Typically when I do a new post I read it, spot all the typos, think meh, and see what wordpress suggests as the bottom as three related posts and read them too.
In this way sooner or later I re-read the entire content, and it is a content that now spans some 5 plus years, which is a fair chunk out of anyone’s life, a fair enough chunk to see some changes in life and in the world.
Yet, I’m not reading any of the old stuff and seeing any needed changes in what was written, I’m not doing some manic depressive thing and reading it and thinking wow I was in a dark place back then thank fuck I am in the light now.
But I can see the changes in me, in life, in the world, in the intervening period, and none of them make me want to edit what was written, in fact, the opposite.
With stories of 5 year olds being arrested in kindergartens for “sex crimes” to stories of top police staying that there are so many paedos there isn’t room to jail them all so we need to go softer on sentencing, well, yes, when taking a piss in public can get you a sex crime conviction, it seems that the only errors the me of 2011 made were in my expectations of how far the doubling down and rot would set it before the pendulum started to slow down the swing.
If anything, it is still accelerating.
In other suitably anonymised news, someone at a large and well known german company obviously did a google search for laser companies, because I got an RFQ (request for quote) to cut some 40,000 parts from polycarbonate, so quite apart from the rubbing hands with glee and counting all the money that could be earned, I wrote back to them saying very sorry, but YOUR terms that you only pay 60 days after the month the bill lands in, and MY terms that you pay cash with order, are mutually exclusive.
Some one here commented that it was a shame, quarter of a million quid order, shame to just let it pass you by, my reply was yes, also a shame to see what we saw yesterday, another local-ish laser sign company who had to give their laser to the local plastic / acrylic / polycarbonate supplier, because they could not pay their bill.
Now, remind me, what can this huge german company or the other local-ish laser company can teach me about running a business or financial management?
Hmmmmmmm, was the response, yes, I take your point.
My point is what sort of moronic cunt is so desperate for work and turnover that they in effect decide to finance a multinational for 60 days? What sort of moronic cunt in the multinational’s finance office thinks imposing 60 day terms on suppliers is any way to do anything except get shafted by suppliers on quality and everything else?
Way way way back in time when I was working in IT and running a small web hosting business, I met one of the top dogs at Boo, they were burning through hundreds of thousands in cash and swigging pink gins and expensive London venues, meanwhile I was struggling with bandwidth costs, and this asswipe decides to talk down to me as “the little man playing at being an IT industry heavyweight” there was a lull in the conversation and a very annoyed me said “Maybe sunshine, but I’ll still be trading long after you’ve fucking gone bust” of course little did I know at that time just how prophetic my statement was.
I as a lightweight wannabe just could not see how their numbers added up in a business sense, it just did not make sense.
Nor did Freeserve come to that, and they went the way of the dinosaur too.
Ain’t nothing in the world for free, so if one party in a deal is getting 60+ days interest free credit from the other party, then the costs of that interest free credit deal do not vanish into thin air, *someone* is carrying the costs, and if you cannot quickly and easily see where that is, then the chances are it’s a well fucked up deal that you should be running away from.
“losing” a contract like this is like “losing” the pleasure of the company of my psycho skank ho ex, it ain’t a fucking bad thing.
So you see the obvious parallels between the fucking delusional psycho skank ho’s out there, and the fucking delusional management types out there, they both appear to think that dealing with their shit is an honour that people will be fucking queuing up for.
I don’t fucking think so.
And this company, well, if I asked you to write down the top 5 german industrial conglomerates, you’d be naming them, and if you are a german (or a turk or a rapefugee) living in any of the major german cities you will be able to look up and see these things everywhere incorporated into street furniture.
Because clearly a german company has to go to the brexit-land UK office / subsidiary to find such exotic things, nobody in germany can do laser cutting, or maybe nobody in germany wants to work for the bastards on 60+ days credit either…lol
By the way, from the documentation I can see this project is running a year late anyway.
So, I have taken great pains to talk about a thing in sufficient detail to make it meaningful, while adhering to both the spirit and the letter of the NDA that comes on the end of the RFQ, because it would be *wrong* to single out just this one huge german company or just this one contract, it is *every* fucking huge german company, every fucking huge company everywhere, they are all the fucking same.
And if we are going to lament at the dismal prospect of a future for families and children based upon the prevalence and attitudes of the modern western entitlement psycho skank ho, we *must* also lament at the dire prospects for any kind of western economic future based upon the prevalence of attitudes of the modern western huge companies.
We’re fucked.
I’m speaking as an engineer, and I reckon that despite the “cut every corner that is not specified to the tenth decimal place” attitudes and the whole economic question of outsourcing shit half a world away, I’d consider chinese companies long before I’d consider german companies to build a new nuclear power station, which is why…
… is so fucking hilarious.
Who the fuck else are you going to get to build it?
Seriously.
I cannot overemphasize the PLUS in “60+ days of credit”, these fuckers seem to think money just pops out of nothing (which for them it does) and paying for goods delivered is for loosers.
Even worse, that attitude has spread to middle class companies too.
It´s what drove my pal out of business and back into slave-wagedom to keep supporting his family, fuckers just wouldn´t pay.
Comment by hans — August 9, 2016 @ 11:51 am
Yup, when you’ve had the goods for two plus months, no rush to pay the supplier at all.
One of the reasons when I set up this business, golden rule #1 was “cash with order”
Comment by wimminz — August 9, 2016 @ 11:55 am
BTW, I like your blog, reading and learning, and the engineering point of view. Put another way most of your posts are about the elites running down, asset stripping existing infrastructure, physical or social. If you know the Bain Capital’s Matrix, that means that they consider the UK etc “dog” economies, with some parts “cash cows”. Good for liquidation. Eventually even the south east will be liquidated like the north was when the inflow of debt money ends.
As to payment terms, In some other european even banana republics big companies pay at six months days plus, and the government at 1-2 years plus, and that’s more or less check kiting on a big scale. But can justify a big bonus for the treasurer of a big corporate to squeeze suppliers and make payables a profit centre. Plus called “factoring” companies spring up, that buy your invoices at a discount and pay (end of month), for a not small cut, and this has been going on for decades.
But “cash with order” if 100% is a bit harsh, unless you have a lot of reputation. Depending on job duration I used to ask 33-50% cash with order, rest at delivery.
Comment by thesqueezed — August 10, 2016 @ 10:11 pm
If it involves any kind of materials it’s 100% cash with order.
if the customer supplies materials it’s 100% cash on collection.
I have *one* exception, my first customer, he bungs me a check for the last job when I deliver the next, and he supplies his own materials, most I’m even outstanding with him is £150 and he is a very regular and very good customer.
“cash” to me = cash money or cleared funds in my bank, nothing else.
I think my posts are about the decay of society and industry as a whole, but whatever you see in it, that’s cool with me.. .;*)
Comment by wimminz — August 10, 2016 @ 10:32 pm