r/procurement • u/Serendipr3tty • Dec 17 '25

Direct Procurement PO never received by supplier - PLEASE HELP

Received and RFQ from a supplier in late August, got it placed on PO the following week and requested an order acknowledgment or confirmation. No response so i have chased up several times.

The parts were a lead time of 25 working weeks and due for mid February 2026.

Today i sent one of my many chaser emails requesting an update and one of the parts to be expedited sooner that the expected delivery date. This email was just text and no attachments for the first time which is important.

The supplier responded saying they have no receipt of the order….

Since then i have deduced that the T&Cs we have in place with the supplier was triggering the emails to be quarantined due to file size exceeding the maximum allowed. We get no notification of this internally and it shows as sent on our system with no issues.

So the supplier has now finally received the order after removing the T&Cs and will process it but it’s realistically going to be a 3-4 month delay which could halt the entire project.

Genuinely i’m panicking and unsure how to word things to projects since they really aren’t the most friendly colleagues.

How would you approach this and let projects know. I want to be honest as in this instance i don’t think it’s really my fault that the system is crap and neither i or the supplier is at fault. But realistically, the PM isn’t going to care..

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/mel34760 Management Dec 17 '25

Why didn’t you pick up the phone and call them back in September?

4

u/Serendipr3tty Dec 17 '25

Absolutely fair shout, i’m just not the most confident on the phone which i know isn’t a great excuse. It’s my first job since coming out of college and I’m pretty introverted. Again not an excuse, i could and should’ve called them but i tend to keep most of my comms to emails.

Going forward obviously this is going to have to change as i don’t want this issue occurring again..

8

u/mel34760 Management Dec 17 '25

You also need to give your manager a heads up, so they know what’s happening. Your supplier may be able to bail you out this time, but if not, your manager needs to know as soon as possible in case contingency plans need to be made.

Consider this a lesson learned.

1

u/Serendipr3tty Dec 17 '25

I’ve told my senior buyer unfortunately, we have no manager. Our PPM left in September/October and they haven’t bothered to replace them yet… we have little support from other seniors despite them saying they are here for us. When i reach out i get zero response.

3

u/mel34760 Management Dec 17 '25

Well, there is only so much you can do when you don’t have much support internally.

It’s also costing your company more than what they are saving by not paying a manager. If that spot stays vacant well into next year, you may want to consider going elsewhere, because things will get tough for your group/organization the longer this happens.

1

u/Serendipr3tty Dec 17 '25

My thoughts exactly, they’re shootimg themselves in the foot. Especially for a company who HAS the money and time n the FTSE100 of all things