Question about giving out bid prices

[Fulthrotl]

Of course it is your choice who you submit a bid to. But I would think it unethical to price a bid differently to another potential customer.

can you please come over her and talk to our lighting manufacturers?

they cannot grasp this simple concept.

i've seen lighting packages *double* from one contractor to another.

the low bid had a boat in cabo san lucas that the reps got to go fishing
and getting drunk on.

the other guy got to cut bait.

 

[cdslotz]

I would not call them onerous. they are what they are. if you don't like them, or are not set up to bid that way, feel free to let someone else have those projects. EC's that know how to deal with those kind of projects make money on them, and the risk is relatively low, even with lower margins. You do need to capture ALL your costs to make it work though. A lot of contractors push those costs into overhead to make bidding easier. You want to get paid for the fasteners you used. Along with the consumables. And ALL the labor including the time it took your foreman to come up with the change orders. And all the time spent sketching stuff up because there were no drawings. And the mileage. and the rental costs for the equipment.

it's called estimating

 

[brantmacga]

I give different numbers all the time.

GC’s that feed us design-build projects will always get the best number. Some that I know are bid shopping, and that I never get work from, will get substantially higher numbers. And there are a couple that always take longer to pay; they’ll get a slightly higher number.

Most GC’s seem to have their preference of who they want to use; so do I.


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[brantmacga]

can you please come over her and talk to our lighting manufacturers?

they cannot grasp this simple concept.

i've seen lighting packages *double* from one contractor to another.

I think we talked about this once before. Lighting suppliers can absolutely determine who gets the job. On a recent project, I got Lighting quotes ranging from $80k to $200k for the same package. I don’t know if that says something about me or the supply house getting the quote from the manufacturer. The $200k supplier told me he had no markup on the fixtures; he just wanted my business on the rest of the job. He was PO’d when I told him the low bid.



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[petersonra]

I think we talked about this once before. Lighting suppliers can absolutely determine who gets the job. On a recent project, I got Lighting quotes ranging from $80k to $200k for the same package. I don’t know if that says something about me or the supply house getting the quote from the manufacturer. The $200k supplier told me he had no markup on the fixtures; he just wanted my business on the rest of the job. He was PO’d when I told him the low bid.



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these guys know within a few percent what the other guys will bid if the other guy wants the job bad enough.

what it says is they did not want the job (at least from you) or they did not think you had enough of a chance of getting it that it was worth the effort to get you a better deal.

 

[Muneepit]

More hypothetical than anything but I was talking to a GC about this recently. Say as an EC you have a relationship with a certain GC. By that I mean they always have work and always ask you to give them a number for a job they are bidding. Most times you get the work.

Now, another GC calls you who is also bidding on the same job as the GC you know. He asks if you are bidding on that job and if so what your numbers are. You've never worked with this GC before, got your number out of the Blue Book.

Do you decline, give him the same number as the GC you work with or give him a higher number? Also keeping in mind that winning bidders doing public work have to say who their MEPs are and the numbers. So you risk POing the GC you have a relationship with if the other contractor should win.

Do GCs ask you to do the takeoffs and estimating for the jobs they bid or do they have their own estimators and come to you after they have won a bid?

-Hal

I run into this quite often. I do work in the local airports where there is a select few of contractors that can even bid the projects. My GC gives me all of his work. We have a gentleman's agreement. As long as I do 100% of his work, I will not undercut him or give a competitor the same price if I bid with them at all. If I do send a quote, it is never equal to my primary GC's #.

But if he is not going to bid a particular project, all agreements are off. Has worked for me so far.