I’ve come to loath corporate supply/purchasing departments.

First there’s the whole budget process…  It’s great that they give you that big ole pot o’ money for you to spend… Of course with the caveat that if you don’t spend it all as quickly as they want you to then the money is going to get taken away…  And then since you obviously (to them at least) don’t need all the money that they’re giving you, next year that pot of money is going to be smaller…  Heaven forbid you carry ANY money over into the next fiscal year!

You know, I understand that it could be taken as a sign of inefficiency to not spend all the money in your budget, but maybe, just maybe, you need to purchase something that is so expensive and will take such a huge chunk of your budget that you need to spread the payment across your fiscal years, no that’s just inconceivable….

 Then there’s the purchasing process itself.  How hard is it for the purchasing person to accept the purchase request, confirm that we actually do have the money we’re spending, pick up the phone and place the order?  Seems simple enough doesn’t it, yet it somehow is a complicated enough process that the schmo who’s in charge of it can’t do it…

Let’s see, there’s the graphics pads that I ordered in April…  Still not in…

There’s the USB hubs that I ordered in May….    Still not in…

The books I ordered the beginning of June…  MIA

The chair I ordered the middle of June…  Showed up last week…  HUH!!!!

I could go on, but it just makes my head hurt….