Charging For A Bid

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MasonF

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Location
Iowa
Occupation
Master Electrician
We recently had a hail storm and part of my insurance covered combing and straightening my main air conditioner unit and my mini split. The first company I called sent a young guy that new nothing, just took pictures and said he would give them to someone at his company who did the numbers. A few days later I get a bid for $1200 itemized at $600 a piece which seemed absurdly high and I took as a we dont actually want this bid. I went on to use another company who was willing to do it for a fraction of that. Fast forward to tonight, in the mail the first company sent me a $60 bill for one hour of labor on a bid. I know if I was sending out bills for every bid I didnt get I wouldnt have a single customer. Does anyone here do that? And if so, how many people actually pay it?
 
$60 for an hour of HVAC technician time is pretty cheap. I think they are just trying to recover some of the cost of having someone come out. You're probably right they didn't really want your business. I don't know why businesses just won't tell people that.
 
Diagnosis fee is a fair expectation. I don't charge for true Bids from plans or even service changes. Sometimes I get realtors who want me to do the service change bid for beating down the price but often it's a hang up on the home purchase if they have a fusebox and using FHA or VA loans. In those even if I don't get hired by the seller I do from the buyer preemptively durring escrow. Car chargers are the ones I have fizzle out the most just because they are more looky loo and I'm the odd ball for pulling permits for those and following the gfi rules.
 
I tried to stay away from that but I was doing way too many quotes and getting way too few jobs from them. My last couple of months, I told people a quote would be $50. They didn't go for it but that was OK. I was already tired and dispirited and wasn't spinning wheels any more. But anyone charging for a quote should make that clear when you call.
 
jmellc said:
I tried to stay away from that but I was doing way too many quotes and getting way too few jobs from them. My last couple of months, I told people a quote would be $50. They didn't go for it but that was OK. I was already tired and dispirited and wasn't spinning wheels any more. But anyone charging for a quote should make that clear when you call.
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Maybe draw a line for the type of call and for the max you'll do for free a month. Hit your quota and the work should be flowing so any extra bids or quotes would be detracting from paying work at that point so you should be compensated for what is basically overtime for yourself.
 
I’m not sure why something like that needs a bid. I had the exact same hail damage. The insurance adjuster (State Farm back then) itemized the damage and provided a list of contractors they work with. IIRC, the allowance to straighten the fins was about $100 and their recommended HVAC contractor did it for less than the allowance. This was 25 years ago.
 
retirede said:
I’m not sure why something like that needs a bid. I had the exact same hail damage. The insurance adjuster (State Farm back then) itemized the damage and provided a list of contractors they work with. IIRC, the allowance to straighten the fins was about $100 and their recommended HVAC contractor did it for less than the allowance. This was 25 years ago.
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Yeah, this whole thing has been eye opening about our insurance company. They have been a nuisance about all the aspects of repairs and even getting the adjuster to accept that our siding was discontinued took an act of congress.
 
Since the 'technician' made the trip to your house, I think that would count as a 'service call.' Gas, wear and tear on the vehicle, etc.
It sounds like the task was straightening the fins on the A/C units. There's a tool to comb fins... a quick search found several in the $10-20 range.
 
No I would not think a fee is justified unless explained before tech comes out

But as far as not wanting the work, maybe they just want to have no more work than they can handle? And be very well paid?

I'm sure I could get twice as much work if I cut my prices in half, and make same amount of money (if I could keep up)
 
So heres an update. I called and talked to the owner. I could tell from the conversation that I wasnt the only person hes had question it. He got irriated and said that hes had over 200 calls about hail damage and that he knows we all have insurance and I should just pay him. So hes either just grumpy from the storm and charges a lot or hes wanting to cash in on peoples insurance payments. In the end after me giving him my two cents about contracting he got kind of quiet and asked if id be willing to pay him half.
 
Assuming this charge wasn't mentioned up front, I still wouldn't pay him anything. Heck, he could have sent out someone with the comb, done the work, and billed for an hour or two of the tech's time right then.

(Is insurance going to cover the cost of getting a bid? I doubt it.)
 
