by Lily Zante
“I have no idea.”
“Doesn’t everyone sue in the US? For everything and anything?”
Ava groaned. “I don’t expect the parents to be silent and do nothing. Thank goodness it wasn’t worse.”
She’d never before contemplated the idea that any harm might come from what she sold but thinking about it now, selling goods for young babies and children was a risky venture. She didn’t want to live with the guilt of a child getting injured because of something his parents had bought from her store, because of an error at Dino’s end. Right now, she was the face of that order. People would blame her, not Dino.
“We need to meet with Dino,” said Ava, starting to recognize that she needed to set things into motion.
“That’s why I called you,” said Andrea. “He’s coming to see me and we’ll be discussing how we’re going to deal with this. It affects all of us, even if the fault lies at Dino’s end.”
“I’ll be at yours by noon,” Ava said and it was only when she had hung up did she realize that her mother wasn’t around to look after Elisabetta. She walked into the her bedroom where her daughter lay peacefully asleep having her mid-morning nap. Smiling, in spite of the dire news about the cribs, Ava knew she had no choice but to leave Elisabetta at the Casa Adriana with Nico. But first she would call and forewarn him. He answered on the first ring.
“Can you look after Elisabetta today?”
“I’m at work, Ava.” His voice sounded strained even if his words were gentle. “Why?”
She told him what had happened.
“Poor boy,” Nico commiserated.
“I’m going to call his parents and make sure everything’s alright.”
“You’re going to call your customer and apologize?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t,” Nico cautioned.
“Why not? I can’t just ignore the problem and hope it goes away.”
“They’ll sue you.”
“They’re probably going to sue me whether I call them or not. I think it’s Dino they’ll go after but they bought the product from me. I think it is good customer relations to call them back.”
“Shouldn’t Dino be calling them?”
“They bought the crib from me, Nico…” Ava shook her head. Time was running out, and she hadn’t called him to seek his counsel. “I have to go to Montova. I’m meeting with Dino and Andrea in the next hour and I need you to look after Elisabetta. My mom’s not here. She told me she was going to the gardens at the Casa Adriana so she’ll be around to help look after the baby, if you need her to.”
“Do you have to go today?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?” She exclaimed. “Yes, I have to go today.” She never questioned him when he went to meetings, or asked him where he went, or how he conducted his business and she couldn’t see why he was being this way with her now. “I’ll be there shortly,” she told him.
“But I have a heavy day of meetings—”
“And so do I.” Or did he expect her to forget about her business because his was so much more important? “I’m leaving Elisabetta with you, Nico. But if you’re going to resist and complain, then I can take her to Montova with me.” As if he would ever take Elisabetta to the spa hotel for one of his meetings.
“Leave her here,” he said, not sounding too excited about the matter. She didn’t care and hung up, slamming the phone down hard. She understood his stresses and the demands of his business, so why was it so difficult for him to understand hers?
Chapter 14
Elisabetta was in a happy mood by the time Ava reached the Casa Adriana. She wheeled the baby into the hotel and carried the diaper bag and all the other million things Nico might need. She’d packed three changes of clothes and five diapers, just to be on the safe side and hoped that her mother would pick up her cell phone message soon.
As soon as she walked in, Gina rushed up to her. She could see Nico standing in the lobby talking to someone. He hadn’t yet seen her. “I get to look after this one today?” Gina cried happily, bending over and whispering sweet nothings to an entranced Elisabetta.
“I’m sorry, it was all last minute. My mom was supposed to be here by now. Have you seen her?”
Gina shook her head.
“Strange,” said Ava. “She should be here soon. I’ve left a message on her cell phone.”
“May I?” Gina asked, holding out her arms. Ava handed her baby over just as Nico walked up and kissed her on the cheek.
“I have to go,” she said. “There’s milk and diapers and changes of clothes.”
“When will you be back?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t worry,” Gina said, hugging the baby to her chest. “We can manage.”
“My mom should turn up at some point,” she gave Nico a pointed stare, “If it gets too much for you.” He was about to answer but she had no mind to hear what he had to say and after kissing Elisabetta a few times and fawning and fussing over her, she left.
She was fuming as she left the Casa Adriana. It was always so different when he had business to take care of. Ava resolved that one of the first things she would do once the crib problem had been resolved, was to find a good nanny. She felt uneasy about the idea of leaving a stranger to look after her child while she was working, but she hoped that when she found the right person, her concerns would melt away.
In the past she had always relied on a driver to take her to Montova but as she got into the car today, with these angry thoughts swirling around in her mind, she suddenly felt brave for driving all the way herself. This little slice of independence, leaving the baby behind and going to a meeting, gave her a sense of freedom that she hadn’t felt in many months. Next up on her list would be to start learning the language, then finding a nanny. She was feeling better already and despite the nature of this visit, it still felt freeing to be out of the house.
