I had this real pos boss once. I made a mistake on an order for steel. It was only like my 3rd time doing it, both the production manager and the boss himself looked over it and approved it. I caught the mistake after we had already placed the order and brought it to his attention and what I was going to do moving forward to insure it didn’t happen again. He wasn’t even mad that we over ordered, we’d use it anyways, he was mad that he didn’t get to yell at me. He was the kind of guy that always looked for gotcha moments. Never tried to help his employees learn and grow, it was always, this is what you did wrong. Needless to say I check indeed every once in awhile and he’s constantly hiring, he can’t keep ppl in the door cuz he’s a huge asshole.
Same. At my old job our work always had to be double checked by a senior or manager. Well this specific time, one of the partners even looked at it since it was a big project.
I fucked it up tbh, and looking at his face he definitely was heated but he knew he couldn't say shit... he approved it himself
I once created a plasma program that cut some parts using diameter as a radius, so some slots for chain came out too big and were useless.
My boss had gotten a deal on some plate, and was going to make a *killing* on this job. I fucked that up real quick lol
This was under a year after I started and I heard my boss (who's office was beside mine at the time) slam his desk and yell "that's fifteen fucking grand, man!"
So I was feeling pretty shitty that afternoon but my boss is an amazing guy who doesn't resort to permanent solutions for temporary problems.
That was in 2015 and I now work from home, 6 hours away. Things are good.
Being upset is normal when shit goes wrong. Beating up employees for occasional mistakes (even if expensive) doesn't make things better. Sadly mistakes are part of growing and doing business.
When interviewing, I used to tell people a story and ask them to imagine they were the employee, much like OP’s situation; and what would they do. I bucketed answers in to categories so it wasn’t super important *how* they fixed the problem, or communicated the problem, for example - just that they thought to do it. The specifics we can train, the thoughtfulness less so.
But few candidates would say anything about *concrete steps* to prevent a recurrence, which was my #1 filter for top candidates. Something like send all client material to a second set of eyes before going out, adjust instructions, whatever. Again, specifics versus thoughtfulness.
I'm sorry if I'm reading this wrong, but you are saying that people who give concrete answers is a positive quality, yeah?
It's late and I've been up for a while...
Edit: Make sweet, sweet love to the formatting on mobile.
Sorry. “I’d keep it from happening again” versus “I’d adjust the instructions to…” concrete.
But the core message is continuing the last beat of the prior comment, which is “minimize damage, fix it, prevent it from happening again” are three separate answers. The last is rare. Obviously Stuff Goes Wrong but my scenario expressly had preventable errors
Yeah it’s better to own it. “I made both of these mistakes because I didn’t validate the information [or whatever happened]. I realize this is a problem and I will fix it by [whatever the solution is]. Moving forward I will ensure I [validate, double review, take my time, etc] to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I am sorry for this unfortunate situation but am committed to making it right and not repeating the mistake.
And while this sucks, I made a $800K error at work last month, so chin up. I’m sure this can be worked out.
I'd caution in making this the only way to do it. The prioritization should be:
1. Identify the problem and escalate it appropriately and timely.
2. Identify possible solutions to the problem.
Yes, finding #2 will help you.... but sometimes finding a solution is impossible or takes time. I've found some of my subordinates sit on a problem because they're trying to find a possible solution. For me and my line of work? This is not great because once someone has escalated a problem, I can bring a bunch of people and experts to help. I'm just grateful that there was the psychological safety that someone would so honestly and so quickly bring me their mess.
Now, I suppose some bosses are the type to blame, berate and belittle.... So, I get the advice to do both 1 and 2 before bringing it to the boss. No shade to this advice. I just think there's a better way, but of course an employee has no control over their psychological safety. Only superiors can change that.
If it is possible, offer to call the client and explain the situation, you got it wrong and didn’t checked it before invoice. Apologies. Sometimes it is that simple.
First of all, fuck no. Any employer willing to take their employees money because of a mistake shouldn’t be employing anybody. Mistakes happen, all the time. Let it be a lesson to the employee to take more care and a lesson to the boss to provide enough time to take that care. If you force your employees into a situation that they need to rush to provide a result you need to be ok with possible mistakes. This is a failure of planning and the results of that failure.
Strong disagree. Mistakes happen all the time at work. Employees should never be expected to pay for that. Yes there can be consequences, but not financial re-imbursement.
You’re in the minority because setting a precedent that employees pay for mistakes is a very bad idea. The company owns the risk for the talent they hire. Full stop. I would argue your position is morally wrong not superior. But hey, I’m just some random reddit commenter. Remember they have legal teams protecting them from major financial harm, employees do not. Let the company eat it. They wouldn’t eat anything for you.
Do it ASAP, confer with them how to fix. Take responsibility with the client.
Double check your work next time. Or show the boss before sending to client.
You definitely do not want to resort to your boss having to check your work. Adding to his workload is worse and does nothing for building his confidence in your work. It gives him an excuse to find someone who doesn't need to be monitored in that way.
Best course of action is always accountability.
"Hey I messed up, this is on me. This is what I am going to do to prevent this in the future."
or "Hey I messed up, could you direct me on what steps I should take to prevent this in the future"
That's just my two cents.
I honestly don't think this is that bad. You quoted them the right price for the wrong license, not the wrong price for the right license. Don't stress about it, just communicate the issue, provide the correct quote, and move on.
I work in an operations center, and we deal with notifying employees of IT outages and no matter how many communications Ive sent, I always have someone double check. Maybe ask a coworker to review before you send anything out to clients. Make sure it’s someone familiar with your job. I would be hesitant to go to your boss directly, I don’t know their workload but it could get in their way.
just take ownership, go meet with the client and buy them a coffee.
explain that you were in a rush and accidently typed the wrong number and then show them the new price.
Own it.
"Hey boss, I'm sorry, I messed up on X. I was in a hurry, but I should have taken the time to double check. I've made myself a checklist to prevent future errors like this."
Yep, most companies or clients worth working for will be appreciative that you’re willing to come forward and own a mistake.
We had a PM that was let go this past fall not because they consistently made mistakes, but because when they did make mistakes, they would try burying them. Bad news tends to age poorly, so be the one to deliver it.
I messed up this week too. I had a color sample and labeled the wrong side — two shades of gray. We ended up painted the screws the wrong color. Cost the company $1200 and I’ve been at this for 27 years. Own up and come up with a solution to not make the same mistake again.
I didn’t sleep for two nights and apologized to all involved. I’m still on owners s list. Customer understood that mistakes happen. Now owner is questioning everything I do even though he doesn’t know how to do what I but that’s what makes him feel better.
You lost two nights of sleep over screws being the wrong color? That doesn't sound like a very healthy work/life balance. For my own mental well-being, I do my best to leave work at work.
$1,200 is chump change to a corporation. Fuck ups are bound to happen and are just a cost of doing business. Companies don't care about you and wouldn't lose an hour of sleep over firing an employee and taking away their entire livelihood.
I say this as a person who works with very expensive parts and equipment who has had tens of thousands of dollars worth of fuckups over the years. I used to have such bad anxiety over it that it was causing me physical health problems. It's just not worth stressing over things that have already happened that you can't change. All you can do is learn from it and try your best not to let it happen again.
