One of our facilities received a nonconformance against 8.2.3.1 Review of the Requirements for Products and Services.
The organization does not always identify and review customer requirements, including embedded requirements, stated or referenced on Purchase Orders.
The Customer Service team could not demonstrate a process of reviewing customer requirements (including embedded requirements referenced on the Purchase Order or referenced via a website) for specific terms/conditions and quality requirements.
The Customer Service team has a standard company terms and conditions statement that is sent to customer with each order conformation and the expectation is that the customer must accept our Company's terms and conditions or further negotiate.
The auditor did not view this as an acceptable approach to address 8.2.3.1.
We have a large number of customers many whose purchase orders reference their terms and conditions. This practice of "countering" the customers' terms and conditions with our Company terms and condition after acceptance of every order is something that was sanctioned/recommended by our Legal department.
Our legal department does not have the bandwidth to review and redline the customer's terms and conditions of every incoming purchase order nor does the Customer Service team have the skillset/knowledge to engage in this activity. It seems that many customers' terms and conditions are a blend of boilerplate legalese and delivery/quality requirements.
I would welcome any suggestions on how to address this without trying to boil the ocean.
The organization does not always identify and review customer requirements, including embedded requirements, stated or referenced on Purchase Orders.
The Customer Service team could not demonstrate a process of reviewing customer requirements (including embedded requirements referenced on the Purchase Order or referenced via a website) for specific terms/conditions and quality requirements.
The Customer Service team has a standard company terms and conditions statement that is sent to customer with each order conformation and the expectation is that the customer must accept our Company's terms and conditions or further negotiate.
The auditor did not view this as an acceptable approach to address 8.2.3.1.
We have a large number of customers many whose purchase orders reference their terms and conditions. This practice of "countering" the customers' terms and conditions with our Company terms and condition after acceptance of every order is something that was sanctioned/recommended by our Legal department.
Our legal department does not have the bandwidth to review and redline the customer's terms and conditions of every incoming purchase order nor does the Customer Service team have the skillset/knowledge to engage in this activity. It seems that many customers' terms and conditions are a blend of boilerplate legalese and delivery/quality requirements.
I would welcome any suggestions on how to address this without trying to boil the ocean.