As she drove, the concerns of the morning occupied her thoughts. This recent crib problem was cause for concern and served to remind her that she needed to be over-zealous in the new products she took on. D’Este was relatively new to her. She didn’t know Dino that well and she didn’t know much about the company’s history, how long they’d been in business, or what their past track record was like. She’d only sought them out because she’d liked their cribs. Maybe she’d been unlucky and this was simply a case of something going freakishly wrong? But the consequences could be huge—for all of them, her, Andrea and Dino.
She arrived at Montova just over an hour later and out of habit, made her way to Andrea’s old warehouse, having completely forgotten about the fire which had burned down Andrea’s warehouse.
Shock rolled over her as she stood in front of the charred building. A man walking past told her the Andrea had moved around the corner. She thanked him and made her way to the new units.
Unsure which door to go through, she was about to try the first one when it opened and Leo stepped outside.
“Ava,” he reached forward and shook her hand. “Come in,” he said, “I’m going to get coffee. How do you like yours?”
“White and no sugar, please.”
“I won’t be long.”
She walked inside and saw Andrea with a man she presumed to be Dino, sitting at a table at the far end. Andrea got up as soon as she saw her and kissed her on the cheek. “This is perfect timing.”
“I came as fast as I could.”
“This,” said Andrea, waving her hand at the man who was sitting down and looking over some papers, “is Dino Massari.”
“Hello,” he said, getting up and shaking her hand. “We finally meet.”
“Nice to meet you,” she replied. They exchanged pleasantries and sat around the table waiting for Leo. A short while later, Leo returned with a cardboard drink carrier holding four cups. “Coffee,” he said, “and now we can officially begin.”
“I’d like to go first,” said Dino, glancing at his watch. “I need to leave in a
n hour.” And without waiting for their response, he opened the discussion, explaining how his company manufactured two types of cribs, static once specifically for the US market where drop-side cribs were banned, and the other types for Europe and the rest of the world. “But we have a range of drop-side cribs and most of these come with immobilizers which we provide.”
“A what?” asked Andrea. “That sounds like a part from an automobile.”
“It’s a device that secures a drop-side and turns it into a fixed crib,” Ava explained. “Fixed or static, it’s the same thing.”
“And so,” continued Dino, “I believe there’s been a mix-up with the order numbers and the wrong order has gone out to Denver.”
“It’s a pretty large order,” Ava replied, “Don’t you have checks in place for when you ship out products? I mean, two thousand cribs isn’t exactly small.”
“Of course we have checks in place,” he replied, testily. “But we’re not infallible. My staff are humans and they do make the occasional mistake.”
She waited for the apology and when none came, asked him, “How stringent is your testing process?”
“Extremely stringent, feel free to visit the factory and see for yourself. But the problem isn’t with the product, it is simply that the wrong order went out.”
“And like I said, it’s a pretty big order.” She was getting worked up, and she knew she was goading him but something about his smug and arrogant manner, and the way he wasn’t backing down and acknowledging his mistake, the fact that he hadn’t yet willingly apologized, riled her.
“I think you’ve already stated that fact twice.” His eyes were hard as he answered her.
“Look, Mr. Massari,” she said, fixing her pincer gaze on him. “I have a customer whose ten month old son fell out and suffered a nasty bump on the head, and bruising along his body. We’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”
“Have you verified this claim?”
She stared at him in disbelief. “Verified?” No, of course she hadn’t. How could she? It hadn’t even occurred to her not to believe the customer. “My staff in the US have taken a few calls during the weekend about the cribs not being what they ordered and so if a customer calls and tells me that her child was injured as a direct result of using a crib I sold them, then I’m not going to ask they if they could verify their claim.” She struggled to stop herself from pointing a physical finger at him, “It’s not how our customer service works.”
“But you need to be certain,” Dino replied, rolling up his sleeves. “Some customers can be like parasites, once they hear of a fault, you’re going to get a lot of crazies calling you and threatening to sue. Your main market is the US isn’t it?” He asked, glaring at her.
“For now,” she replied as calmly as she could. She wasn’t going to let this Neanderthal bully her.
“Then expect a string of lawsuits coming your way.”
“Not my way, Mr. Massari. I didn’t manufacture the cribs, you did and you’ll be held accountable.” She hadn’t meant to go in fighting, but the man had already pushed her buttons.
“We need to calm down,” said Leo. “This isn’t going to help us resolve the problem. We’re all at risk of getting sued, even though we didn’t manufacture the cribs, and the fault was not ours.” He turned to Ava, “You probably know this already but federal liability laws in the US hold the manufacturer, distributor and seller responsible. The whole chain of command is responsible—and that means we all have a lot at stake here.”
Ava blinked. She hadn’t been completely sure until just now. Her heart clanged against her ribcage as possible ramifications of Dino’s order mix-up hit home. Andrea sighed. “We need to ensure that this doesn’t happen again and getting angry and pointing fingers isn’t the way forward.”
“I’m not pointing fingers,” replied Ava. “I’m just laying the responsibility where it is due but,” she said, her voice turning firmer. “It’s clear that we have a problem and we need to fix it as soon as possible.”
A hush fell over them and for a while nobody spoke. Ava flipped off the lid to her coffee cup and took a sip.
