I think he was trying to get across more than just a backup plan.  One of my expectations with of those I work with is that they take responsability for anything that goes wrong on their side of the deal.  There's been plenty of times when something screwed up that was "out of their control" but somewhere along the line there was something they could have done to prevent it.  For me the sign of a company I want to continue to do business with is that it flat out admits where it could have done better.  

In the corporate environments I've seen blame is continually shifted and no one actually admits fault. That sort of attitude is silly and just doesn't work for me.  If you're going to tell me there was absolutely nothing you could have done to prevent something and later I find out there was, even if it was impractical, I'll most likely drop you from my list of service providers.  Though I'm more concerned with honesty and working with those who will admit when they screwed up than just about anything else.