k. Two traveling sales representatives accessed the parts database at the same time. Salesperson A noted that there were still 55 units of part 723 available and entered an order for 45 of them. While salesperson A was keying in the order, salesperson B, in another state, also noted the availability of 55 unite for part 723 and entered an order for 33 of them. Both sales reps promised their customer next-day delivery. Salesperson A’s customer, however, learned the next day that the part would have to be back-ordered. The customer canceled the sale and vowed to never again do business with the company.
l. The warranty department manager was upset because special discount coupons were mailed to every customer who had purchased the product within the past 3 years, instead of to only those customers who had purchased the product within the past 3 months.
m. The clerk entering details about a large credit sale mistakenly typed in a nonexistent account number. Consequently, the payment was credited to another customer’s account.
n. A customer filled in the wrong account number on the portion of the invoice being returned with payment. Consequently, the payment was credited to another customer’s account.
o. A batch of 73 time sheets was sent to the payroll department for weekly processing. Somehow, one of the time sheets did not get processed. The mistake was not caught until payday, when one employee complained about not receiving a paycheck.
p. A competitor intercepted the company’s bid submitted by e-mail and used the information to underbid and win the contract.
q. Sunspot activity resulted in the loss of some data being sent to the regional office. The problem was not discovered until several days later when managers attempted to query the database for that information.