Most common question I'm asked of end-users when conducting a bid process:
Can we choose not to accept a vendors bid if the Vendor has provided poor service in the past or has poor references?
So, obviously the department has had this issue before...I need some background before I can answer:
- Did you document the performance issue(s)?
- Did you notify the vendor? (usually this is a condition within the contract)
- Did the vendor respond to the issue? Did it resolve the issue(s)? What happened as a result?
- Is all of this documented? Did it cause additional administration of the contract, additional expenses to hire someone else to rectify, etc?
Generally, the answer is "no, it wasn't documented; no, the vendor was never told", so obviously the vendor didn't have a chance to rectify the issue.
So my response is no, you can't disqualify the vendor as you have nothing to substantiate it and we could be sued for treating them unfairly.
Purchasing gets a bad rap from end-users who complain the process doesn't get them the best qualified vendor and are stuck with a low bid, poor performing vendor. As with anything, garbage in/garbage out - if we don't ask the right questions, specify the correct requirements, we don't get the right thing. BUT, at the end of the day, the RFP does not manage the contract, the contract manager does. This is a circular process, if a contract manager does not document/manage poor performance, then the next competitive process has no legal means to disqualify a poor performer. And to be fair, does one bad experience mean they aren't any good EVER? How often are we 'perfect'?
As for bad references, there's a whole host of legal cases related to subjectivity of disqualifying a vendor based upon a reference...best to seek legal counsel on that!
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