afternoon all,
i was just wondering how everyone handles terms and conditions of sale in regards to 850's, 830's, DELFOR's, etc?
i have been asked by the powers that be to investigate how others handle.
let me elaborate a little.  in the normal order sequence of events a non edi customer submits their po or release to us.  upon entry into our mrp system an order acknowledgement is generated and either mailed or emailed.  since this is the last 'printed' correspondence before shipping our terms & conditions of sale prevail.
in the edi world it's a little different, the acknowledgement (997 or CONTRL) that is generated is only acknowledging that a transmission was received and that al of the segments were in the correct order.  there is no place to respond with free text.
that's the gist of it.
i have always thought that it should be handled in your edi agreement, that you & your tp enter into & is signed by both parties.
but we all know that there are big fish out there who would never sign an amended agreement.
thanks in advance.
regards,
longhair

In my experience, most trading partner agreement stopped being used several years ago.  The lawyers got them and ripped them apart.  That's why no one ever gave the back of a PO to a lawyer before accepting the order.

Seriously, EDI trading partners generally do lots of transactions (which should equate to lots of business).  If the terms of the customary business agreements are not kept, the order flow stops.  This hurts both companies, since they have an investment in setting up the EDI system.  

While this certainly won't do anything for you in a court of law, I believe it is common practice.  Trading Partner Agreements have gone the way of buggy whips.

Unless you are dealing with a 900 lb. Gorilla, then you abide by their requirements. TPA's are still used in many businesses.

JuJutsu - Jeff S.
Support Analyst

Many of my customers put comments in the MSG and/or NTE segments that reference their web site containing the T&C stuff.  Othes put statements in the MSG's that "PO issued pursuant to standard T&C etc."

Either way you get hammered by fine print and web sites that change.

Good Luck.