.

I never got a good vibe from her although that phone call was the first time I interacted with her.
Everytime she sends us an email for quotation, she ALWAYS drafts her emails like this –

Kindly send your quotation using your company letterhead…

Honestly, if we don’t use our company letterhead, what else can we use?
I mean WHY would we even use any other paper?

And she NEVER fails to mention that..that I really don’t understand.

Ergh..

I never want to deal with her again.