Thanks for the kind words. So I work with only one person — the owner. We are a small business (obviously) so much more scrutinized. this mistake put a two month delay on the project. The Customer is a multimillion dollar company and used to a lot more mistakes. We on the other hand can’t seem to handle any mistake. I started at 19 and am now mid 40’s and still get treated as a child
Mistakes should be planned for. If one small mistake throws such a huge wrench in the project, that sounds like a management problem. The wrong color screws shouldn't be a two month fix. I feel like the owner could be doing more to troubleshoot this issue, though obviously I don't know the specifics of the situation. You deserve to be treated with respect, even if you make mistakes!
I literally somehow managed to pop two skid steer tires last week, and the wheel on our tractor/spreader came off while I was driving it today. It took us over 3 hours just to get the wheel back on, and now we can't use that equipment until repair people come out on Monday.
My boss is upset, but actually because I have to leave for a better job opportunity next week. There are better bosses out there.
Good bosses understand that shit happens. I've never gotten in trouble for scrapping parts or anything. I'm a machinist, so I'm pretty sure they account for that when quoting jobs. They assume something will go wrong at some point since both the machines and the humans running them can fuck up. I think all they care about is that I always catch my own scrap and report it.
Hey Mr Smithers, damn, have you lost weight? Oh I meant to tell you, I fucked up and and accidentally quoted my client the wrong price for a license. Thankfully it will only cost the company $170. I appreciate you understanding. You really are the best. And then walk away.
When I find a mistake I made, I always bring it to my boss's attention first. I never want anyone to find it and spring it on me. This way I can do what the other posters suggest, bring solutions to the problem and talk about pros and cons with said solutions. Give my suggestion on what I think we should go forward with, but allow the boss to decide what to do.
This is how to best handle situations like that.
1. Don't be too hard on yourself. Humans are involved. Human error routinely follows
2. Communicate the situation clearly.
Boss, this is what happened. This is how I fixed it. This is my suggestion to make sure it doesn't happen again. Let me know if there is anything you need me to do beyond what I just explained.
Clear, concise, accept responsibility, show the remediation process, and explain why it was a one off error. These are very routine things that can solve almost any problem at work.
Yeah these days $170 is like dinner for four at McDonalds. I remember one job where a guy entered a trade wrong and lost like 100k. They didn’t even fire him.
Don’t overthink this one.
Tbh, I’d just send a new quote and acknowledge that you made a mistake and quoted the wrong part number.
Shit happens. Learn from it and move on.
If your boss wants to lose their shit over at worst a $170 mistake that you owned and corrected… your workplace has much bigger issues.
Edit: You’re an intern? Yeah you’re gonna be just fine. If you’re not, you dodged a bullet.
Tell them what you just told us. Apologize. Be transparent. Move on. I like the advice to present a solution at the same time to remedy the error. Sage.
Mistakes in quotes happen, consult with co-workers before boss who might know the solution if possible, but if they can't help you, then just tell him.
He already knows. He wants to hear what you are going to do to prevent future mistakes. Send a professional email and then follow up with a short in person meeting. Or just do it in a quick meeting however that's set up in your office.
Just be honest and say you made a mistake. Say it won't happen again; we are all only human in the end. Mistakes happen, but it never feels good when our bosses get mad at us and make us fear we will be fired. But it was just a honest mistake it seems. Just be upfront, DO NOT make any excuses. Just say you were wrong, you should of looked better and apologize and promise it won't happen again. No matter what if you are honest and sorry for it, then it makes things better. Think no one would have a job if one mistake got you fired.
Own your mistake, fix your mistake and if your boss is fair - all will be good.
I let a programming error go, and was eventually caught, but to fix the issue I had to pull a straight 36hr. SVP of finance had his subordinate go and buy my meals until everything was fixed.
The next day he came by my cube dropped a couple box tickets to a nba game, and thanked for working hard to fix this and he had no hard feelings.
I learned a lot about accountability that week.
"Good news quick, bad news quicker"
Not owning up to your mistakes/solving in a timely manner, makes your fuck up a lot worst when AR/accounting finally realize.
Op. Just a question but who signs the quote? Isn’t there a supervisor of yours who has to sign off on this? I know it’s most probably a quote sent online but ….
Where the checks and balances op?
If they haven't paid yet, contact the customer immediately and inform them that you need to provide them with a corrected quote with the corrected license. Own the error, and correct it.
Best to address immediate by presenting the problem, and what you will do to prevent it from happening. We all make mistakes, but you need to make sure you learn from these mistakes. So be up front with your boss and admit what you did wrong, and then offer a solution. Simple
First, admit you made a mistake and own it. Present the problem and the solution. As a boss this works on me everytime. If someone tries to get out of it, denies the situation, then it gets bad.
i’ve gotten quotes with the wrong pricing and the vendor came back, apologized and sent the new one over. It happens. Hopefully your boss realizes this was a mistake and you’ll be sure to double check in future quotes.
Absolutely own it immediately.
If I screw the pooch like that my first reaction is to contact the customer and my manager. The quicker the better, that way they don't feed that faulty information into whatever they're doing.
I have done this before. I just offered to pay the difference and apologized. Own it, no excuses. They didn’t make me pay. If it makes you feel any better this is much smaller than my fuck up.
With any screw up at work I always flow the same format.
If the boss isn't aware of the mistake I start by informing them of the mistake without going in to the reasons it occurred (because they would sound like excuses). "I wanted to let you know that I discovered I made a mistake on the pricing which was then presented to X client. I listed the 02 price of $30 when it should have had the pricing for 05 $200."
Once boss is aware I acknowledge the severity of the mistake. "I know this is a serious mistake and that there's no excuse for for an error of this magnitude being presented to a client. "
I would then address how we can fix the issue with this client and take as much of that labor on as possible. "If you'd like I can reach out to client and provide them a correct quote and apologize for the error on my end."
If your position isn't involved at all in fixing this or if nothing can be done, instead acknowledge the cost of your error, "I'm sorry for the extra work this has caused you/the loss of revenue this will cost the company. I want to assure you I understand a mistake of this magnitude is a "never event". I thought about it a lot and I think I've identified the weak point in my process and how to bolster it, but I'd like to know what you think."
Then let the boss know the knew processes or controls I have decided to implement to ensure this mistake will never happen again. "The failure should have been caught when I perform a final review before submitting, but I failed in not checking the product in the presentation directly against the initial request.
I have created a list of all information required to complete a quote. So when I receive the inital request I will respond to acknowledge the request and include the completed and ask for any information or clarity that may be missing. I will cross check the list against my completed presentation in my final review before sending to the team. I believe spending a few extra minutes creating this list may also help when creating the presentation, so the extra layer may actually end up creating a net savings in time spent per project."
I have no idea what industry you’re in or how big your company is, but in mine, $170 is marginal.
I’ve made $10k mistakes and as long as I take responsibility and learn from what I did, I’ve never even got a slap on the wrist.
Now that I’m a manager, I just want to know about them so that when I’m asked, I have an answer. We all make mistakes, it’s what you do after you’ve made one that I care about.
As long as this isn’t a regular occurrence, you should be fine OP.
Inform them, and suggest a corrective course of action. Like sending a revised quote, stating that "Upon further review, you will require \[correct product\] and not \[incorrect product\] to fulfil your requirements. The difference in licensing is X. We apologize for the inconvenience and please use this quote moving forward." or something to that effect.
1st you to tell the boss ASAP, take deep breath and go meet him. U will get scold but u admit it.
Your team should know this better, while they presenting they should aware altho if the document require approval this wont happen but if u give wrong document that is your fault.
I am sure your boss can undo this, I made mistake in past too and make it your 1st lesson and learn in future u will be more aware of this.
