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Sigh. Big business vs. the little guy. I recall when I took basic accounting, we learned that common payment terms were "2/10, net/30" meaning "2% off if you p

Sigh. Big business vs. the little guy. I recall when I took basic accounting, we learned that common payment terms were "2/10, net/30" meaning "2% off if you pay within 10 days, and it's all due within 30 days." So it was common practice to wait 30 days (or more) and still take the 2% off. This is in no way blaming the victim, but "for a total of $216,000 in debt" I would hope I'd just say, "no, we're not doing that." One of those hard calls that nothing in business school can prepare you for.

JimtheCoder 4y ago
"One of those hard calls that nothing in business school can prepare you for." Do you really need a business school education to see that this was a mess right from the beginning, though? It sucks for the small business owner, but at the same time...if you sign one of the largest contracts of your businesses life and are not even sure that you are selling individual bags of coffee or cases of bags of coffee... No business school is going to help that level of dumb...
- AlbertCory 4y ago
  did I not say that?
  - JimtheCoder 4y ago
    [flagged]
    - AlbertCory 4y ago
      Ok. I was being charitable to them. Naïve people get themselves into this stuff all the time.
- corgi609 4y ago
  If you read, the contract was not for the goods, the contract was about the policies of getting paid. The units was an estimate from the distributor about what was going to be needed later. There wasn't a contract about the goods. That's not how it works with a distributor anyways. The distributor is invoiced for the goods that they order, as they order them, and if you read the story, there were several orders. There is not a contract for all of the goods.
cjbgkagh 4y ago
Many people don’t have great options and see such opportunities as possibly their only chance for a big break. They’re playing in the big-leagues and needed the kindness of strangers to bail them out of what appears to be their mistake as going by other comments units as cases are industry standard. That the distributor couldn’t move the product compounded the issue. Supplier/distributor shenanigans are common and something to be on the constant lookout for, but this seemed pretty normal, the prudent thing to do would be to not have signed up for so much but of course they didn’t know they did. Pulling the pin early might have helped, as it wasn’t selling they wouldn’t be liable for damages for failure to supply, but it would have impaired their ability to grow. Not suggesting those here did anything nefarious beyond overextending by mistake but there does seem to be a new trend in e-begging where someone gets themselves into a situation and seeks a bailout from social media. “Help I accidentally bought a $100K couch” for example. I don’t blame people doing something that’ll help them. I often wonder if I were to get terminally ill and there is an expensive cure beyond my ability to pay what my go-fund-me video would look like.
- AlbertCory 4y ago
  It IS a tough call.
  - cjbgkagh 4y ago
    I think the real problem is if there starts to be a reliance on the kindness of strangers and more people decide to dig deeper holes for themselves instead of pulling the pin.
    - lazide 4y ago
      Yup. Being able to say No to something you’d really like to be a good idea but probably isn’t, even if it has potentially very negative consequences is both really important in real life, and not as common as we all wish it was.

JimtheCoder 4y ago

"One of those hard calls that nothing in business school can prepare you for." Do you really need a business school education to see that this was a mess right from the beginning, though? It sucks for the small business owner, but at the same time...if you sign one of the largest contracts of your businesses life and are not even sure that you are selling individual bags of coffee or cases of bags of coffee... No business school is going to help that level of dumb...

AlbertCory 4y ago
did I not say that?
- JimtheCoder 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - AlbertCory 4y ago
    Ok. I was being charitable to them. Naïve people get themselves into this stuff all the time.
corgi609 4y ago
If you read, the contract was not for the goods, the contract was about the policies of getting paid. The units was an estimate from the distributor about what was going to be needed later. There wasn't a contract about the goods. That's not how it works with a distributor anyways. The distributor is invoiced for the goods that they order, as they order them, and if you read the story, there were several orders. There is not a contract for all of the goods.

cjbgkagh 4y ago

Many people don’t have great options and see such opportunities as possibly their only chance for a big break. They’re playing in the big-leagues and needed the kindness of strangers to bail them out of what appears to be their mistake as going by other comments units as cases are industry standard. That the distributor couldn’t move the product compounded the issue. Supplier/distributor shenanigans are common and something to be on the constant lookout for, but this seemed pretty normal, the prudent thing to do would be to not have signed up for so much but of course they didn’t know they did. Pulling the pin early might have helped, as it wasn’t selling they wouldn’t be liable for damages for failure to supply, but it would have impaired their ability to grow. Not suggesting those here did anything nefarious beyond overextending by mistake but there does seem to be a new trend in e-begging where someone gets themselves into a situation and seeks a bailout from social media. “Help I accidentally bought a $100K couch” for example. I don’t blame people doing something that’ll help them. I often wonder if I were to get terminally ill and there is an expensive cure beyond my ability to pay what my go-fund-me video would look like.

AlbertCory 4y ago
It IS a tough call.
- cjbgkagh 4y ago
  I think the real problem is if there starts to be a reliance on the kindness of strangers and more people decide to dig deeper holes for themselves instead of pulling the pin.
  - lazide 4y ago
    Yup. Being able to say No to something you’d really like to be a good idea but probably isn’t, even if it has potentially very negative consequences is both really important in real life, and not as common as we all wish it was.