Buyer Beware (Or at least specific)

On a summer Friday I want to write about being specific about what is important when buying something or having something made overseas.

My mother-in-law is having a condo built near us here in Green Bay. She found a great location and worked out a very good deal. However, the model she looked at had high ceilings. She picked out a different plan and just expected it would have high ceilings as well. Now that the roof is on we can see the ceilings are a standard 8 feet. The builder's specification sheet said "ceiling height per plan". The plan only shows something about stud height being 92 5/8" high. We never asked about ceiling height, but realize now it is very important to my wife's Mom. We should have been specific about the key factors of the purchase.

Similar things happen with our customers. They forget to mention that some attribute of the material is important. After we've purchased some, they do testing and mention a problem. Then we have to work something out. We've gotten much better about asking many, many questions and drafting inspection criteria for all projects that has eliminated almost all of these issues, but we are still surprised sometimes.

So, today's suggestion for buyers (especially those building custom houses or products) is to TALK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE WITH YOUR SUPPLIERS ABOUT WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU AND TO ASK MANY, MANY QUESTIONS. We are certainly trying to help in that regard as well.