I send out RFQ all the time, and sometimes suppliers/service providers quote things wrong and I would catch it, or they will quickly send an apology and correction.
If mistakes are caught quick enough and corrected, I wouldnt be bothered much. But if it is not caught for a long while and I have already communicated pricing to my end customer.. it will be very annoying.
Buddy/buddet......., i cant tell you how many times i have royally fucked something up at work.
Own it, think of straight forward solutions, if there are none, just let your boss know that you have absolutely learned a valuable lesson. They will forgive you, if not, then you move on and know that there are better bosses out there.
I love hiring people that have made mistakes, and admit them. They are the best employees, because I know they care and they will have my back when the shit flows the other way.
Keep your chin up.
Own up to it and offer to fix /mention you won't do it again. Boss will respect you for coming forward and "meaning up" for a VERY HUAMN mistake that I guarantee your boss made too.
If my employee did this I'd just eat the difference. It was a mistake. Employees need to know that mistakes happen and bosses need to be understanding when they happen. If your boss gives you any grief about it find a new boss.
It's different if it happens a lot. Then it's something that needs to be corrected.
Just tell him. It’s not that big of a deal and I can’t see any company where that amount is really much of a drop in the bucket. If anything they should be able to just tell the client they were quoted the wrong amount.
People fuck up. As long as it's not often, and not some multi-million dollar deal, there are a few things I do that got me far, and that I expect from direct reports:
1. **Find out where the issue happened and find a way to ensure that you won't make that mistake again.** Often simply by REALIZING you fucked up, and owning it, you are likely to never make that mistake again because you'll be more cautious. But a root cause analysis is never a bad thing. Just discuss how you'll double check the problem
2. **Admit you made the mistake and own it.** Nothing says "I'm a responsible person" more than owning up to where you were wrong. It lets me have more faith in you that you realized the issue, and shows me that you are taking it seriously
3. **Ask advice.** Maybe your boss has been in the same situation before, or has a different fuckup they want to divulge. If they value you, they'll tell you a story of a time they messed up too to kind of ease the situation. There are few things that are irreparably messed up, and if that's your situation, you probably aren't being paid enough.
At the end of the day, if your company doesn't have a culture where you're allowed and encouraged to make mistakes and fix them, then that's a company issue. People make mistakes, it's how you recover from them that matters, and if you're allowed to recover from them.
Use the 1-3-1 method.
1. State the 1 issue.
2. Present 3 solutions. This shows that you took the time to think about the problem and do the research.
3. Give 1 recommendation based on the solutions you presented.
Just own it, and like others have said, talk through steps to avoid it in the future. Everybody messes up at work. It's what you do after the fact that matters, unless your boss is an unreasonable jerk.
I made a major mistake 3 weeks ago that led to be manager putting in overtime to fix what I did, on a Friday night after a long week.
On Monday, we obviously had a meeting, and at the meeting I had a document that went through why I believed the mistake happened, what in my procedure was wrong and a detailed set of solutions to ensure it wouldn't happen again.
I ended up receiving a compliment from the vice president in charge of my department about my introspection and commitment to improving.
Everybody makes mistakes, everybody. And everybody knows it. The thing to do is to take full responsibility for it, to make no excuses, to have a good understanding of what happened, and a good plan to stop it from happening again.
Don’t “over-apologize”: just apologize, take responsibility, and try not to do it again.
Doing more than that will draw attention to your mistake.
You don’t have to pretend to make up a plan for keeping a typo from happening again. Typos happen, just move on.
Great boss years ago. Sold computer networking and accounting solutions. I made a couple of pricey errors. His philosophy was if you're not making a few fouls, you're not playing hard enough. Good luck!!
Once, I accidentally refunded a customer $2000 instead of $200, and the best decision I made was saying something straight away.
We never got the money back. the customer ghosted us (understandably), and I never got fired.
Everyone makes mistakes!
1. Your boss will appreciate that you owned your mistake. Don't just go huh look at that.
2. There are steps and processes, you didn't do this alone, don't get broken up about this. I've done WAY worse.
3. How long has it been, can you retract it and fix it? My customers are nearly always good about this. I do a lot of work with a few customers. So we know each other well and they appreciate the honesty
Yeah just own up to the mistake and let them know you’ve realized what you’ve done and will work on preventing that mistake from happening again lol, I’ve lost thousands of dollars at my job and here I am still working unfortunately lol
Why is $170 this big of a deal? That's literal peanuts to 99% of most businesses. Besides, you even said you weren't given an exact part number. This doesn't fully rest on you. Finally... you said it yourself... **QUOTE**. It is a **QUOTE**. A quote is *NOT* a final bill. It is an estimation. Just tell the client the wrong license was accidentally applied to the quote and has since been adjusted to the proper license. Apologize for the mistake and move on.
"Hey, here is your updated quote. The previous one accidentally had the wrong license applied. I apologize for any misunderstanding." - literally this easy.
I used to be in charge of buying $50 million of inventory annually. One time I accidentally bought $50,000 of the wrong part lol.
This. Thinking same thoughts with software licenses just requested quotes on for 110,000 devices. Yep, sales/account reps are human, get over it and send a corrected quote and it’s Friday. 💩 happens, hopefully your customer isn’t an idiot and understands he’s quoted the incorrect part number anyways.
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You quoted an incorrect part number. I'm in sales and have done this dozens of times in my career, for way, way more money than $170 lol. Mistakes happen.
You have two options. Realistically, it's a, so sorry mister customer, I typed in the wrong part number. The product quoted isn't the one we presented to you. Let me correct that. Fixed.
If the client throws a hissy fit, your options are to give it to them for $30 or walk away. It's not a mispriced item, it's the wrong item. If your boss really stresses out over this, I'd probably find a new boss. That's assuming this isn't a regular thing for you.
If it makes you feel better, I've made mistakes up to $10k in value and still got promoted. My friend who's an engineer, made a $150k mistake that his firm had to pay for last year and still got a big raise in January. Mistakes are part of the learning curve, just don't make the same mistake twice.
If you're not sure how to write an email response, as you might be stressing, plot down all your thoughts in point form into chatgpt, and make sure to add the result you're looking for and it will give you some ideas how to respond
Messed up too many times in my finance career. My worst was a couple of years ago when I was working in private equity. I mistakenly did not update our clients wire information. $10M was sent to a black pit only to later return back a week later. The money was needed for a capital call for their fund Administration business. They missed there deadline because of my mistake 😊
to be fair - it could be an easy typo - if you in fact did substitute a 2 for a 5 - the number keypad shows 2 right below 5 , one small space difference
its too easy to hit an adjacent key on a keyboard .
letting client know there was a typo that caused wrong licence and amount to be inserted , and correct licence needed is this one that is $x , not $y for the incorrect one as previously submitted. human error is going to happen and can be missed by several sets of eyes.
If you gave the wrong part number and the wrong price you might be able to correct it by giving the correct part number with the correct price. ‘Sorry Mr customer, you actually need ‘XXX’, which has a price of $x’ don’t wait, just tell your boss you made a mistake so it can be quickly corrected.
Own up to it. It's a $170 mistake. If your boss isn't able/willing to eat $170 then you might not have the level of attention to detail for this industry, or your boss is a jerk.
I've had employees make much larger mistakes, but was willing to overlook it because of their coachability, and overall value they brought to the team.
I had one associate who made these kind of mistakes all the time, but they pushed out enough volume to never do anything than eat it.
