Settlement Costing Grainger $70 Million

Dec 28, 2012 – “The GSA Office of Inspector General learned that Grainger failed to meet its contractual obligations to provide the GSA with current, accurate and complete information about its commercial sales practices, including discounts afforded to other customers,” it states. “As a result, government customers purchasing items under the Grainger MAS contract paid higher prices than they should have. In addition, today’s settlement resolves allegations that Grainger failed to meet its contractual obligations to provide ‘most-favored customer’ pricing under two USPS contracts for sanitation and maintenance supplies. The USPS contracts required Grainger to treat USPS as Grainger’s ‘most-favored customer’ by ensuring that USPS received the best overall discount that Grainger offered to any of its commercial customers. Agents and auditors from the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigated Grainger’s pricing practices and discovered that Grainger did not consistently adhere to this requirement, causing USPS to pay more than it should have for purchases made under the two contracts.”

Read more here

Yet another example of why Transparent Pricing is so valuable and needed today. BTL’s customers know this value and are assured they will never accrue a 10 year backlog of questionable pricing, transactions and contract language.