When delivering bad news to customers, use an indirect strategy as you would with other bad news messages, and maintain a positive tone. Occasionally, companies disappoint their customers. Whenever possible, these problems should be addressed immediately. Choose the best answer for the following question about handling customer problems. What is the first step you should take when a problem arises?
1. Call the individual customer.
2. Disguise the problem as a "technical error."
3. Explain to the customer what they did that caused the problem

Zachary company produces commercial gardening equipment. since production is highly automated, the company allocates its overhead costs to product lines using activity-based costing. the costs and cost drivers associated with the four overhead activity cost pools follow: activities unit level batch level product level facility level cost $ 64,800 $ 27,730 $ 15,000 $ 154,000 cost driver 2,400 labor hrs. 47 setups percentage of use 11,000 units production of 780 sets of cutting shears, one of the company’s 20 products, took 240 labor hours and 7 setups and consumed 15 percent of the product-sustaining activities. required: (a) had the company used labor hours as a company wide allocation base, how much overhead would it have allocated to the cutting shears? (b) how much overhead is allocated to the cutting shears using activity-based costing? (c) compute the overhead cost per unit for cutting shears first using activity-based costing and then using direct labor hours for allocation if 780 units are produced. if direct product costs are $150 and the product is priced at 30 percent above cost for what price would the product sell under each allocation system? (d) assuming that activity-based costing provides a more accurate estimate of cost, indicate whether the cutting shears would be over- or underpriced if direct labor hours are used as an allocation base. explain how over-or undercosting can affect vaulker's profitability. (e) comment on the validity of using the allocated facility-level cost in the pricing decision. should other costs be considered in a cost- plus pricing decision? if so, which ones? what costs would you include if you were trying to decide whether to accept a special order?

Capital financial corporation will lend 90 percent against account balances that have averaged 30 days or less; 80 percent for account balances between 31 and 40 days; and 70 percent for account balances between 41 and 45 days. customers that take over 45 days to pay their bills are not considered acceptable accounts for a loan. the current prime rate is 16.50 percent, and capital charges 3.50 percent over prime to charming as its annual loan rate. a. determine the maximum loan for which charming paper company could qualify.

Afirm plans to begin production of a new small appliance. the manager must decide whether to purchase the motors for the appliance from a vendor at $10 each or to produce them in-house. either of two processes could be used for in-house production; process a would have an annual fixed cost of $200,000 and a variable cost of $7 per unit, and process b would have an annual fixed cost of $175,000 and a variable cost of $8 per unit. determine the range of annual volume for which each of the alternatives would be best. (round your first answer to the nearest whole number. include the indifference value itself in this answer.)