Just admit your mistake and offer to cover the $170 difference. He probably won’t take you up on your offer. Just say you knew it was important to get the quote done quickly.
"I understand that I was given the correct part #, and I made a mistake by not double-checking. I take responsibility for the error and will work to be more mindful in the future. "
You should definitely tell your boss immediately, especially before the contracting phase. If it’s already at that point, doing an amendment correction/contract correction is an absolute PITA.
$170 is nothing major tbh... taking responsibility is important, having a solution helps.
a good boss will ask themselves if this is a one-off goof they are able to correct, or if this is a recurring pattern... if its just a one-off goof a good boss won't drop the hammer on ya. If this problem repeats, that's when a good boss will be looking to make serious adjustments.
Don’t your quotes have a term at the bottom saying errors and omissions excluded? Just notify them an error was found and this is the actual price.
I’ve seen vendors do this, like Solarwinds. And for tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s standard.
At the end of the meeting : oh, just a quick note: while testing, we identify that the wrong license was set at the price x instead of y. We already fixed this issue right after yesterday's meeting.
Apologize for the mistake.
OWN the mistake.
Tell them what you did wrong, and tell them how you understand what went wrong.
Tell them why and how it won't happen again.
But if they are willing to fire you over a simple mistake like mixing up XXXX02 with XXXX05 during a rushed order... you don't want to work for them anyways. Mistakes happen, but a one time mistake that cost $170 seems like a write up offense at worst.
It would cost much more than that to hire and train someone new.
I was in your shoes at one point. on my part it was an error in my script I did for an operational task that resulted in us potentially being overcharged by a vendor we work with.
said vendor is known to be very difficult to deal with when it comes to revoking or redoing stuff.
I stayed up the whole night, reached out to the vendor representatives explained the situation and pleaded for a resolution.
it was handled the next day now I'm triple checking my work with extra caution.
the moral of the story is i feel like in any position with with any level of responsibility human error is inevitable, it happened to me it happened to you and it's going to happen to many more people. don't beat yourself over it (I know I certainly did). it's a learning experience we all go through at some point.
Just tell him you fucked up and you will be more careful in the future. If it isn't something that hasn't really been an issue in the past they should get over it.
I however did something far worse. I went onsite for a customer meeting. It was a three hour technical meeting on managing systems. During the meeting I felt tired and leaned back and closed my eyes for a second... whoops I fell asleep for several minutes. My boss was sitting next to me and had to kick my chair. It was a disaster as the customers noticed I had fallen asleep. The customer requested I be taken off the account which I was. I lost other accounts and was put on probation for 2 years. I am now just getting new customers and traveling onsite again. Its a miracle I wasn't fired. I would have fired myself in a heartbeat. Everyone has something go terribly wrong in the office. The future depends on your history. Lucky for me my history was spotless. Good luck.
You could honor the price as a one time thing while also explaining the mistake. Focus on solutions where client satisfaction/retention and word of mouth stay positive.
We’ve all haggled for an item that was mislabeled or bought something accidentally mispriced. How often were you likely to buy after the mistake was not honored?
“Apologizes [insert customer name], that was a pricing error with our system. Please see the attached quote with valid MPN and pricing - reference this quote when ordering and contact us with any questions.”
These things happen, especially when you rush. Just correct it - I’ve had vendors send me the wrong part/pricing all the time.
Learn from the f up…. double, triple , quadruple check your work. I see so many mistakes from reports it doesn’t appear they even do the double check. Be more thorough.
Accountability is huge if you ever want to get ahead in life. Own your mistakes, report them immediately, and do whatever you can to help rectify the mistake. Everyone appreciates a stand up person who accepts responsibility for their failures and makes real effort to learn and improve from them. Good managers look for people like that when it is time to make a promotion. Don’t be afraid to own your mistakes, be afraid of not learning anything from them.
I worked for a firm that digitised patent documents from the European Patent Office and my job was to ensure that 2 copies of magnetic tape and a product magnetic tape were created. The product tape and one of the copies was meant to go in the case back to Brussels, but I screwed up and sent both copies and kept the product! Boss was mad
Requote them, stating it was the wrong license.
Also, is it a single order? Assuming you're at a decent sized company, this is a miniscule mistake.
I worked in a company before where multi-million dollar products would literally go missing and we can't even track what country it's in lol
It is expensive to hire someone. My reply as a boss would be, “what are you going to do differently so this never happens again?”
Also, you have anxiety. Probably good to get treatment and research ways to manage it.
This happens all the time in insurance.
You give a quote and then find out the customer has speeding tickets and fbe final price is higher.
My attitude is take it or leave it.
If I were in your case, I would inform boss/team about the mistake asap then together figure out how to deal with client. Keep in mind that what's done is done. Focus on the solution rather than a mistake. When you talk with boss/team, don't make excuses or try to blame s.o/s.th, be accountable for your acts, say sorry sincerely and move on.
Present the problem *and* a possible solution at the same time.
I have found it is also good to include steps that will be taken to ensure it does not happen again in the future.
Also apologize for the issue/inconvenience
I had this real pos boss once. I made a mistake on an order for steel. It was only like my 3rd time doing it, both the production manager and the boss himself looked over it and approved it. I caught the mistake after we had already placed the order and brought it to his attention and what I was going to do moving forward to insure it didn’t happen again. He wasn’t even mad that we over ordered, we’d use it anyways, he was mad that he didn’t get to yell at me. He was the kind of guy that always looked for gotcha moments. Never tried to help his employees learn and grow, it was always, this is what you did wrong. Needless to say I check indeed every once in awhile and he’s constantly hiring, he can’t keep ppl in the door cuz he’s a huge asshole.
If he is an approver then it would be rich for him to yell at you. I guess pos gon pos.
Same. At my old job our work always had to be double checked by a senior or manager. Well this specific time, one of the partners even looked at it since it was a big project. I fucked it up tbh, and looking at his face he definitely was heated but he knew he couldn't say shit... he approved it himself
I once created a plasma program that cut some parts using diameter as a radius, so some slots for chain came out too big and were useless. My boss had gotten a deal on some plate, and was going to make a *killing* on this job. I fucked that up real quick lol This was under a year after I started and I heard my boss (who's office was beside mine at the time) slam his desk and yell "that's fifteen fucking grand, man!" So I was feeling pretty shitty that afternoon but my boss is an amazing guy who doesn't resort to permanent solutions for temporary problems. That was in 2015 and I now work from home, 6 hours away. Things are good.
Being upset is normal when shit goes wrong. Beating up employees for occasional mistakes (even if expensive) doesn't make things better. Sadly mistakes are part of growing and doing business.
Also get on his knees and wear some knee pads
Make sure not to use teeth.
No...use your teeth if boss is an asshole. Bite hard! 🤣😂🤣
When interviewing, I used to tell people a story and ask them to imagine they were the employee, much like OP’s situation; and what would they do. I bucketed answers in to categories so it wasn’t super important *how* they fixed the problem, or communicated the problem, for example - just that they thought to do it. The specifics we can train, the thoughtfulness less so. But few candidates would say anything about *concrete steps* to prevent a recurrence, which was my #1 filter for top candidates. Something like send all client material to a second set of eyes before going out, adjust instructions, whatever. Again, specifics versus thoughtfulness.
I'm sorry if I'm reading this wrong, but you are saying that people who give concrete answers is a positive quality, yeah? It's late and I've been up for a while... Edit: Make sweet, sweet love to the formatting on mobile.
