So this morning at 7:00 my wife texts me to call a number as the party who called her personal cell phone wanted to verify a purchase I placed for my workplace (I am a supply technician and credit card holder for McNary Lock and Dam, US Army Corps of Engineers).

I did not give them any of my personal contact information, and when I asked the associate of the vendor how she got my wife's number she said a "public records" search. I get why that number would come up as the phones are on my contract through Sprint.

The phone call to my wife came from the vendor's credit card department as they wanted to make sure the $3000.00 order was a legitimate purchase for a federal entity and wasn't a case of a fraudulent purchase.

I gave my work contact information to the sales representative when I place the order (work email, work phone, shipping and billing addresses for work). Why the search for contact information to verify the order wasn't made for the entity that placed the order (in my case McNary Lock & Dam, Umatilla, Oregon) or why the search wasn't for US Army Corps of Engineers, Umatilla, Oregon) is beyond me.

If I could get this item from a different vendor at a similar price I would cancel the order placed yesterday.

Some employees need to not be working in customer service.

I was getting the text from my wife to call that company (return their call) when that company called my work number (like they should have done to begin with).

Their "explanation" for their action is that my work number doesn't come up in a phone directory. This is correct as we are behind a digital switchboard, and yet if you do a search for the dam or Corps of Engineers in Umatilla you will get a number that takes you to our administration department where they could easily have transferred a call down to my desk.

What really chaps my hide is that the vendor thought it was no big deal to use a person's personal resources for a government order.

I think someone should be retrained or fired over what I believe to be incompetence.

I'm with you on that one.

I carry a company-issued phone, provided by our client & operating on their network. I place parts orders all the time, and though not being a federal customer, I'd be pretty miffed if my wife got a call on her personal phone to verify an order I placed for a client.

I doubt the employer of the person who called thinks this is incompetence. They think this woman diligently searched out a way to verify a purchase. She was doing as she was directed.

What you need to do is complain up the chain to the person who can change the internal policy to "don't call corporate clients on their personal cell phones to verify charges."

The billing address probably didn't match the delivery address or some other info and they want to make sure it isn't a fraudulent charge on your card.
Not something I'd be mad at them for doing in today's world.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
The billing address probably didn't match the delivery address or some other info and they want to make sure it isn't a fraudulent charge on your card.
Not something I'd be mad at them for doing in today's world.

You are correct the billing and shipping address are different as we receive our shipments at our warehouse and use a P.O. Box for US Postal mail. Yes you are also correct that they wanted to be sure the charge to the card wasn't fraudulent (this is a government purchase card).

However, they should have just looked up the dam or the US Army Corps to get contact information if they need to verify a purchase.

Even the Sales Rep stated they should never have called me or my wife (they called me at work after calling my wife's cell), and should have run any concerns through him, and then for him to make contact with me if it was necessary.

And Yes JHE888 the supervisor I spoke with didn't see a major issue until I explained that time is money and therefore they took my wife's time and used resources I pay for without our consent.

My wife works with vendors halfway across the world. She has met most of these vendors in person, either in their county or if they came here. Since they have been together in person they usually have some contact through WhatsApp. There is one girl in particular who thinks nothing of it to message my wife on WhatsApp because she has a question about an order. Thats fine and all but she fails to take the time difference into consideration or just flat out does not care and will message at 11pm local time.

I told my wife repeatedly to tell this girl to only contact during her regular business hours but she says I dont understand and its not that easy.