“But if the drop-sides have been shipped with immobilizers, then why not use them? Wouldn’t that fix the problem?” Andrea asked.
“It’s not fixing the problem because those cribs aren’t what the customers ordered. Drop-sides are banned and those with immobilizers aren’t encouraged,” said Ava. “I certainly don’t want to sell them because I’m all for safety, especially when it comes to cribs. We’re going to recall all of them and you’re going to have to pay for the shipping back to Italy.” And she would have to find a way of making it up to her customers.
“I can arrange for their original orders to go out,” Dino replied. “Since it was my fault, I’ll absorb the shipping costs for the replacements.”
“But my customers might not want that, in which case I’ll have to give them a credit note.” New parents especially, didn’t have time to mess around waiting for replacement orders. Unfortunately, fixing this problem wasn’t going to be as simple as Dino seemed to make out. Sitting across the table from him, it was difficult to avoid looking at the hardened expression on his face. He was clearly displeased and rightly so. This wasn’t her fault and she wasn’t going to pay for it. It was bad enough that she had put her customers’ children at risk and she was probably going to incur a lot of bad publicity over a problem that wasn’t of her making.
“You’ll need to ensure that a problem of this magnitude doesn’t occur again,” Leo said, addressing Dino.
“I know. I know. You people seem to think that I’m not doing a thing. Trust me, the order number problem has never happened before and it won’t happen again.”
“And how exactly are you going to enforce that?” she asked and saw that an email from Kim had just arrived. Did that girl never sleep? Ava read the email and understood exactly what had happened. “Do you even know what the order numbers in question were?” She asked, raising an eyebrow, and anticipating his reply. Dino Massari appeared to play it cool. “I don’t have it at hand but then I’m not a database and I don’t store all the order numbers in my head.”
“Then let me tell you,” she said, opening Kim’s email. “the order number for the drop-side cribs is DE6789 and the order number for the fixed or static cribs, the ones my company sells, is DE6879.” A hush fell over the table as they all digested the news. “I can see how an error might have occurred, but I can see how you could have put checks in place to ensure this never happened.” If it were her, she would have used completely different numbers to avoid a problem like this from happening in the first place.
Dino gave her a look that could have cut her in two. “There will be a complete audit of this, you can rest assured.”
“I’ll have my support reps call around to have the two hundred and fifteen cribs recalled back to my Denver warehouse.”
“That’s a good start,” said Andrea. The tension was heavy, the atmosphere, strained.
“I know what I have to do, Andrea,” Dino replied. “But we all need to keep our heads calm over this.”
“It’s easy to say but you’re not the one who’s dealing with people,” Leo chimed in, and Ava was grateful for someone taking her side. At last, someone who understood. “You’re not the one who is dealing with angry parents. I can imagine that the situation takes on a different kind of urgency when real people are involved.”
“We’re all real people,” Dino shot back. He pinched himself. “See, that hurts. Therefore I’m real.”
Ava rolled her eyes when Leo glanced at her. She simmered in silence, tolerating the patronizing a-hole who sat opposite her. “We need to work together, and lose the negativity,” Leo said.
“I don’t doubt that,” Dino replied. “This has serious consequences for my business and you have my word that I’ll put things straight.”
And based on what Leo had told them, Ava now knew for certain that it would have serious ramificatio
ns for her own business, especially if those parents threatened to sue. More complaints would crawl out of the woodwork, more reports of children being hurt. It was imperative to warn all the parents of the order mix-up and to recall the cribs she’d sold. She’d also have to get in touch with the CPSC. The Consumer Product Safety Commission would have to be notified and it would be better if she was seen to be proactive in correcting this mistake. She had to prove to them that this had been a genuine error at the manufacturing end. And she had to start praying that no child would be injured. Because drop-side cribs were banned in the US, her store never ever sold any of these items. Dino’s order number mix-up could be their million dollar mistake.
This had the potential to bankrupt her and to finish off the business she had worked so hard to build.
Her heart sank lower until it fell into the base of her stomach. She slumped back, feeling suddenly powerless, as if she had no control over her body, as if her skeleton had melted and dissolved inside her.
Maybe it was time to suck it up and do the one thing she’d been putting off; calling Connor and getting his advice. He was a corporate lawyer but he would mostly likely know someone who could advise her.
“I’ll need to look through your catalogs to find alternatives,” said Ava, and she couldn’t stop herself from adding, “Because I’ll need something other than d’Este cribs.” She saw the vein in Dino’s neck and noted that he remained silent.
“We’ll find you some more catalogs,” said Leo, looking around the place. “Our stuff is all over the place.”
“Do you think you might need to go to Denver?” Andrea asked.
“I have to go over at some point.” It was difficult to run an international business with only her at the helm. But with this sudden problem that could prove disastrous, it might be better for her to go now. At least in this way she’d be seen to be proactive and if she acted fast to reclaim the faulty cribs, then it might be enough to help save all their businesses—hoping, praying and assuming that nobody sued.
