Glad I told customer that I charged for estimate

[Fulthrotl]

I did and she wouldn't tell me, as they wanted to see what my price was.

I've never worked in this area before, so did not understand who my competition was. I'm finding guys are bidding work from 50 miles away these days. Wasn't like that before the economy slowed to it's present level.

people are funny. everyone talks about "hack" electricians, but what about
"hack" customers?

i had a guy contact me off craigslist (during a brief moment of insanity
when i had an ad posted there) and wanted me to do several things:

*engineer a set of drawings for a commercial occupancy
*get them thru plan check
*pull a permit
*perform the install

now, he wanted to help, and had several aspects of this already in
process... :smile:

he had a set of drawings already done of the occupancy, in adobe
illustrator... all i needed to do was edit them, in illustrator, and drop
my panel schedules and standard forms and schedules, done in autocad,
into illustrator. and print them. and make them look professional. sure, wilbur.

this guy was absolutely hysterical. he had done feeder and load calcs
himself, and the six insta hot undercounter heaters were on one 20
amp circuit, and only showed 1500 watts for all six, as he didn't plan
on using them all at once. when i explained they were actually small
water heaters and cycled all by themselves, he asked if there was a way
to make them take turns, so he didn't have to buy separate breakers
and wire for each one of them..... those breakers are twelve dollars each,
y'know.......

anyway, we had a 6 hour working history, and by that point, i had
reached the limit of endurance with this bi polar, chrome plated speed bump.
at that point, i had printed these kludged drawings, and was about to drop
them off at the electrical engineers office, to brighten his day.... and the
final straw was when this pinhead asked if instead of signing and stamping
ALL THREE SHEETS of the drawings, i could have the engineer just sign the
top sheet, and that way it wouldn't cost so much.

at that point, i told him his drawings were done, and so was i. he could
pick them up, and pay me $500 cash for my trouble, or not pick them up
and go his own way, i really didn't care which.

surprisingly, he showed up to get his originals, and my work, and paid the
$500 without comment.

go shopping on craigslist, and you can find one just like him. i promise that
there's a customer just like him, waiting for you as well.


randy

 

[bjp_ne_elec]

I agree with that statement. But they would have saved $50 if they had answered.

I didn't think I'd get an answer - but have always heard - "it never hurts to ask".