Fighting back against big company requirements

[triumph406]

Would you really fold when times get tough?

Nope.

I've outlasted almost all my competitors, kept going thru thick and thin.

 

[CarbideBob]

A few thousand in work per year and a $1200 fee up top?
Just tell them that that all is fine but the end pricing will need some adjustments and that you need some kind of certainly of new orders at the new price before you ante up to the table.
Understand the want for polices/rules/procedures from suppliers on such things but they ask you to go and pay a second source?
I have never seen this.
Do not know the businesses, customer, or any details. But giving the middle finger might be my answer.
Other side is that these asks for silly stuff are put out by desk clerks (it is their day job). One can work around it many times but that is also time and effort.

 

[john.k]

We need more education ,say the top people ......unfortunately all the extra education is soft degrees that are a drag on the economy.

 

[Rob F.]

A few thousand in work per year and a $1200 fee up top?
Just tell them that that all is fine but the end pricing will need some adjustments and that you need some kind of certainly of new orders at the new price before you ante up to the table.
Understand the want for polices/rules/procedures from suppliers on such things but they ask you to go and pay a second source?
I have never seen this.
Do not know the businesses, customer, or any details. But giving the middle finger might be my answer.
Other side is that these asks for silly stuff are put out by desk clerks (it is their day job). One can work around it many times but that is also time and effort.

He did say in post #8 that the customer offered to pay the $1200 fee.

 

[Hodge]

Big corporates needing small independants,often have an arms length subsidiary to re invoice work thru an entity with the required qualifications and compliances.

Works quite often in my neck of the woods....

 

[triumph406]

They're willing to pay the 1200 fee but I don't have 3 days to write a manual when I have customer's waiting for me to get to them.

You could probably find those online, some small revisions might make them acceptable to the customer.

 

[Doug]

This ISN deal is new to me, wasn't aware of it until this thread.

What I see here is the customer is willing to pay the $1200 ISN fee. Being involved with ISN apparently involves having safety and health policies in written form which could likely be found to download on the net.

I see the customer wanting to assure its vendors have procedures in place to deal with issues that might otherwise make the vendor unavailable to continue servicing them. Probably a lot of paperwork BS, but apparently the customer values the OP enough as a vendor to want him to comply with the ISN stuff.

IMO, the OP may have been a little too quick to essentially tell the customer to fuck off. I had to jump through a few hoops for my customers and so what. This one doesn't seem to be that big a deal. Yeah, the customer is only a few grand a year, but who knows, they could have bigger work in the future?

 

[broke]

Weigh the costs and benefits. I have jumped through a hoop or two that has separated me from the pack.

 

[upm2019]

As to the manual A lot of insurance companies can get you templates for these (safety , Employee manuals ) You just edit to suit. And I do agree that big companies add a lot of requirements that do little to help us. Most of you probably have experiance with ISO certified companies they are some of the biggest screwups the difference is they document it.

 

[Jatrox]

The bottom line is, it's your business to run, not theirs. If you don't want to do it then tell them to pound sand.

 

[mfisher]

Having worked through signing up in ISN for a large company (and a couple other similar programs), for a very small shop (2 people I think was mentioned) it will take a little time to set up (and as other have said, download the various required manuals or just hire a company to set them all up for you), and maybe an hour each quarter to keep things updated. If the customer will cover the costs - think of it as a way to grow the business. Just saying 'ISN registered' can open a lot of doors to larger companies who often have trouble finding locally owned shops to do business with that are registered.
Now if you don't actually have any insurance but do have a long list of injured former employees, that could complicate things.
And if you don't want to bother with it, just don't.

 

[Portable Welder]

Is this the company in question? Sounds like a solution looking for a problem.
https://www.isnetworld.com/en/

Yes.

 

[Portable Welder]

Having worked through signing up in ISN for a large company (and a couple other similar programs), for a very small shop (2 people I think was mentioned) it will take a little time to set up (and as other have said, download the various required manuals or just hire a company to set them all up for you), and maybe an hour each quarter to keep things updated. If the customer will cover the costs - think of it as a way to grow the business. Just saying 'ISN registered' can open a lot of doors to larger companies who often have trouble finding locally owned shops to do business with that are registered.
Now if you don't actually have any insurance but do have a long list of injured former employees, that could complicate things.
And if you don't want to bother with it, just don't.

I've been in business for 35 years and the only injury was a guy smashed the tip of his finger 3 years ago. I do work for the power company, FedEx, UPS, DHL and several concrete plants, none of them have asked me for this. I fired UPS when they changed their billing to 90 days plus when your bill goes into rotation, while I will still do work for them, they are no longer my priority since I'm not theirs !!!

 

[Portable Welder]

Nope.

I've outlasted almost all my competitors, kept going thru thick and thin.

Nope, I could retire if I want to..., absolutely everything I have is paid off.

 

[ManualEd]

I also had to get ISNetworld.

Its a waste of time trying to write the safety RAV's yourself. Just pay a safety company $50 ea to slap your company name at the top, and they'll make any changes required for ISN to approve them.

After that, you fill out the questionnaire every quarter, upload copies of your insurance, and pay them money.

The only purpose is ensure you have insurance the company you do work for can sue.

 

[ShaunM]

Ed is correct.

Sure, you can buck it if it upsets you too much. Or, you can pay a third party to prepare everything the first time and a nominal annual fee to update it each year. Pass that expense onto your customer as a line item. No need to bury it in your overhead as not everyone you work for requires it.

I work for a (large) company that requires a similar 'approval'. We instruct our (small) vendors to line item that expense on their next invoice and we take care of it. The vendors are more valuable to us than the piss-ant approval fee. Move on and get paid. The large vendors that work for us need the same approval at dozens of other companies they work at so they don't get the same treatment, but they also don't need it.

 

[CarrollJamieson]

I've seen reddit posts where restaurants are adding things like "Healthcare for staff" and some small transaction charge to each bill.

I seriously wonder what some of these big companies would do if you broke it out, line by line on the bill. Labor, materials, AS9100 compliance, ISN compliance. I mean this seriously.

The normal process would be to wrap it in the shop overhead but, if only a few customers are demanding it, let them pay for it and know where the cost is coming from. If it's broken up that way, they might be able to creatively code it in their accounting system for tax purposes too.

I freaking hate all the transaction charges. Recently had to ship a few items. Fuel surcharge, residential delivery fee, this and that fee. Misc. fees ended up being more than the original postage. All for some really small packages! Hadn't shipped much for about 6 months. It was a bit of a shock. I guess I'd rather see one total rather than all the surcharges. After that I started feeling a lot better about what I charge for delivery of work.

 

[memphisjed]

iso aint so and this isn is not.
It is a very expensive solution to a common problem for companies tho. You are a shop, with employees that get paid and have workmans comp- great - isn is just a stupid barrier. Your neighbor has two "contracted" employees that they may or may not have paid on a job for megacorp. Those contractors went to megacorp to get some of their money or got hurt - and went to megacorp for the bills.

 

[Dan from Oakland]

Just wait until the corporate puke who thought that requirement was a good idea moves on to his next job. It happens frequently- just wait until that call comes in that they need something done urgently ..


regarding the itemized charges on your invoices......Don't ever look at the itemized charges on your property tax bill- you will puke your guts out.

 

[Bill D]

You could probably find those online, some small revisions might make them acceptable to the customer.

My wife was tasked with writing her school districts mission statement for the headstart program. In a thrift store in Monterey we found a tote bag form Monterey's headstart program with their mission statement printed on it. She copied it and changed Monterey to her district's name.
Bil lD