Re: VENDORS DEBATE - MY 10c (Jeanette Skwor) Stephen Clark 01 Jun 1998 12:26 UTC
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 11:56:31 -0500 From: SKWORJ@GBMS01.UWGB.EDU Subject: Re: VENDORS DEBATE - MY 10c ***I found this post insightful and to the point, and wondering at the silence from the vendor's quarters . . . Jeanette Skwor who also has been contacted offlist by vendors several times, and thusly knows as well, they are reading... > Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 11:09:40 GMT > From: Lesley Tweddle <LTWEDDLE@AUCEGYPT.EDU> > Subject: VENDORS DEBATE - MY 10c > > Earlier this year I posted to the List because the trouble we were > having with one of our vendors (we use four!) had got bad enough that > I felt out of my depth. Quite a few people replied to me, and although > I didn't name the unsatisfactory vendor, most of them guessed who it > was and were having troubles of their own. > > The neatest thing that anyone said by way of summing up their discontent > was, that no-one at management level had contacted them or expressed an > intent to handle the problem/s. > > Vendors read this list! Once they noticed that my posting had aroused > a response, two of our vendors got in touch with me. One was the UV > that I was complaining about. Why had I not complained to the UV, why > to the List? I said, who do I complain to? > > This bit matters, fellow-librarians and List-monitoring vendors. Read > On! A normal librarian has no reason to believe her (excuse sexism) > normal contact-person is malevolent or incompetent. We know, from our > own experience of ordering direct, that many suppliers part with their > publications as if they were losing teeth. What we suspect is that > our contact-person is overloaded with tasks and just does not have time > to chase, and re-chase, and keep letting us know that this is what she > is doing. We know that vendors are trying to save costs. We suspect > this may be at the expense of just the kind of service that makes us > appreciate them. > > Or, or Also, we suspect that our poor contact-person doen not have > good managerial backing. If she keeps getting messages from us that > indicate we are more and more fed-up with the problems we're experiencing, > has she been trained not to keep all this to herself, but to alert a > management-level person? > > In the case of our UV, once a management-level person (several, actually) > got involved, we were able to resolve the big problems and are now > back to our normal contact-person again. In the case of another vendor > who was not U, I am worrying that they may become U, precisely because > the response from our normal contact-person has dwindled over the years, > from being same-day to being late or never, and (in my opinion) > management have not realised the seriousness of our concern about a > particular issue. > > How many (non-Government) libraries automatically go for the vendor which > offers the cheapest rates? The kind of staff contact we need, requires > high staffing levels in the vendor's offices, and those don't come cheap. > > What do the vendors have to say about all this? > > Lesley Tweddle > Serials Librarian > American University in Cairo Library >