Low bidders

[mgookin]

Underbidding and then slaughtering them on the extras & change orders is a very old and still very common practice.

 

[cdslotz]

It was only after construction had started that the GC saw he wasn't installing conduit and found out he was planning to run open cables. That resulted in an RFI (Oh, did you want these cables to be in conduit?), which led to a nice, fat change order for the Low Voltage Contractor. The customer's representative wasn't too thrilled when he realized he could have gone with the second-lowest bidder and gotten a better-known company at a lower price if somebody had caught the low bidder's exclusion of conduit.

That GC should have caught that before letting the contract. We go to scope meetings with GC's before they award the job. They cover every plan sheet, every spec section, every quote, and question everything pertaining my scope.
If for some reason they missed something (such as the conduit for cables), the GC won't pay any more for it. The owner damn sure won't pay any more for it. Sounds like, in your case the specs required conduit. A sub can't just "decide" to run open cables. Either the EC or the cable sub gets to eat this one.

I recently saw a guy exclude the feeder from the existing main service to a new distribution board. I have no clue where he got the idea that that would be a good thing to do, but he did it. Maybe he's just trying to make sure he gets paid (Well, if they don't approve my change orders, they won't get any power to their new board!), but it seems kind of shady to me.

Another example of an EC just "deciding" to leave a feeder out. No way would he be given a change order for that. I hope it tasted good.....

 

[highpowered]

UPDATE

UPDATE

Thanks Everyone I am really appreciative that so many responded with very good advice. I am deeply touched thank you all.

Update on that job it was a Turnkey bid (which I hate doing). so there where no specs to bid by. The engineer just called and they are stuck removing a refurbed 350kw generator thats installed and cant be modified to reduce the sound level. In my proposal the generator I used had a modified cadilitic converter with an additional PM filter. That alone was an additional 50k. Being there hotel is in a residential neighborhood in a very sensitive city I knew noise would be a problem. Hate to take pleasure in peoples pain but this makes me feel alot better about my bidding

 

[gadfly56]

Thanks Everyone I am really appreciative that so many responded with very good advice. I am deeply touched thank you all.

Update on that job it was a Turnkey bid (which I hate doing). so there where no specs to bid by. The engineer just called and they are stuck removing a refurbed 350kw generator thats installed and cant be modified to reduce the sound level. In my proposal the generator I used had a modified cadilitic converter with an additional PM filter. That alone was an additional 50k. Being there hotel is in a residential neighborhood in a very sensitive city I knew noise would be a problem. Hate to take pleasure in peoples pain but this makes me feel alot better about my bidding

Thanks for the update. In the future, you might consider bidding work of this sort at the very minimum you know will be code compliant, and point out these requirements in your bid. Then, put in separate "Alternate Adds" such as for the modified catalytic converter, or the refurbed generator the competition supplied, and let the customer pick what he wants. This allows you to capitalize on your local knowledge without putting you at a competitive disadvantage. The customer is far less likely to "round file" your bid for excessive price if your base price is comparable to Johnny Trunkslammer's. If he really, really, wants the plantinum plated lugs, he can check the box. While schadenfreude may warm the soul, it's better to have the customer's money AND say "I told you so," than to simply be able to say "I told you so."

 

[CT Tom]

Thanks for the update. In the future, you might consider bidding work of this sort at the very minimum you know will be code compliant, and point out these requirements in your bid. Then, put in separate "Alternate Adds" such as for the modified catalytic converter, or the refurbed generator the competition supplied, and let the customer pick what he wants. This allows you to capitalize on your local knowledge without putting you at a competitive disadvantage. The customer is far less likely to "round file" your bid for excessive price if your base price is comparable to Johnny Trunkslammer's. If he really, really, wants the plantinum plated lugs, he can check the box. While schadenfreude may warm the soul, it's better to have the customer's money AND say "I told you so," than to simply be able to say "I told you so."

I did this once when the lighting spec called for Non-IC recess everywhere in the house, I included an add on line item for code compliance. They just went with someone else and made them eat the missed recess due to contract verbage. (got feedback from plumber)

I now include a disclaimer in my initial proposal stating that the job was bid with documents provided, and no consideration for cost yadda yadda for code compliance or AHJ requirements. If there is a gross mistake, I'll make a little more detailed notation, but no change orders till the job is mine.

 

[GoldDigger]

...(got feedback from plumber)....

See, they can be useful sometimes.


Tapatalk!

 

[coffeejunkie]

Here's what I recently encountered. A customer came back to me with a bid that was less than half of my bid. I then pointed out all of the things the bid was missing that mine was not. The customer contacted the other contractor and asked for a revised bid. Guess what? The bid came out to the same price as my bid. Guess who the customer chose? Me. Why? Because he knew I wasn't trying to rip him off with future change orders. Screw the contractors that try and pull this stuff.

 

[cowboyjwc]

language gentlemen.:happyno: