On getting your damn initialisms right

This is a useless work-related rant that no one will understand, but fuck you, it's my blog and I'll rant when I want to.

In purchasing parlance (and I expect I lost you right about ... now), the initialism (acronym? I think it qualifies) ARO means "at receipt of order." For instance, if someone asks me for a quote on an item, and that item's availability is 2 weeks from the date of order, I would tell them "price is $10, lead time is 2 weeks ARO"

Explanation out of the way. There are few things more fucking obnoxious than submitting an order to a company and having them reply with something like "thanks for the order, item is 5 days ARO." You have the goddamn order, you jerk! The "at receipt" part has already fucking happened!

Oh, and FOB? DOES NO ONE KNOW WHAT FOB MEANS? Seriously, it is lobbed at the end of every confirmation, every quote, every goddamn tiny piece of correspondence in the known fucking universe, for no good fucking reason.

For once, for all, take goddamn notes: FOB means "FREIGHT ON BOARD." Not, in fact, "freight on bill" or "free on board" - this is not Europe. This is not even Canada. If you do not know what FREIGHT ON BOARD means, I will explain it using the smallest words I can:

FOB alone means nothing. FOB must be followed by an instruction. It is a prequel, OK? It is a term used to indicate who is responsible for the transportation costs, and/or at what point the responsibility of the goods transfers from shipper to purchaser. Still with me?

Here are two examples:

FOB shipping point, freight collect - this means the responsibility of the item is assumed by the purchaser as soon as that goddamn thing leaves the dock/alley/hallway/wherever the fuck it's coming out of. So if it manages to burst into fucking flames halfway through Sheboygan, it totally SUCKS to be you (if you are the purchaser). It also means that the transportation costs are paid for by the purchaser, regardless of whether the thing bursts into flames or not, and will either be billed to the purchaser's shipping account or collected by a dude with a tire iron and 4 teeth at the time of arrival.

FOB destination, freight prepaid - this means that the shipper has your shipment in his or her loving embrace until the moment you sign for it at your front door. If this shipment is eaten by a band of acid-dropping alligators, the shipper is responsible for sending you another one, and would benefit from sending it via a carrier that doesn't ship with a fleet of psychedelic chickens through the Florida swamps. Freight prepaid means the shipper pays for all shipping costs, no matter how many damn times those fucking gators eat your shit.

GOT IT? OKAY? GOOD. NOW FUCK OFF.