You are sales manager for a furniture manufacturer and have just received a strongly worded claim letter from Hyram Blalock, who owns a large hotel in a nearby city. Mr. Blalock has been refurbishing his hotel and had placed a special order with you for 115 headboards to fit specifications he sent. He ordered headboards an inch and a half narrower than conventional double-bed size. He also specified a finish different from that normally used in this grade of headboard. Finally, he wanted his hotel’s logo imprinted on each headboard. You completed this order and shipped it to him about a week ago. He ordered the mattresses directly from a manufacturer that has since gone out of business. They did, however, deliver his mattresses before going bankrupt, just a week before your headboards arrived. The problem is that all of these mattresses were manufactured in the conventional dimensions, rather than the narrower ones for which the headboards were designed. Blalock is asking you to take back the current shipment and either change the dimensions to fit the conventional mattresses or to send a different set (which would, of course, have the finish he specified and his hotel’s logo on them). Obviously, you cannot comply with his request. Write an appropriate strategic claim refusal. Of course, the facts are on your side—he ordered the headboards in the size and finish that he received. However, the challenge is to tell him so without lecturing or using negatives. If you do choose to alter the headboards in the original order, feel free to do so—but be sure to charge him.