Lost Bid?

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ElectricianJeff

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Southern Illinois
Frequent visitor, first time poster.

I bid a job last week. Past customer referral. 100 amp. upgrade, bunch of new circuits, lights and recepticles, gfci's etc. Lady had just purchased the property 2 hours before I arrived. I had a good feeling about getting the job and submitted a resonable bid via email that evening to the HO. She made it clear that she would be getting 3 bids for the work but I left with the impression that the job would be mine if my price was in line.

A couple of days ago on the way into town (she lives near me) I noticed a small red pickup in the driveway with extension ladder and a couple of sticks of emt in the bed. Didn't appear to be working there so I assumed it was someone else bidding the work. I touched base with her that evening by phone and she told me that she was waiting for one more bid but I would probably get the job. She emailed me yesterday morning to let me know that she went with someone else as they were considerable less than me.

Normally, not a big deal since you don't get them all. However, yesterday while visiting the local Lowes where I do ALOT of business I noticed the same pickup, ladder, emt and all parked in the employee lot there. The more I thought about this the more it bothers me.

I live in a state that licensing is not required. I get 10% off there which I do not pass on to the customer, as a rule. I can only assume that if you work there you probably get an even larger discount. I'm union and I see alot of the union trades doing business there.

I'm not sure if I want to do anything about this but just forget about it. Was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts about this one way or the other.

Thanks in advance to anyone that takes the time to reply.

Jeff
 
If there is no licensing, I'm not sure that you can do anything. It's really a shame that there is no licensing - so with the free enterprise system, combined with no licensing - what can you do?

What state do you live in? I know when I lived in NY state the licensing was run by the towns - and some towns didn't have it. So any guy with a station wagon could strap a ladder on the top of the station wagon and call himself an electrician. And you wouldn't believe some of the stuff I ran in to. Open #12 AWG single wires run through basements, up in to walls, etc. etc.

I would love to see eventually that all licensing in the US was run by the state, and it was mandatory.

You've got to sell yourself on quality, and given some time, if you do good quality work - you're reputation will proceed you.

Thanks

Brett
 
bjp_ne_elec said:
If there is no licensing, I'm not sure that you can do anything. It's really a shame that there is no licensing - so with the free enterprise system, combined with no licensing - what can you do?

What state do you live in? I know when I lived in NY state the licensing was run by the towns - and some towns didn't have it. So any guy with a station wagon could strap a ladder on the top of the station wagon and call himself an electrician. And you wouldn't believe some of the stuff I ran in to. Open #12 AWG single wires run through basements, up in to walls, etc. etc.

I would love to see eventually that all licensing in the US was run by the state, and it was mandatory.

You've got to sell yourself on quality, and given some time, if you do good quality work - you're reputation will proceed you.
Click to expand...

I live in Southern Illinois.......and licensing isn't really the issue here but I understand what your saying. I don't have one either which is one of the main reasons I remain Union. And yes, I see some really scary stuff. It actually works out good for me when I point out potential problems to HO's and then they pay me to fix them.

My concern here is a (probably) part time big box employee competing for my business with reduced material costs, no overhead and a steady source of potential customers. I believe in keeping the playing field as level as possible and I don't think it is fair in this situation. Especially when I see many of the contractors spending their money there.

My business is built on my reputation, I do no advertising and work strictly by former customer and inspector referral. I do very few bids, I usually give them a ballpark and then charge accordinglly. I know this is not best way of doing things but it is working for me. Maybe, thats why losing one like this bothers me more than it should but it just doesn't happen very often.

Thanks for your input,

Jeff
 
As far as Lowe's employees getting a discount, don't bet on it.
My stepson works for Lowes, and when he was living with us, I could not get him to buy me anything. The discount is only given for them to buy, and use in their house, and only on big ticket items.
Twice a year they have employee discount sales, which allow them to buy most anything.
 
I agree without having a requirement for a contractor licence it sounds like anybody who wanted to could wire. That bugs me union or not. HOs should not wire their own homes its not safe.

Would they put out there own fire????, no they call the pros

:mad: :mad:
 
Scott summed it up nicely.

Realistically even if he is getting some savings, it might be 10% savings on material over you. How much is that on this job? Maybe $100. He must be willing to work for a lot less than you are to be considerably lower. Chalk it up as a loss and move on.

Do you strictly work for yourself, or do you work for a company full time?
 
In my neck of the woods I compete with firemen (could be licensed or not) working on the side, "retired" ECs, "retired" union electricians, POCO linemen working on the side, etc. No-one said the world has to be fair. I take my lumps and move on.
 
I get calls from time to time from local ECs telling me that I needed to keep an eye on a job because they just got under bid by their material costs.

Happens all the time I'm sure, but the low bid shouldn't be getting any breaks from the owner/GC and he certainly isn't getting any from the AHJ. Could be a lot of reasons that a guy under bid you. Some are as bkludecke said. Some could be he has way less over head than you, but it doesn't always mean they're a hack.

Once put out a bid on a job for the company I used to work for, the bids came back $39,000-$37,500-$19,000. As we always took low bid we called the contractor up and let him know that he was way low and gave him a second chance to look at the plans and rebid. He called us back and said he was good. We gave him the job and never had a problem. Never did find out why he could do it so much cheaper.
 
"Considerably cheaper" could mean $50. I lost many jobs for $50 or $100. When it comes to electrical, many homeowners do not care about anything but price. Move on to a customer that appreciates and is willing to pay for quality work. Let someone else deal with those that are only looking for price, there are plenty of hacks out there that are willing to do a lousy job for a cheap price.
 
Thanks for all the replies and advice. And yes I'm moving on, in fact I'm heading out the door as soon as I post this to the warm regions of Nevada with 31 other guys for a week of golf, fun, sun and whatever. I guess you could say I'm over it now.

Jeff
 
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