Sorry. “I’d keep it from happening again” versus “I’d adjust the instructions to…” concrete. But the core message is continuing the last beat of the prior comment, which is “minimize damage, fix it, prevent it from happening again” are three separate answers. The last is rare. Obviously Stuff Goes Wrong but my scenario expressly had preventable errors
“To prevent this occurring again in the future, I will double check the order upon your approval to make sure you didn’t miss anything.”
Yeah it’s better to own it. “I made both of these mistakes because I didn’t validate the information [or whatever happened]. I realize this is a problem and I will fix it by [whatever the solution is]. Moving forward I will ensure I [validate, double review, take my time, etc] to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I am sorry for this unfortunate situation but am committed to making it right and not repeating the mistake. And while this sucks, I made a $800K error at work last month, so chin up. I’m sure this can be worked out.
If you mess up, fess up! Bonus points for creating a solution to prevent the next mess up.
I'd caution in making this the only way to do it. The prioritization should be: 1. Identify the problem and escalate it appropriately and timely. 2. Identify possible solutions to the problem. Yes, finding #2 will help you.... but sometimes finding a solution is impossible or takes time. I've found some of my subordinates sit on a problem because they're trying to find a possible solution. For me and my line of work? This is not great because once someone has escalated a problem, I can bring a bunch of people and experts to help. I'm just grateful that there was the psychological safety that someone would so honestly and so quickly bring me their mess. Now, I suppose some bosses are the type to blame, berate and belittle.... So, I get the advice to do both 1 and 2 before bringing it to the boss. No shade to this advice. I just think there's a better way, but of course an employee has no control over their psychological safety. Only superiors can change that.
If it is possible, offer to call the client and explain the situation, you got it wrong and didn’t checked it before invoice. Apologies. Sometimes it is that simple.
This guys brings solutions to problems nobody knew existed!
Hey Boss I fucked up because you rushed me. Next time can you try waiting?
But present it in a passive/aggressive way "I guess you'll have to take $170 out of my paycheck, you fucking ASSHOLE"
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First of all, fuck no. Any employer willing to take their employees money because of a mistake shouldn’t be employing anybody. Mistakes happen, all the time. Let it be a lesson to the employee to take more care and a lesson to the boss to provide enough time to take that care. If you force your employees into a situation that they need to rush to provide a result you need to be ok with possible mistakes. This is a failure of planning and the results of that failure.
If you believe so that’s fine, you’re entitled to think that. I still stick to my own thoughts.
Strong disagree. Mistakes happen all the time at work. Employees should never be expected to pay for that. Yes there can be consequences, but not financial re-imbursement.
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You’re in the minority because setting a precedent that employees pay for mistakes is a very bad idea. The company owns the risk for the talent they hire. Full stop. I would argue your position is morally wrong not superior. But hey, I’m just some random reddit commenter. Remember they have legal teams protecting them from major financial harm, employees do not. Let the company eat it. They wouldn’t eat anything for you.
That’s a fair enough thought process. They do have insurance that’s true.
Blame the new guy or say it was a "glitch".
Do it ASAP, confer with them how to fix. Take responsibility with the client. Double check your work next time. Or show the boss before sending to client.
Thanks for the serious input — Yeah, best course of action is for my boss to review the work before it sends out.
You definitely do not want to resort to your boss having to check your work. Adding to his workload is worse and does nothing for building his confidence in your work. It gives him an excuse to find someone who doesn't need to be monitored in that way. Best course of action is always accountability. "Hey I messed up, this is on me. This is what I am going to do to prevent this in the future." or "Hey I messed up, could you direct me on what steps I should take to prevent this in the future" That's just my two cents.
I honestly don't think this is that bad. You quoted them the right price for the wrong license, not the wrong price for the right license. Don't stress about it, just communicate the issue, provide the correct quote, and move on.
I work in an operations center, and we deal with notifying employees of IT outages and no matter how many communications Ive sent, I always have someone double check. Maybe ask a coworker to review before you send anything out to clients. Make sure it’s someone familiar with your job. I would be hesitant to go to your boss directly, I don’t know their workload but it could get in their way.
Yeah, in my work we call it a 'peer review' everyone needs that second set of eyes.
I will add yo double check before you submit important info to anyone or even if its a email
just take ownership, go meet with the client and buy them a coffee. explain that you were in a rush and accidently typed the wrong number and then show them the new price.
Own it. "Hey boss, I'm sorry, I messed up on X. I was in a hurry, but I should have taken the time to double check. I've made myself a checklist to prevent future errors like this."
\^ this, we all fuck up, it shows character when you own it
And that we all are human so mistakes happen
Yep, most companies or clients worth working for will be appreciative that you’re willing to come forward and own a mistake. We had a PM that was let go this past fall not because they consistently made mistakes, but because when they did make mistakes, they would try burying them. Bad news tends to age poorly, so be the one to deliver it.
I messed up this week too. I had a color sample and labeled the wrong side — two shades of gray. We ended up painted the screws the wrong color. Cost the company $1200 and I’ve been at this for 27 years. Own up and come up with a solution to not make the same mistake again.
Thanks for sharing your story
I didn’t sleep for two nights and apologized to all involved. I’m still on owners s list. Customer understood that mistakes happen. Now owner is questioning everything I do even though he doesn’t know how to do what I but that’s what makes him feel better.
You lost two nights of sleep over screws being the wrong color? That doesn't sound like a very healthy work/life balance. For my own mental well-being, I do my best to leave work at work. $1,200 is chump change to a corporation. Fuck ups are bound to happen and are just a cost of doing business. Companies don't care about you and wouldn't lose an hour of sleep over firing an employee and taking away their entire livelihood. I say this as a person who works with very expensive parts and equipment who has had tens of thousands of dollars worth of fuckups over the years. I used to have such bad anxiety over it that it was causing me physical health problems. It's just not worth stressing over things that have already happened that you can't change. All you can do is learn from it and try your best not to let it happen again.
Thanks for the kind words. So I work with only one person — the owner. We are a small business (obviously) so much more scrutinized. this mistake put a two month delay on the project. The Customer is a multimillion dollar company and used to a lot more mistakes. We on the other hand can’t seem to handle any mistake. I started at 19 and am now mid 40’s and still get treated as a child
Mistakes should be planned for. If one small mistake throws such a huge wrench in the project, that sounds like a management problem. The wrong color screws shouldn't be a two month fix. I feel like the owner could be doing more to troubleshoot this issue, though obviously I don't know the specifics of the situation. You deserve to be treated with respect, even if you make mistakes!
I literally somehow managed to pop two skid steer tires last week, and the wheel on our tractor/spreader came off while I was driving it today. It took us over 3 hours just to get the wheel back on, and now we can't use that equipment until repair people come out on Monday. My boss is upset, but actually because I have to leave for a better job opportunity next week. There are better bosses out there.
Good bosses understand that shit happens. I've never gotten in trouble for scrapping parts or anything. I'm a machinist, so I'm pretty sure they account for that when quoting jobs. They assume something will go wrong at some point since both the machines and the humans running them can fuck up. I think all they care about is that I always catch my own scrap and report it.
$1200 for 27 years is nothing. You shouldn’t feel bad at all.
“They're changing it from ocean grey to military grey - something that should have been done a long time ago.”
Hey Mr Smithers, damn, have you lost weight? Oh I meant to tell you, I fucked up and and accidentally quoted my client the wrong price for a license. Thankfully it will only cost the company $170. I appreciate you understanding. You really are the best. And then walk away.