Problem is with most insurance claims most will want more than one estimate. Tell the insurance that you are being charged for the estimates, and maybe they will cover.
jmellc said:
I tried to stay away from that but I was doing way too many quotes and getting way too few jobs from them. My last couple of months, I told people a quote would be $50. They didn't go for it but that was OK. I was already tired and dispirited and wasn't spinning wheels any more. But anyone charging for a quote should make that clear when you call.
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I've had the issue with calls for estimate that were just "tire kickers" spending a lot of time and getting nothing from it. This was the worse when I was using home advisor for leads, they charge you for every lead based on their perceived value of the potential job. 99% of their leads were just "I was wondering how much to do x?", no intention to actually have the work done. Got rid of that lead generator. But as I got more experience and getting a feel for the material cost, have been able to weed out some of the wasted trips by being able to give a prospective customer a range of costs and if they are still interested then can narrow it down by a site visit.
MasonF said:
So heres an update. I called and talked to the owner. I could tell from the conversation that I wasnt the only person hes had question it. He got irriated and said that hes had over 200 calls about hail damage and that he knows we all have insurance and I should just pay him. So hes either just grumpy from the storm and charges a lot or hes wanting to cash in on peoples insurance payments. In the end after me giving him my two cents about contracting he got kind of quiet and asked if id be willing to pay him half.
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This can be a problem during a disaster situation where repair work exceeds the number of qualified to effect repairs. One thing that can happen, especially if there was a disaster declaration, the AG will usually issue warnings related to gouging and will prosecute. His, one starting low for an hour of labor, and two willing to cut it in half, makes me think there was initially no desire to get the job but was just wanting to "cash in" on the widespread disaster, counting on the "low fee" to generate quick, no work, money.
 
A lot of people will pay have some customers that got slapped without knowing. I told them to tell contractor to shove it, they did not want credit ruined so they paid
 
Years ago I was giving out a lot of bids and getting very few of the jobs. Most of them were residential and Real Estate Companies that wanted a bid to negotate a better price. I finally started charging $50 that I told the client that I would apply towards the cost If I got the job. Still didn’t get many takers! HVAC and Plumbers seem to be able to charge what they want. For some reason not so much with Electricians!
 
HEYDOG said:
Years ago I was giving out a lot of bids and getting very few of the jobs. Most of them were residential and Real Estate Companies that wanted a bid to negotate a better price. I finally started charging $50 that I told the client that I would apply towards the cost If I got the job. Still didn’t get many takers! HVAC and Plumbers seem to be able to charge what they want. For some reason not so much with Electricians!
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I hear from those who don't know that "it's just wires" but I also will change my own toilet and save $300 so maybe I'm part of the problem.
 
Fred B said:
Problem is with most insurance claims most will want more than one estimate. Tell the insurance that you are being charged for the estimates, and maybe they will cover.

I've had the issue with calls for estimate that were just "tire kickers" spending a lot of time and getting nothing from it. This was the worse when I was using home advisor for leads, they charge you for every lead based on their perceived value of the potential job. 99% of their leads were just "I was wondering how much to do x?", no intention to actually have the work done. Got rid of that lead generator. But as I got more experience and getting a feel for the material cost, have been able to weed out some of the wasted trips by being able to give a prospective customer a range of costs and if they are still interested then can narrow it down by a site visit.

This can be a problem during a disaster situation where repair work exceeds the number of qualified to effect repairs. One thing that can happen, especially if there was a disaster declaration, the AG will usually issue warnings related to gouging and will prosecute. His, one starting low for an hour of labor, and two willing to cut it in half, makes me think there was initially no desire to get the job but was just wanting to "cash in" on the widespread disaster, counting on the "low fee" to generate quick, no work, money.
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I also had 1 guy who I did one job for with a previous boss. Nice enough guy. He called me to look at something, took half a day to look over and answer all his questions, then his wife came out with another list of questions as I was leaving. I called with a quote and had another list of questions of why this and that..... no work. He called again later that year, same sort of stuff. The next time he called, I told him to call someone else.
 
PaulMmn said:
Since the 'technician' made the trip to your house, I think that would count as a 'service call.' Gas, wear and tear on the vehicle, etc.
It sounds like the task was straightening the fins on the A/C units. There's a tool to comb fins... a quick search found several in the $10-20 range.
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An estimate is not a service call. Ever. That tech showed up to get info some numbers could be given, not do work.
 
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