Commodity trader accidentally orders 28,000 tons of coal

[slackula]

I am not sure if this is real, the site it comes from usually changes a lot of the details to protect the guilty so googling it just leads to links back to the site, but any way it's pretty funny if it did happen.

Brad’s phone rang with the telltale tone of an inner-office call. “Yeah,” he briskly blurted out as he picked up the phone, “what’cha ya need?” That was actually his nicewayof answering the phone. As the senior trader at Æxecor, one of the world’s largest energy trading companies, Brad didn’t need to impress anyone and, in his mind, displaying anything less than vicious hubris would be a sign of weakness.
“Err,” the receptionist nervously answers, “there’s a… err, delivery for you, sir. They—”
“Hmphf,” Brad’s scoff cut her off. “So just sign for it, then! Is that really that hard to do? You can do that, can’t you?”


“Well sir,” the receptionist winced, “they’re asking for mooring instructions? And we need to pay wharfage charges? They said you’d know. I’m at a loss.”
“Fine,” Brad scowled, “I guess I have to do everything around here!” He slammed down the phone and marched out of his corner office. Despite Æxecor’s location – the “old docks” district – their office was one of the most posh in the city. On one end of the expansive, former warehouse sat the executive suites, which had a tremendous view of the city skyline. The other end – where Brad was headed towards – was the reception which overlooked its own, private bay on the river.
“Okay, I’m here!” he angrily announced once he stepped foot in the lobby. “So let’s do this! What do I need to—”



Brad stopped mid-sentence. His eyes were immediately drawn through the floor-to-ceiling windows and onto the river bay that Æxecor’s building overlooked. There was an absolutely gigantic barge – nay, an armada of tightly-connected barges – overfilled with enormous piles of coal that was attempting to dock in front of the building. “What… the… fuuu—”

“You mus’ be Brad,” a cheerful voice jumped in. Brad’s eye’s shifted towards the scruffy fellow wearing some sort of workman’s uniform who was sitting in one of the reception chairs. “Now first and foremost, how in the Sam Hill are we ‘sposed to moor this boat? I count two cleats, but we sure as heck can’t hitch these. And, shoot, do you even have a bulk berth?”


For once, Brad was speechless. He had absolutely no idea who that man was and he could hardly understand a word he said. Plus, there was that gargantuan vessel that was slowly moving towards the building. “Uhh,” he stuttered, “wait. Are you delivering… coal? To… uhh, us?”


“Well, yeah! Twenty-eight thousand tons of the good ol’ black gold!” The workman sarcastically furrowed his brow adding, “I mean, we did get the right address, har har. This is Æxecor? And this is Pier 53? And you are Brad, the fella who ordered it, right?”


It was that moment that Brad’s palm almost immediately made contact with his forehead. He realized that something must have really gone awry: instead of virtually trading 28,000 tons of coal, Brad had somehow ended up with 28,000 tons of real coal.

Rest of the story:
Special Delivery - The Daily WTF

[chassamui]

A friend in Germany was once charged with the duties of packing fragile radio spares. The packing standard required straw to be used for the packing of fragile lamps.
As he had a vast number of these to pack he ordered 250 grammes of straw for the job., from the parent company in UK.
Two weeks later a couple of 40 foot freight containers arrived, addressed to him
They contained 250 bales of straw.

[barbaro]

^^....Ahh.....the days of just, clicking a computer.....

[Thetyim]

I wanted to try a new product that my supplier was introducing.
I ordered 12 boxes to try.
The warehouse delivered 12 outers, with 50 boxes to an outer.
The invoice was for 12 boxes

[baldrick]

I would bet the coal story is a urban myth made up to highlight how much prices are manipulated/raised by traders who actually never have any plan to use.

though many years ago I do know a bloke who thought he ordered 1000 garbage bags through the internal system and 1000 boxes of bags arrived at the store.