Double ordered for over £40k - can the world swallow me please

[thepenguinsaysno]

NC as I if my boss is on here she'll know it's me, HI!

AWWWWW Crab cakes. I duplicated a really large purchase order. My 'big' boss emailed me asking for a purchase order for '20 pieces of stuff we need" to be sent to a supplier for about 40k, I did it that day.

A week later my manager send me another email saying don't forget this PO. And it was a different email thread with the words "new order as follows: 20 pieces of stuff we need"

I didn't cop it was the same stuff so sent it to the supplier, who has now made both order.

To make it worse big boss asked me a few weeks ago, was there a duplication. He asked both me and the supplier. Neither of us replied. Which is very unlike me and I can't remember why.

I haven't liked and admitted I made a mistake with doing both order. It's the first big mistake I've made in this job, been here over 2 years. I hope big boss doesn't lose all faith in me

Just explain what happened - you treated the order as a new order because that was how it was presented in the email. Sure, in an ideal world you'd have emailed back to ask if this was a duplicate order as you'd already placed an order for x the previous week, but it's honestly as much your boss' mistake as yours for the wording in the email surely?

I'm a buyer. It's easily done.

Assuming you can't cancel one of the orders, are you likely to use all the "stuff" over time? Could you try and arrange a call off with the supplier so you're not paying for/storing it all at once?

You ordered crab cakes?

That's meant to say I haven't lied not I haven't liked. - As in I haven't tried to shurk it off as not my fault.

@FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee the supplier only makes this for us so we will have to buy it. Thankfully it is something that we will over time use and won't just sit there. I think my manager is pissed at the supplier more than me. It's very technical what the company do and goes above my head. I work in the finance side. I am no engineer.

@12345onceIcaughta Yup, all the crab cakes 😆no, that's just what I say instead of swearing, IDK why. Sometimes I say "holy flap jack" "my left boot" and many others

Ah ok, I wondered what the relevance was 😀
you are ok to swear on here!

Mistakes happen, and I hate that horrible feeling of your stomach falling out your bum when you realise! The best you can do is admit the error, apologise and vow to learn from your mistake/double check next time. We all fuck up at work eventually but it’s how you handle it that counts.

I once went over quite a bit over budget on a conference venue I was booking because the events coordinator gave me the quote as itemised rather than a total, I messed up the maths and thought it was lower than it was. Felt hideous when the invoice came through! Dreaded telling my boss and she was annoyed, but it was one of those ‘what can you do’ type things and we moved on. Now when I get quotes I ensure they tell me the total as well as the breakdown to avoid it happening again 😄

2 years isn’t a tiny amount - you’ve been there long enough to prove you’re normally on top of things. If your work is normally good and you perform well then I doubt the big boss will hold it against you.

Could they freeze the crab cakes to use for next time?

They must be massive crab cakes if 20 of them costs 40k 😂

How do people possibly thing you've ordered crab cakes 😄

Another with visions of mountains of crab cakes..

Could you have a charity crab cake sale? You’ll need to use them quickly unless you have enormous freezers

THERE ARE NO CRAB CAKES. STAND DOWN

Speak up and explain the confusion asap. The supplier will, eventually, explain and it's better coming from you voluntarily rather than being forced to admit it AND that you wasted other people's time investigating. Even if it's not appreciated, they at least know you are trustworthy and accountable. Don't blame your manager for the mistake, it'll make them defensive and harder for them to accept any of the responsibility. They might not accept any anyway, but it's more likely if you don't try to force it on them

40k of crab cakes! If you needed volunteer eaters for free I would have obviously volunteered. How disappointing to find out you used a very delicious word as codex

Are they Thai crab cakes? I could help you out with a good few of them, if they come with chilli sauce.

Show both email chains and explain how the error took place. It sounds like you would have had no idea ordering twice the amount was likely a mistake, the manufacturer however clearly knew if they only supply your company with this item and morally could have checked.

But there's no money left for chilli sauce as OP's already blown 40k on crab cakes

I misread it as 40,000 crab cakes

Big boss sent two separate emails, big boss got two orders.
More their mistake than yours but seem happy to push it onto you.

Dang.
I could still give it a good go.

You are not the only squeaky wheel in this.

The double email chain created confusion but I'd also think a supplier receiving the exact same order twice might double check it.

Is there anything you can think of in the process that might improve this going forward? Being constructive to help avoid future mistakes could be a good way to ensure you are not seen too negatively.

Shit sandwich it.

I’d email explaining why you didn’t immediately reply: you wanted time to investigate what happened. Explain that it wasn’t a duplicate order but two separate requests from big boss and manager: big boss asked for 20 crab cakes in September, then in October manager asked in an email chain entitled “new order” for 20 crab cakes.

Acknowledge that at this point you should have queried whether it really was a new order, given you’d just ordered a similar quantity of crab cakes – own that fault. This is the shit in the sandwich that you can’t wriggle out of.

Finish with a suggestion of a new system to ensure all future crab cake procurement runs smoothly.

Do you actually order the crab cakes or simply raise the purchase orders, and someone else makes the contact with the crab cake supplier?

Relax!!! At least it ISN'T 40k worth of crab cakes.

The initial error - understandable

The second error - both you and supplier didn't respond why is the bigger error. For a supplier to build anything customer made after receiving a duplicate request and emai querying same is highly stupid on their behalf?

Do you know the order status or are you panicking unnecessarily? Have they even commenced production?

anyone else trying to visualise £80k worth of crabcakes?

Yep