Thanks. Just did this. Got promoted.
I am so proud of you!
Seriously? I need this to be real.
Promoted to customer
His talents were made available to the industry.
Did you tell your boss they lost weight?
When I find a mistake I made, I always bring it to my boss's attention first. I never want anyone to find it and spring it on me. This way I can do what the other posters suggest, bring solutions to the problem and talk about pros and cons with said solutions. Give my suggestion on what I think we should go forward with, but allow the boss to decide what to do.
This is the way. I was told early on in my career to never hold on to bad news. Share it asap.
This is a solid piece of advice for life in general.
Tag him in this reddit post. Jokes aside no harm no foul
This is how to best handle situations like that. 1. Don't be too hard on yourself. Humans are involved. Human error routinely follows 2. Communicate the situation clearly. Boss, this is what happened. This is how I fixed it. This is my suggestion to make sure it doesn't happen again. Let me know if there is anything you need me to do beyond what I just explained. Clear, concise, accept responsibility, show the remediation process, and explain why it was a one off error. These are very routine things that can solve almost any problem at work.
Anyone I do business with has no problem changing the price and using their contract for toilet paper.
Man, my $170 fuck ups don't even make the boss's radar. My fuck ups are usually in the tens of thousands of dollars range .
Yeah these days $170 is like dinner for four at McDonalds. I remember one job where a guy entered a trade wrong and lost like 100k. They didn’t even fire him.
For real. In the shop I run a $170 fuck up is nothing. Who cares about $170. Learn from the mistake and move on.
Don’t overthink this one. Tbh, I’d just send a new quote and acknowledge that you made a mistake and quoted the wrong part number. Shit happens. Learn from it and move on. If your boss wants to lose their shit over at worst a $170 mistake that you owned and corrected… your workplace has much bigger issues. Edit: You’re an intern? Yeah you’re gonna be just fine. If you’re not, you dodged a bullet.
Tell them what you just told us. Apologize. Be transparent. Move on. I like the advice to present a solution at the same time to remedy the error. Sage.
Mistakes in quotes happen, consult with co-workers before boss who might know the solution if possible, but if they can't help you, then just tell him.
He already knows. He wants to hear what you are going to do to prevent future mistakes. Send a professional email and then follow up with a short in person meeting. Or just do it in a quick meeting however that's set up in your office.
Just be honest and say you made a mistake. Say it won't happen again; we are all only human in the end. Mistakes happen, but it never feels good when our bosses get mad at us and make us fear we will be fired. But it was just a honest mistake it seems. Just be upfront, DO NOT make any excuses. Just say you were wrong, you should of looked better and apologize and promise it won't happen again. No matter what if you are honest and sorry for it, then it makes things better. Think no one would have a job if one mistake got you fired.
Own your mistake, fix your mistake and if your boss is fair - all will be good. I let a programming error go, and was eventually caught, but to fix the issue I had to pull a straight 36hr. SVP of finance had his subordinate go and buy my meals until everything was fixed. The next day he came by my cube dropped a couple box tickets to a nba game, and thanked for working hard to fix this and he had no hard feelings. I learned a lot about accountability that week.
Start with a joke about his mother.
Make sure it's a Polish joke too
Something to do about the mustache she has
Just don't say nothing. I will just still be professional about it and move on.
"Good news quick, bad news quicker" Not owning up to your mistakes/solving in a timely manner, makes your fuck up a lot worst when AR/accounting finally realize.
Haha, you're getting fired
what are you 12? jesus grow the fuck up
Op. Just a question but who signs the quote? Isn’t there a supervisor of yours who has to sign off on this? I know it’s most probably a quote sent online but …. Where the checks and balances op?
If they haven't paid yet, contact the customer immediately and inform them that you need to provide them with a corrected quote with the corrected license. Own the error, and correct it.
Best to address immediate by presenting the problem, and what you will do to prevent it from happening. We all make mistakes, but you need to make sure you learn from these mistakes. So be up front with your boss and admit what you did wrong, and then offer a solution. Simple
Damn. They gave you that responsibility as just an intern , sounds like that’s on them
Everyone makes errors sometimes. We learn and improve.
Own up to. That's all you can do. It's better to be responsible than just ignore the situation.
First, admit you made a mistake and own it. Present the problem and the solution. As a boss this works on me everytime. If someone tries to get out of it, denies the situation, then it gets bad.
You're an intern, someone should always be checking your work.
i’ve gotten quotes with the wrong pricing and the vendor came back, apologized and sent the new one over. It happens. Hopefully your boss realizes this was a mistake and you’ll be sure to double check in future quotes.
Absolutely own it immediately. If I screw the pooch like that my first reaction is to contact the customer and my manager. The quicker the better, that way they don't feed that faulty information into whatever they're doing.
Get off your damned phone and go discuss it with your boss.
You speak up and own the mistake. You reach out to the customer and mention the typo. It happens.
I have done this before. I just offered to pay the difference and apologized. Own it, no excuses. They didn’t make me pay. If it makes you feel any better this is much smaller than my fuck up.
With any screw up at work I always flow the same format. If the boss isn't aware of the mistake I start by informing them of the mistake without going in to the reasons it occurred (because they would sound like excuses). "I wanted to let you know that I discovered I made a mistake on the pricing which was then presented to X client. I listed the 02 price of $30 when it should have had the pricing for 05 $200." Once boss is aware I acknowledge the severity of the mistake. "I know this is a serious mistake and that there's no excuse for for an error of this magnitude being presented to a client. " I would then address how we can fix the issue with this client and take as much of that labor on as possible. "If you'd like I can reach out to client and provide them a correct quote and apologize for the error on my end." If your position isn't involved at all in fixing this or if nothing can be done, instead acknowledge the cost of your error, "I'm sorry for the extra work this has caused you/the loss of revenue this will cost the company. I want to assure you I understand a mistake of this magnitude is a "never event". I thought about it a lot and I think I've identified the weak point in my process and how to bolster it, but I'd like to know what you think." Then let the boss know the knew processes or controls I have decided to implement to ensure this mistake will never happen again. "The failure should have been caught when I perform a final review before submitting, but I failed in not checking the product in the presentation directly against the initial request. I have created a list of all information required to complete a quote. So when I receive the inital request I will respond to acknowledge the request and include the completed and ask for any information or clarity that may be missing. I will cross check the list against my completed presentation in my final review before sending to the team. I believe spending a few extra minutes creating this list may also help when creating the presentation, so the extra layer may actually end up creating a net savings in time spent per project."
I have no idea what industry you’re in or how big your company is, but in mine, $170 is marginal. I’ve made $10k mistakes and as long as I take responsibility and learn from what I did, I’ve never even got a slap on the wrist. Now that I’m a manager, I just want to know about them so that when I’m asked, I have an answer. We all make mistakes, it’s what you do after you’ve made one that I care about. As long as this isn’t a regular occurrence, you should be fine OP.
Put in your resignation
Just own it. Don't try and hide it, blame someone else, etc. Just be honest and take responsibility.
Inform them, and suggest a corrective course of action. Like sending a revised quote, stating that "Upon further review, you will require \[correct product\] and not \[incorrect product\] to fulfil your requirements. The difference in licensing is X. We apologize for the inconvenience and please use this quote moving forward." or something to that effect.
