Lowballer? who knows?

[iwire]

why you say outrageously high, it's a fair wage

Because he never feels those of us in the trade should make a living wage, we are no more then trained monkeys.

 

[CopperTone]

So I called the director of facilities who is issuing the contract and voiced my concern over the lowest bid. He told me that he shared the same concerns but the EC's references checked out, and he was going to meet with the EC to walk through the entire scope of the job once again to give the guy a chance to see if he "missed something" or felt he left something out and wanted to withdraw his bid.
So, other than that the 48K guy got the job. Good luck to him I say - if he can make a buck doing it for short money ok then - I am a small company and I was 2nd lowest and 32% more than he was. I know I would have only completed about 70% of the work for his price.

I guess there is no more to say about this - just move on to the next bid. I enjoyed all the comments on this though, I'll post the next bid results I'm involved in if anyone is interested to see real numbers.

 

[peter d]

Because he never feels those of us in the trade should make a living wage, we are no more then trained monkeys.

Somebody pass the bananas please.

 

[electricmanscott]

I still don't get it. Three other guys are probably wondering about the two lowballers. They probably don't get how you guys came up with your price just as you are saying about lowballer #1.

 

[CopperTone]

I could eat steak and lobster for my 72k price for that job, and pay a few months mortgage on my cape house. I wasn't lowballing - just a tight bid. I also can tell you that the companies that were 35% over my bid - over the 100k mark - will never get the work - ever - not today , maybe 3-4 years ago, and maybe in 1-2 years from now. But not today. (when it turns - my bids will go up too). I monitor and track public bids in my area, I know what guys are bidding, who is not bidding , and for how much.

hate the game - not the player

 

[electricmanscott]

Not hating anyone, just trying to understand.

 

[LarryFine]

I still don't get it. Three other guys are probably wondering about the two lowballers. They probably don't get how you guys came up with your price just as you are saying about lowballer #1.

And the low-baller is probably saying "I could have asked for how much more?!"

 

[masterinbama]

If I had to worry about 1 72K job to keep my doors open I would be looking elsewhere.

 

[SeanKelly]

I'm sure you're aware of this if it exists in Maine, but in Washington on prevailing wage jobs the owner or any other officer who owns at least 30% of the company does not have to pay themselves prevailing wage. We got pretty embarrassed at first and couldn't figure out how some of the guys we're coming in way below us.

 

[petersonra]

Because he never feels those of us in the trade should make a living wage, we are no more then trained monkeys.

That was uncalled for.

I do think that the so called prevailing wage is far in excess of what most people in the trade are actually being paid. If you are honest you would admit that is true. It is mostly not about a fair wage, but about a ^^^^^ wage (^^^^^ being something we do not discuss here).

 

[DanZ]

I could eat steak and lobster for my 72k price for that job, and pay a few months mortgage on my cape house. I wasn't lowballing - just a tight bid. I also can tell you that the companies that were 35% over my bid - over the 100k mark - will never get the work - ever - not today , maybe 3-4 years ago, and maybe in 1-2 years from now. But not today. (when it turns - my bids will go up too). I monitor and track public bids in my area, I know what guys are bidding, who is not bidding , and for how much.

hate the game - not the player

Maybe the low baller likes hot dogs and trailers! It could be that he really has lower overhead, or maybe he plans on having some low wage positions* for his people. I think you only need one journeyman on a job, and they don't have to show up.

*still in prevailing wage, but listed as the equivalent of broom pushers instead of journeymen

Edit to add: If you do find out what it was, could you let us know?

 

[ohm]

It takes two journeymen to correct the mistakes of five "broompushers"

 

[DanZ]

It takes two journeymen to correct the mistakes of five "broompushers"

I agree! However, if you're trying to cut costs, you can have 5 journeymen paid as broompushers...if they'll go for it. In the famine times, you could pretty easily get people to work for less, if the other option is unemployment, I hear.

 

[ohm]

I agree! However, if you're trying to cut costs, you can have 5 journeymen paid as broompushers...if they'll go for it. In the famine times, you could pretty easily get people to work for less, if the other option is unemployment, I hear.

Unfortunately, you're right and these are hard times. Maybe one could lowball the job and share the profit w/ the journeymen/broompushers. I hate to see good people spending half their time looking for a job, on the job.

 

[DanZ]

It's always amazed me how much work people will put into finding ways to "work" the system, or half...uh...redneck engineer something five or six times rather than fixing or doing it right the first time.

As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures!

He could also be planning on a whole lot of change orders...

 

[ohm]

As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures!

He could also be planning on a whole lot of change orders...

Right again. I worked for a huge company and we bid a couple of jobs praying for change orders, just to break even. Sometimes rather than tip off the GC that the specs. did not include a code required item they kept quiet until they got the job, then put in a change order.

 

[DanZ]

Right again. I worked for a huge company and we bid a couple of jobs praying for change orders, just to break even. Sometimes rather than tip off the GC that the specs. did not include a code required item they kept quiet until they got the job, then put in a change order.

That's another one that always got me. I would think that would be a selling point for a higher bid, "Well, I have these items that were in this note, or are needed for this to work, and these other guys don't so they're either trying to cheat you or they the just don't pay attention..."

I'm glad I'm not in sales... :roll:

 

[petersonra]

A $48k job is probably not going to have a lot of labor in it. Maybe 2 or 3 man weeks. Might be the owner is planning to do all the work himself. I know a guy around here does that. He gets LOTS of these small contracts from local governments.

He has a full beard and looks like a stereotypical hillbilly in his denim bibs, but is sharp as a tack and one of the better electricians I have run across. I think the whole company consists of him and his brother. They do really good looking work.

 

[EBFD6]

That's another one that always got me. I would think that would be a selling point for a higher bid, "Well, I have these items that were in this note, or are needed for this to work, and these other guys don't so they're either trying to cheat you or they the just don't pay attention..."

I'm glad I'm not in sales... :roll:

There is no sales pitch involved in public work ( at least in MA, maybe different in other areas of the country).

Low bidder wins, period.

There might be an out for the municipality if the low bid is off by so much from the rest of the pack, I don't know all of the loop holes, but 99% of the time there is no choice - hands are tied, low bid gets the job.

 

[iwire]

There is at least one large Massachusetts EC that always underbids public work, gets the jobs then from day one starts logging anything that slows things down and goes after compensation for that. By the time it's all said and done he has made much more then the fair bidders. This is one job after another.