Get in Charge of Your Chargebacks

“When we started, we realized one of the vendors’ biggest issues was manag­ing change,” Zablocky says. “Routing and vendor guides could change con­stantly.” It used to be standard practice

for retailers to print guides and give them to vendors. With the advent of the Internet, more retailers began put­ting their guides online, but vendors are often too busy to download all the infor­mation and to check for changes.

In response, the VCF created a compli­ance clearinghouse that tracks changes in the routing and vendor guides of 155 major retailers. The system informs everyone in the vendor organization who needs to know: the logistics manager, the IT manager, the customer service manager, the operations manager, the finance manager. “Whenever there is a change, we communicate that to the ven­dors within 12 hours,” says Zablocky.

The VCF also created a database of compliance issues and members’ techniques for addressing them. At its conferences, the VCF sets up meetings where each vendor can meet with its 10 largest customers one on one. What’s more, the Federation is currently con­ducting a study on what constitutes “the perfect order.”—WA

William Atkinson, a freelance writer based in Carterville, IL, has written for Apparel and Risk Management magazines, among other publications.