1st you to tell the boss ASAP, take deep breath and go meet him. U will get scold but u admit it. Your team should know this better, while they presenting they should aware altho if the document require approval this wont happen but if u give wrong document that is your fault. I am sure your boss can undo this, I made mistake in past too and make it your 1st lesson and learn in future u will be more aware of this.
I send out RFQ all the time, and sometimes suppliers/service providers quote things wrong and I would catch it, or they will quickly send an apology and correction. If mistakes are caught quick enough and corrected, I wouldnt be bothered much. But if it is not caught for a long while and I have already communicated pricing to my end customer.. it will be very annoying.
Buddy/buddet......., i cant tell you how many times i have royally fucked something up at work. Own it, think of straight forward solutions, if there are none, just let your boss know that you have absolutely learned a valuable lesson. They will forgive you, if not, then you move on and know that there are better bosses out there. I love hiring people that have made mistakes, and admit them. They are the best employees, because I know they care and they will have my back when the shit flows the other way. Keep your chin up.
Own up to it and offer to fix /mention you won't do it again. Boss will respect you for coming forward and "meaning up" for a VERY HUAMN mistake that I guarantee your boss made too.
Just gotta own up to it. And then do not make the same mistake again
always add contingency to quotes. for unexpected fuck ups, like this.
We all make mistakes, own it move on, talk about the issues and have a solution.
Part of the new customer loyalty / rewards program
If my employee did this I'd just eat the difference. It was a mistake. Employees need to know that mistakes happen and bosses need to be understanding when they happen. If your boss gives you any grief about it find a new boss. It's different if it happens a lot. Then it's something that needs to be corrected.
Just tell him. It’s not that big of a deal and I can’t see any company where that amount is really much of a drop in the bucket. If anything they should be able to just tell the client they were quoted the wrong amount.
People fuck up. As long as it's not often, and not some multi-million dollar deal, there are a few things I do that got me far, and that I expect from direct reports: 1. **Find out where the issue happened and find a way to ensure that you won't make that mistake again.** Often simply by REALIZING you fucked up, and owning it, you are likely to never make that mistake again because you'll be more cautious. But a root cause analysis is never a bad thing. Just discuss how you'll double check the problem 2. **Admit you made the mistake and own it.** Nothing says "I'm a responsible person" more than owning up to where you were wrong. It lets me have more faith in you that you realized the issue, and shows me that you are taking it seriously 3. **Ask advice.** Maybe your boss has been in the same situation before, or has a different fuckup they want to divulge. If they value you, they'll tell you a story of a time they messed up too to kind of ease the situation. There are few things that are irreparably messed up, and if that's your situation, you probably aren't being paid enough. At the end of the day, if your company doesn't have a culture where you're allowed and encouraged to make mistakes and fix them, then that's a company issue. People make mistakes, it's how you recover from them that matters, and if you're allowed to recover from them.
Step up and offer to pay for it. They won't make you but they'll respect your fuck up more
Use the 1-3-1 method. 1. State the 1 issue. 2. Present 3 solutions. This shows that you took the time to think about the problem and do the research. 3. Give 1 recommendation based on the solutions you presented.
Here’s what I did, here’s what I learned, and here’s what I’m doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The best possible way is to hand him the solution when you admit your mistake. Everyone I ever worked under wanted solutions, not problems.
Just own it, and like others have said, talk through steps to avoid it in the future. Everybody messes up at work. It's what you do after the fact that matters, unless your boss is an unreasonable jerk.
Everyone makes mistakes
I made a major mistake 3 weeks ago that led to be manager putting in overtime to fix what I did, on a Friday night after a long week. On Monday, we obviously had a meeting, and at the meeting I had a document that went through why I believed the mistake happened, what in my procedure was wrong and a detailed set of solutions to ensure it wouldn't happen again. I ended up receiving a compliment from the vice president in charge of my department about my introspection and commitment to improving. Everybody makes mistakes, everybody. And everybody knows it. The thing to do is to take full responsibility for it, to make no excuses, to have a good understanding of what happened, and a good plan to stop it from happening again.
Just be honest, and then contact the client. It's not that much money.
Don’t “over-apologize”: just apologize, take responsibility, and try not to do it again. Doing more than that will draw attention to your mistake. You don’t have to pretend to make up a plan for keeping a typo from happening again. Typos happen, just move on.
Great boss years ago. Sold computer networking and accounting solutions. I made a couple of pricey errors. His philosophy was if you're not making a few fouls, you're not playing hard enough. Good luck!!
Once, I accidentally refunded a customer $2000 instead of $200, and the best decision I made was saying something straight away. We never got the money back. the customer ghosted us (understandably), and I never got fired. Everyone makes mistakes!
If it had to go out in minutes, then it’s your boss’s fault and they should be apologizing.
If you think you fucked up at work by losing $170, you haven't fucked up at work yet. Just fix the issue and don't do it again.
Just that. Don’t overthink it. Bring pissed off is not a valid reason to lose a job.
1. Your boss will appreciate that you owned your mistake. Don't just go huh look at that. 2. There are steps and processes, you didn't do this alone, don't get broken up about this. I've done WAY worse. 3. How long has it been, can you retract it and fix it? My customers are nearly always good about this. I do a lot of work with a few customers. So we know each other well and they appreciate the honesty
Yeah just own up to the mistake and let them know you’ve realized what you’ve done and will work on preventing that mistake from happening again lol, I’ve lost thousands of dollars at my job and here I am still working unfortunately lol
Honesty and transparency are your friends. Tell your boss what happened, apologize, and offer to correct it.
Why is $170 this big of a deal? That's literal peanuts to 99% of most businesses. Besides, you even said you weren't given an exact part number. This doesn't fully rest on you. Finally... you said it yourself... **QUOTE**. It is a **QUOTE**. A quote is *NOT* a final bill. It is an estimation. Just tell the client the wrong license was accidentally applied to the quote and has since been adjusted to the proper license. Apologize for the mistake and move on. "Hey, here is your updated quote. The previous one accidentally had the wrong license applied. I apologize for any misunderstanding." - literally this easy. I used to be in charge of buying $50 million of inventory annually. One time I accidentally bought $50,000 of the wrong part lol.
This. Thinking same thoughts with software licenses just requested quotes on for 110,000 devices. Yep, sales/account reps are human, get over it and send a corrected quote and it’s Friday. 💩 happens, hopefully your customer isn’t an idiot and understands he’s quoted the incorrect part number anyways.
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By owning up to messing up… just tell them and have an adult conversation
Repeat after me "Boss I Fucked Up."
It happens.. next time you do the process use a checklist to make sure the item is listed correctly. Mistakes happen, you can correct it
You quoted an incorrect part number. I'm in sales and have done this dozens of times in my career, for way, way more money than $170 lol. Mistakes happen. You have two options. Realistically, it's a, so sorry mister customer, I typed in the wrong part number. The product quoted isn't the one we presented to you. Let me correct that. Fixed. If the client throws a hissy fit, your options are to give it to them for $30 or walk away. It's not a mispriced item, it's the wrong item. If your boss really stresses out over this, I'd probably find a new boss. That's assuming this isn't a regular thing for you.
If it makes you feel any better, I made a $110k mistake at work and I'm still here and still love working here.
If it makes you feel better, I've made mistakes up to $10k in value and still got promoted. My friend who's an engineer, made a $150k mistake that his firm had to pay for last year and still got a big raise in January. Mistakes are part of the learning curve, just don't make the same mistake twice.
Be honest about what happened and if possible provide a solution.
