Wow, Goooooo Bears ... so much UCB Fail.
OK, I work at the Bureacraversity of California, Berkeley, aka UC Bureacracy - I know things take a while here.
But Just How Long?
Apparently, way too long.
When we buy things from companies - say pricey as defined as $2500 or more - we send a PO, they ship/deliver, we receive, they send invoices (aka a bill), we pay up within some reasonable amount of time, say 30 days. Sometimes, if it's smaller, we put it on what amounts to a Campus Credit Card (that's backed by US Bank).
When we don't pay up in a reasonable amount of time, well, I don't know if vendors send pink notices or send UC Berkeley to collections, but eventually, something bad happens.
How bad?
They stop delivering anything further. That's how bad.
We're so far behind in paying invoices for orders placed with (and received from) Apple that Apple has stopped shipping us anything more and stopped fulfilling orders placed by PO (presumably until we bring get our currently-in-arrears accounts out of arrears). I can't blame Apple here - Apple held up their end of the business relationship and UC Berkeley hasn't. Still, I have a number of development systems on order (now for over a month) that we need in time to work on demos for January, and I probably won't see them until mid-month now.
It's not as if the people who are actually trying to buy things from Apple have no money - we're not that stupid (mostly). It's more as if I wrote you a check against my very full bank account to pay for something, you deposited it, and then my bank took months and months to clear the check. Money's there, but bank (or campus) isn't clearing the check (or sending the funds.)
So. Much. Fail.
But Just How Long?
Apparently, way too long.
When we buy things from companies - say pricey as defined as $2500 or more - we send a PO, they ship/deliver, we receive, they send invoices (aka a bill), we pay up within some reasonable amount of time, say 30 days. Sometimes, if it's smaller, we put it on what amounts to a Campus Credit Card (that's backed by US Bank).
When we don't pay up in a reasonable amount of time, well, I don't know if vendors send pink notices or send UC Berkeley to collections, but eventually, something bad happens.
How bad?
They stop delivering anything further. That's how bad.
We're so far behind in paying invoices for orders placed with (and received from) Apple that Apple has stopped shipping us anything more and stopped fulfilling orders placed by PO (presumably until we bring get our currently-in-arrears accounts out of arrears). I can't blame Apple here - Apple held up their end of the business relationship and UC Berkeley hasn't. Still, I have a number of development systems on order (now for over a month) that we need in time to work on demos for January, and I probably won't see them until mid-month now.
It's not as if the people who are actually trying to buy things from Apple have no money - we're not that stupid (mostly). It's more as if I wrote you a check against my very full bank account to pay for something, you deposited it, and then my bank took months and months to clear the check. Money's there, but bank (or campus) isn't clearing the check (or sending the funds.)
So. Much. Fail.