helping the homeowner

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bth0mas20

Senior Member
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Maryland
Recently I have bid 2 jobs for service magic that I wondering about.
Both jobs I gave the homeowner's a price and they sounded surprised. Then they said for me to type everything that I plan to do exactly in an email and send it to them. My first reaction to this is that they are just using my estimate to show the next electrician so he can do it 50 dollars cheaper. Do you agree with that?
This is the luck I have had with service magic so far. Im close to quiting that.

My other question,
When you go look at a job and they tell you what they want, do you explain exactly how your gonna do it?
example. I explained to the man that I would cut 2 holes and exact sizes, also where I would get power from and mount switches to feed a new fan in a room on the first floor.

I feel that I should probally not tell them how I plan to do it untill after they commit. They could either use my advise and try to do it theirselves or tell the next electrician.
 
I would give a Free Estimate, but inform the customer there is a charge for "Value Engineering" that will be applied to the job if a contract is signed.
 
captaincrab55 said:
I would give a Free Estimate, but inform the customer there is a charge for "Value Engineering" that will be applied to the job if a contract is signed.
Click to expand...

so, you inform the customer that "IF" they hire you, you will charge them more?

How about charging for the "value engineering" at the time, and refunding it if they hire you to do the job?

we already punish the people who buy from us by charging them more to make up for the free estimates given to people who didn't buy...so why charge the people who actually buy from you even more?

this is a bass ackwards industry...
 
Typical of Service Magic leads. These are low quality leads, in my opinion. I can do without them. Historicly, SM leads are just price shoppers and people who aren't serious about hiring anyone to do anything.
 
We get caught in this a lot

You have to be detailed and let the customer know how the job is going to go or you can have problems later when they complain.
We feel that people should know what they are getting and for how much.

If you dont go into detail people think you are re-wiring the whole house on a service change and so on.

But there are customers who will call out SEVERAL electricians and try to pimp every bit of free information out of each of them. (and then hire no one)

You have to take the good with the bad. - I guess ;)
 
I'm w/ jg on this. I generally give the HO a detailed list of what I'm going to do for the price. Depending on the customer I will get into how I'm going to do it. You can usually tell the tire kickers from those ready to pull the trigger and I adjust my pitch accordingly. One reason I try to detail everything was an experience I had w/ a plumber. There was one portion of work that we discussed, and on first reading of the contract seemed to be in there. When the job was nearing completion I asked why it wasn't done and he said it wasn't included. yada yada yada I looked a bit closer at the contract and the work was more impied than explicitly stated so I wound up needing to pay more for work I thought was taken care of. I want my customers to know exactly what they are getting for the price. I certainly have been burned by being the first guy in the door and laying stuff out/ brainstorming w/ the HO, but in the long run I want to make sure everything is above board.
 
Im just going to start giving just enough info so they know what will happen but not enough for them to do it on their own.

I like for them to know exactly what is going to be done so hopefully they will understand the price better but that dosent seem to work. I find that only about %30 of customers apprecieate quality work and the rest think they should get work done for free.

Last week I did work for a lady that called 8 electricians and I was the only one that came out. I did the work for her the next day and didnt cut her any breaks on the price. I charged how I need to charge. She said over and over that she was %100 satisfied. She then gave me and my helper each $25 cash to put in our pockets. Then I called her later that night to ensure that her lights that I installed were what she wanted. She was still very happy and said she had already passed 3 of my cards out and had 3 more jobs for me to do in the near future.

Thats a good customer. There hard to find.
 
My guess is the person wants to be able to compare items from other bids on a line-by-line basis.

How many 15- and 20-a breakers (circuits) is each EC going to provide?

How many new outlets? Switches? GFI's?

Problem is, quality doesn't enter in to such an equation. Only price does.

So the person picks someone who, for $2000, does the work, but has some serious problems when he's done. You offer $2500, and would give the customer a trouble-free installation. But which, up front, looks more attractive to the customer?
 
As a homeowner, I feel I would be justified in getting a list of "what is included," but I would not expect to get a description of how it will be done.

But I'll add a caveat. Part of my house is over a crawl space, and you can run wires through that area. Part of the house is on slab, and any wiring in that area would have to go through the attic. I would expect the electrician to know that, to plan for that, to include that in the price, and to say so in the bid. This will require my giving the EC an opportunity to tour the house. It is an open question, in my mind, as to whether I should pay for the "tour" and the estimate, and if the estimate is not free, what is a fair price for the estimate.
 
emahler said:
we already punish the people who buy from us by charging them more to make up for the free estimates given to people who didn't buy...so why charge the people who actually buy from you even more?
Click to expand...
You're right! We should bill the non-customers and give the customers a break.
 
You could try giving the customer a proposal that tells him how much but not how done. Give one that has no place on it for his signature, but do include all your regular disclaimers like " not responsible for existing electrical system or structural defects at this structure", and an expiration date. If they tell you yes lets go for it, then break out the "contract" that includes the work description. Not till.
 
I went out to an estimate and got the feeling that the guy just wanted free advice on how to do the job. I told him that if we started the clock running I would layout he job for him and make him up a material list.
After the denial stage passed he agreed, and at least I got myself paid for that hour and a half at the end of the day.
 
I wouldn't give a customer a line item break down of parts for a service change. It would go something like: Mast, Panel, Breakers, any new home runs and j-boxes withing 5' of the panel. If they ask how you'll do it, I'd be vague. It's your time not theirs at that point. Can't see giving a general a designed lighting or power plan for a bid. That's their job unless you are contracted to be the designer.
 
I think Charlie is right. There are certain things that we should already know and factor into a bid, but its been in my experience working for other people that a lot of them would bid jobs site unseen. I guess if you favor fixed pricing then you have to take the good with the bad.
 
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