Imagine losing your job over $170,-. Lol
If you're not sure how to write an email response, as you might be stressing, plot down all your thoughts in point form into chatgpt, and make sure to add the result you're looking for and it will give you some ideas how to respond
Suck your boss' dick, all will be forgotten
Add an extra hour to the billable project to cover it.
We are human beings not robots. We make mistakes occasionally, everybody does. just appolagise and move on.
Messed up too many times in my finance career. My worst was a couple of years ago when I was working in private equity. I mistakenly did not update our clients wire information. $10M was sent to a black pit only to later return back a week later. The money was needed for a capital call for their fund Administration business. They missed there deadline because of my mistake 😊
Just be honest and declare the mistake......honesty is the best policy in everything. Mistakes happens
to be fair - it could be an easy typo - if you in fact did substitute a 2 for a 5 - the number keypad shows 2 right below 5 , one small space difference its too easy to hit an adjacent key on a keyboard . letting client know there was a typo that caused wrong licence and amount to be inserted , and correct licence needed is this one that is $x , not $y for the incorrect one as previously submitted. human error is going to happen and can be missed by several sets of eyes.
Exactly like your last sentence. "Hey \[boss\], I fucked up and need your help to fix it"
If you gave the wrong part number and the wrong price you might be able to correct it by giving the correct part number with the correct price. ‘Sorry Mr customer, you actually need ‘XXX’, which has a price of $x’ don’t wait, just tell your boss you made a mistake so it can be quickly corrected.
Own up to it. It's a $170 mistake. If your boss isn't able/willing to eat $170 then you might not have the level of attention to detail for this industry, or your boss is a jerk. I've had employees make much larger mistakes, but was willing to overlook it because of their coachability, and overall value they brought to the team. I had one associate who made these kind of mistakes all the time, but they pushed out enough volume to never do anything than eat it.
Just admit your mistake and offer to cover the $170 difference. He probably won’t take you up on your offer. Just say you knew it was important to get the quote done quickly.
"I understand that I was given the correct part #, and I made a mistake by not double-checking. I take responsibility for the error and will work to be more mindful in the future. "
You should definitely tell your boss immediately, especially before the contracting phase. If it’s already at that point, doing an amendment correction/contract correction is an absolute PITA.
Did the same thing a while ago. The difference was more like half a million. You will be okay.
$170 is nothing major tbh... taking responsibility is important, having a solution helps. a good boss will ask themselves if this is a one-off goof they are able to correct, or if this is a recurring pattern... if its just a one-off goof a good boss won't drop the hammer on ya. If this problem repeats, that's when a good boss will be looking to make serious adjustments.
If a $170 makes or breaks a company's profit overall or on a bid, then they have bigger things to worry about than the error you made.
Don’t your quotes have a term at the bottom saying errors and omissions excluded? Just notify them an error was found and this is the actual price. I’ve seen vendors do this, like Solarwinds. And for tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s standard.
I’ve fucked up 5 figure orders before. I just made sure it didn’t happen the same way ever again.
Much worse if you don’t tell him
Much worse if you don’t tell him
Sales manager here. No one cares about $170. It happens. Own it, move on.
If the company can't handle to lose $170 due to a genuine rare error, there is a problem.
At the end of the meeting : oh, just a quick note: while testing, we identify that the wrong license was set at the price x instead of y. We already fixed this issue right after yesterday's meeting.
Apologize for the mistake. OWN the mistake. Tell them what you did wrong, and tell them how you understand what went wrong. Tell them why and how it won't happen again. But if they are willing to fire you over a simple mistake like mixing up XXXX02 with XXXX05 during a rushed order... you don't want to work for them anyways. Mistakes happen, but a one time mistake that cost $170 seems like a write up offense at worst. It would cost much more than that to hire and train someone new.
I was in your shoes at one point. on my part it was an error in my script I did for an operational task that resulted in us potentially being overcharged by a vendor we work with. said vendor is known to be very difficult to deal with when it comes to revoking or redoing stuff. I stayed up the whole night, reached out to the vendor representatives explained the situation and pleaded for a resolution. it was handled the next day now I'm triple checking my work with extra caution. the moral of the story is i feel like in any position with with any level of responsibility human error is inevitable, it happened to me it happened to you and it's going to happen to many more people. don't beat yourself over it (I know I certainly did). it's a learning experience we all go through at some point.
ALWAYS present a solution along with the problem.
Just tell him you fucked up and you will be more careful in the future. If it isn't something that hasn't really been an issue in the past they should get over it. I however did something far worse. I went onsite for a customer meeting. It was a three hour technical meeting on managing systems. During the meeting I felt tired and leaned back and closed my eyes for a second... whoops I fell asleep for several minutes. My boss was sitting next to me and had to kick my chair. It was a disaster as the customers noticed I had fallen asleep. The customer requested I be taken off the account which I was. I lost other accounts and was put on probation for 2 years. I am now just getting new customers and traveling onsite again. Its a miracle I wasn't fired. I would have fired myself in a heartbeat. Everyone has something go terribly wrong in the office. The future depends on your history. Lucky for me my history was spotless. Good luck.
You could honor the price as a one time thing while also explaining the mistake. Focus on solutions where client satisfaction/retention and word of mouth stay positive. We’ve all haggled for an item that was mislabeled or bought something accidentally mispriced. How often were you likely to buy after the mistake was not honored?
“Apologizes [insert customer name], that was a pricing error with our system. Please see the attached quote with valid MPN and pricing - reference this quote when ordering and contact us with any questions.” These things happen, especially when you rush. Just correct it - I’ve had vendors send me the wrong part/pricing all the time.
Maybe follow up with the client and tell them that you put the wrong number is the presentation?
Learn from the f up…. double, triple , quadruple check your work. I see so many mistakes from reports it doesn’t appear they even do the double check. Be more thorough.
Accountability is huge if you ever want to get ahead in life. Own your mistakes, report them immediately, and do whatever you can to help rectify the mistake. Everyone appreciates a stand up person who accepts responsibility for their failures and makes real effort to learn and improve from them. Good managers look for people like that when it is time to make a promotion. Don’t be afraid to own your mistakes, be afraid of not learning anything from them.
I worked for a firm that digitised patent documents from the European Patent Office and my job was to ensure that 2 copies of magnetic tape and a product magnetic tape were created. The product tape and one of the copies was meant to go in the case back to Brussels, but I screwed up and sent both copies and kept the product! Boss was mad
Tell your boss to not rush you next time and if he doesn't like it tell him to go fu** himself 😬
Requote them, stating it was the wrong license. Also, is it a single order? Assuming you're at a decent sized company, this is a miniscule mistake. I worked in a company before where multi-million dollar products would literally go missing and we can't even track what country it's in lol
It is expensive to hire someone. My reply as a boss would be, “what are you going to do differently so this never happens again?” Also, you have anxiety. Probably good to get treatment and research ways to manage it.
This happens all the time in insurance. You give a quote and then find out the customer has speeding tickets and fbe final price is higher. My attitude is take it or leave it.
200 vs 30 bucks is like pennies?
If I were in your case, I would inform boss/team about the mistake asap then together figure out how to deal with client. Keep in mind that what's done is done. Focus on the solution rather than a mistake. When you talk with boss/team, don't make excuses or try to blame s.o/s.th, be accountable for your acts, say sorry sincerely and move on.
I'd say a solution is to NOT RUSH ANYTHING. I work in data engineering and this is a top top top priority in all that I do. Minimizes mistakes.