Re: Quality Issues with Recent Steel Shipments

Dear David,

I'm writing to discuss some issues we've been having with recent shipments from Atlas Steel. Over the past three months, we've received several deliveries that didn't meet the specifications we ordered, and it's become a real headache for our production team.

The main problem is with the grade 304 stainless steel sheets. We ordered 16-gauge and received 18-gauge on two separate occasions (PO #4892 and PO #4923). Our QC team caught it, but not before we'd already started cutting on the first batch. That cost us about $4,200 in wasted material and a day and a half of production downtime.

On top of that, the last shipment arrived with no packing list and no mill certifications. Our quality standards require mill certs for every batch of raw material. We need those ASAP because we've got an audit coming up and we can't have gaps in our traceability records. That creates compliance gaps. We also had a delivery show up two weeks late with no advance notice from your logistics team, which cost us a 15% premium on an alternative supplier.

We've been working with you guys for over four years now and we'd like to continue the relationship. But we need to see some improvements — specifically, verification of all orders against PO specs before shipping, mill certifications with every delivery, and advance notice of any delays exceeding 48 hours. Can we set up a call this week to go over these points?