The Backorder Email
Mara works the front counter at a plumbing supply shop. At 4:40 p.m. on Friday she receives this email from a contractor, Dale:
"Confirming my order for 12 quarter-turn shutoff valves, 3/4 inch. I need them on site Monday 7 a.m. If they aren't there, the crew sits idle at $900 a day. I'm told you have them in stock. Bill the usual account."
Mara checks: the shelf holds 9 valves of that size. The other 3 are on a truck arriving Tuesday. Dale's account is current. Her manager has left for the day and cannot be reached. The shop closes at 5:00. Dale's phone goes to voicemail. A nearby branch of the same company, 25 minutes away, shows 20 in stock in the system, but that system was last synced Thursday.
1. Identify the two facts in Dale's email that most affect how Mara should respond, and explain why each matters.
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Fact 1: the stated deadline and its cost. Dale ties delivery to Monday 7 a.m. and quantifies the failure at $900 per idle day. This tells Mara the order is time-critical and that a partial or late shipment has real consequences for the customer, so she cannot simply ship 9 and say nothing.
Fact 2: "I'm told you have them in stock." Dale is relying on secondhand information, not a confirmed commitment from the shop. Mara's actual count is 9, not 12. Because Dale never received a confirmation from an authorized person, the shop has not promised 12, but Dale clearly believes it has. That gap is the whole problem: the risk is not just a shortage, it is a misunderstanding about what was promised.
A weaker answer would focus on the account being current or the dollar amount alone. Those matter less than the mismatch between what Dale expects and what is actually on the shelf.
2. Recommend what Mara should do before 5:00 p.m. Justify each action against the constraints in the situation.
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1. Contact Dale by the fastest channel available. She should call again and, failing that, send a written message stating plainly: "We have 9 of the 12 in stock now; 3 more arrive Tuesday." Written notice creates a record and reaches Dale even if he checks messages later. Silence until Monday is the worst option because it guarantees the crew shows up with nothing.
2. Offer concrete options, not just bad news. She can propose shipping the 9 immediately, offering the 3 from the nearby branch if that stock can be verified by phone, or suggesting Dale source the remainder elsewhere for Monday. Giving choices lets Dale decide how to handle his $900 risk.
3. Verify the branch stock by phone rather than trusting the system. The system was last synced Thursday, so the 20-unit figure may be stale. A two-minute call converts an unreliable number into a real one.
4. Leave a clear note for the manager. Since she cannot reach the manager, she should document the count, the message sent, and any promise made, so the manager can follow up Monday.
What she should not do is promise 12 units, bill the account for undelivered goods, or assume the Tuesday truck solves a Monday deadline.
3. Suppose Mara sends only the 9 valves with no explanation. Evaluate this decision from the standpoint of workplace responsibility.
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This is a poor decision even though it moves product toward the customer. Three problems stand out.
It hides a known shortfall. Mara knows the order is for 12 and knows only 9 are available. Shipping silently means Dale discovers the gap on Monday morning, when it is too late to source the rest. The information she holds is exactly what Dale needs to act.
It damages trust and the account. Dale explicitly tied the order to a deadline and a cost. A surprise shortage makes the shop look either careless or dishonest, and a contractor with a $900 daily exposure will remember which supplier left him short.
It shifts the problem downstream. The missing 3 valves do not disappear; they become Dale's emergency on the day he can least afford one. Responsibility means surfacing the constraint while there is still time to solve it.
The better standard is simple: communicate the shortfall, offer options, and let the customer decide. Shipping 9 is fine as part of that plan, but only with the explanation attached.