Argh!!! Long distance is not the next best thing!!!

[theworm[$]]

Ok, our factory and parent company is in Thailand, so my day is taken up with lots of faxing and e-mailing. With a 12 hour time difference, we don't talk on the phone much. This makes communicating challenging to say the least. Their English is infinitly better than my Thai, but that doesn't mean we communicate well.

So the e-mails go something like this:

Dear A - Thanks for sending all of the pricing. This and this and this seem to be wrong. By my calculations they should be that and that and that. Please confirm.

Dear Delia - Very sorry, we make mistake. That is right but that is wrong and the other thing doesnt match. Thank you catch our mistake.

Dear A - ok - so then are the prices X, Y, and Z? Please confirm.

Dear Delia - we send attached fax - all correct pricing is there.

wait 3 hours for faxes to arrive

Dear A - I will use the new pricing, but you didn't confirm the weights and labors and they are inconsistant. Please check the following list.

Dear Delia - thank you. We can do this and that, but not the other. All new costs and weights are on attached fax.

wait 3 hours for faxes to arrive.

One 5 page spreadsheet with costs and weights. All weights are wrong. The costs don't match any of the previously faxed costs. Second spreadsheet of weights. All weights on the first sheet are wrong and I must not copy them and do all the calculations, but I can't do them on the spreadsheet because they faxed instead of e-mailed.

So, now I'm starting from square one doing the same calculations and specs that I did yesterday and Monday and before I went on vacation, and hoping that they will finally be wrong. I don't mind being busy, but I don't like doing the same set of specs for the 7th time!

Argh!

[mnehr]

This is not a plug but you should check out Microsoft's new program One Note. It makes doc collaberation easy.

[theworm[$]]

but that would involve spending a few bhat. That goes against the culture. We did get a message yesterday that they have updated their e-mail system so that now the marketing dept can have e-mail and internet access at their own desks. Till now they all had to fight for access on one shared pc like a pack of starving hyenas - except that they are not aggressive enough so they just wait and figure they'll get the message eventually.
I've given up on trying to change them, so I guess I have no business complaining.

[mnehr]

Sounds like they need a Q&D consultant who has experience in Thailand. Give me a call!
;->

[theworm[$]]

How about I give you an e-mail and you do a cold call? They need you! I need you!!!

[eris esoteric]

theworm said

We did get a message yesterday that they have updated their e-mail system so that now the marketing dept can have e-mail and internet access at their own desks.

I can probably think of a *couple* things that are more dangerous than a marketing department with email access, but right now I'm drawing a blank...