Wensdy, on Jun 12 2008, 12:21 PM, said:
I was contacted by one of our drywall suppliers that they missed invoicing us in March for purchases. I received this invoice on 5/14/08. Is this legal to state they did not bill me for these old sales orders from March?
There is no way that I could determine if this material was even delivered to the job site. I would know if I paid for the materials, via invoice or order acknowledgement receipts which I keep for tracking purposes of which I got neither from this supplier in March. So, it is their word against nothing I have to prove if it was ever delivered by them.
I have no records from them that this order was approved or called in by me. Normally, they send out order aknowledgements, or confirmation sheets that this had been delivered or ordered of which I have neither.
any business suggesitons on this would be grateful. drywallwendy@nbinternet.com
I am not going to e-mail you but if you come back here you are welcome to my perspective.
This comes down to several dozen more questions, and will take you a little research.
First off, how much dry wall are we talking about here? 2nd, how good of a supplier are we talking about?
If you have a good working relationship it is usually best to trust the people you trust and do not trust the people you do not trust.
that being said, do not screw yourself. Deliveries almost always come with a delivery slip of some kind. there would have to be a piece of paper that someone had to see to be sure the inventory was correct.
for there to be no records anywhere is a little crazy.
you could look into the breaks in the chain. I am sure their warehouse has some kind of tracking system. I am sure their drivers have some kind of procedure, and I am sure your construction managers have some kind of tracking system.
either someone on your site noticed they all of a sudden had much more dry wall then they thought (how could it go un noticed) or someone has a ticket for the delivery.
another thing is that you can do a quick audit on all of your dry wall suppliers. I am sure you know what is on your site(s) and you know what you needed to do the work you did during the timeframe in question. Find out what you have records for and then see if there is any differences. If this is a significant delivery that was missed it will become obvious either in its presence or in its absence.
and in the end, it all can come down to lawyers. I am not familiar with MN law, but in NY the safest bet is usually to get lawyer up ASAP.
but on the other side, you do not want a lein on the property at the end of it all over a few thousand bucks not to mention the bad rep among suppliers and the burned bridge with this company. Protect yourself, but do not screw your future.
In my expreience if you do some leg work like I said as far as the Audit of your supplies vs known legitimate deliveries you will find out if it is a good bill. If it is a good bill you should pay it. If you are in the business of screwing over a supplier you will screw yourself right out of business.
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