What did I do wrong? Do it for free

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wewirepgh

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Jeff,

I meant to contact you last week. Unfortunately we were looking for a quote well below what we had recieved from Yahn . Since you only bid $500 under them We choose to go with them.

Thank you for your time,

Adrienne:-?
 
You didn't build value in your service. They already had confidence in Yahn, and just thought their price was high. When they realized that another unknown guy (you) are basically in the same ballpark, they went with the folks they already had confidence in. They had no confidence in you in the beginning (maybe they didn't even know you), and you failed to build that level of confidence during your contacts.

EDIT... It's also possible that they had their mind made up to use Yahn all along, and they just used your bid to get 500 bucks off Yahn's bid. "Bid shopping" happens a lot. It's a sickening practice.
 
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wewirepgh said:
Jeff,

I meant to contact you last week. Unfortunately we were looking for a quote well below what we had recieved from Yahn . Since you only bid $500 under them We choose to go with them.

Thank you for your time,

Adrienne:-?
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Huh ?
 
hey, at least they gave you a heads up. I think marc's right on this one. I have guys call me all the time, w/o any specs say, XYZ will do it for this. If you beat it by $xxx the job is yours.
 
brantmacga said:
hey, at least they gave you a heads up. I think marc's right on this one. I have guys call me all the time, w/o any specs say, XYZ will do it for this. If you beat it by $xxx the job is yours.
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If it's a huge job, $500 might well 'buy' the project. But on a $3,000 job, I'll pass without hesitation.


I recently bid a large custom home for 28K. I was told that so-and-so could do it for 12K. I told them to make sure they signed their contract in indelible ink as fast as they could.
 
Hey Marc I think you nailed that one on the head

Hey Marc I think you nailed that one on the head

mdshunk said:
You didn't build value in your service. They already had confidence in Yahn, and just thought their price was high. When they realized that another unknown guy (you) are basically in the same ballpark, they went with the folks they already had confidence in. They had no confidence in you in the beginning (maybe they didn't even know you), and you failed to build that level of confidence during your contacts.

EDIT... It's also possible that they had their mind made up to use Yahn all along, and they just used your bid to get 500 bucks off Yahn's bid. "Bid shopping" happens a lot. It's a sickening practice.
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Now that you got me thinking about it
 
You were close

You were close

480sparky said:
If it's a huge job, $500 might well 'buy' the project. But on a $3,000 job, I'll pass without hesitation.


I recently bid a large custom home for 28K. I was told that so-and-so could do it for 12K. I told them to make sure they signed their contract in indelible ink as fast as they could.
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$2800 Yann $2300 Jeff
 
480sparky said:
I recently bid a large custom home for 28K. I was told that so-and-so could do it for 12K. I told them to make sure they signed their contract in indelible ink as fast as they could.
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I had that same thing happen to me with a contractor that I worked with before ( 2004 ). I had bid a job for around 30K for everthing, total cost as far as job specs at that time. another contractor shows up with a bid of 12K. Code minimum.

They did get a signed contract to wire to code minimum. In the end the job cost was around 35K.

People really need to learn to read those contracts to see just what they are agreeing to pay for.

From what I have seen no one can cut that much money off a project's total cost because there just is just not that much profit to cut.
 
I emailed someone that was running an ad on craigslist that advertised they would beat any quote. I asked them why they would do that and what if the other person was going to lose money with their bid. They told me that someone that knew what they were doing wouldn't lose money on a bid they just wouldn't make as much as they wanted to on some jobs.
 
I save myself lots of wasted time. When I get calls from someone looking for a low estimate I tell them there are plenty EC cheaper then me. If you want cheap I am not your man. If you want quality and reliability then I can work with you.
 
480sparky said:
If it's a huge job, $500 might well 'buy' the project. But on a $3,000 job, I'll pass without hesitation.


I recently bid a large custom home for 28K. I was told that so-and-so could do it for 12K. I told them to make sure they signed their contract in indelible ink as fast as they could.
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Yep, NAME THAT TUNE!
 
bradleyelectric said:
I emailed someone that was running an ad on craigslist that advertised they would beat any quote. I asked them why they would do that and what if the other person was going to lose money with their bid. They told me that someone that knew what they were doing wouldn't lose money on a bid they just wouldn't make as much as they wanted to on some jobs.
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lots of companies advertise the lowest cost. it is not all that heard to be the lowest bidder.

its a very cheap way to get business.

let your competitor do the leg work and you take the job.

as long as you know exactly what you are doing, you can make real money this way.

and if the competitive bid is really a loser, you can always find some excuse not to take the job.

it may seem a little slimy, but it can be a very effective and profitable mode of operating.
 
had a customer call and tell me that XYZ Electric had bid the same job for $1000.00 less than me, I said " gee they were $1000.00 less I should have bid higher"
 
Since they decided to go with the more expensive bid, they were obviously "bid shopping"; a practice that I refuse to participate in. I can't say that I havn't sent a "similar" letter to a wholesale house, however; mine read something more like this.

"Your bids are consistantly 15-20% higher than the other distributers, if you want my contracts, either lower your bids, or do not respond to them."

This letter was only sent in response to their constantly high bids. In this area it is not uncommon to have an owner of a wholesale house get upset over a lost contract, and subsequently raise prices for given contracters, so thank god that we have a few options when it comes pricing materials. By the way the message was completely accurate given a 6 month period of them being 15-20% higher than anyone else.
 
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