Many years ago, when I first became a Buying Assistant in a large company, I remember the first time an end user called the Procurement Department and had picked out an item she wanted to buy because it had some kind of rebate attached.
Nobody had mentioned rebates before so I asked the supervisor who said, "Purchasing doesn't do rebates." He explained that the time it would take to gather, fill out, and send the paperwork, receipts, and UPC as well track the check and get it to Accounts Payable wasn't worth it to us. Of course, I had the task of attempting to explain this to the end user and tell her that we were going to order her item - minus the twenty-dollar rebate from our established vendor. She said "Well, do whatever you have to, as long as I get my item," and then muttered something about Purchasing making no sense and hung up the phone.
How do we make end users understand that we really do know what we're doing and that we look at the big picture, not just at individual purchases?
It is a constant challenge. The truth is that Purchasing will never win an isolated battle like this. Our long-term reputation and the perception of our department in the company is what will win the war. If other departments perceive us as being professionals, employees will not require explanations. We wouldn't go Accounts Payable and start telling them how to book ledger entries and we wouldn't call the advertising department offering critiques of currently airing commercials. We need to attain the same level of professional reputation that other departments have.
Just for the record - Purchasing does sometimes get rebates from contract vendors - and they can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on sales volume!
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