Would you do this?

[Mark Bolam]

Genuine undercutting is annoying, and ends up with noone winning (apart from the customer!)

 

£425 for 3 men for a day seems cheap to me, but perhaps this other bloke is mustard and sees it as half a day for 2 men, in which case his price seems nearer the mark?

 

More likely he's dropped a bollock, and will be cursing himself before the end of the job!

 

Either way, suck it up and move on. Keep your standards (and prices) high.

 

As said recently in a different thread, loads of companies spring up in this game, get loads of work by being dirt cheap, then disappear quickly when all their gear is knackered and they can't afford to replace it.

[oldwoodcutter]

It's happened to me quite a lot lately,they accept the price and give me the go ahead,shake hands,next thing they're ringing me with some excuse that they've decided not to do it.Next time i drive past i see that smash and grab have been in again.

[Frank]

Maybe he is really short on firewood? Haha

 

Bit of a shame really seeing as the customer had said he thought yours was a fair price. Does the customer now think you were trying to rip him off? Would have been good to ask the customer to get the other chap to justify his pricing. Total up cost of fuel and other consumables, all equipment depreciation, insurance, etc etc and the customer would have realised that the other guy was going to be taking down a 70ft tree in his garden for about £25 per man per day. See how confident he feels about that.

 

Or just ignore it.

 

Next time you do a quote and see another van parked outside, get your customer to sign a written agreement before leaving haha.

[White Noise]

John I take it that this is the same outfit that is putting out cheap quotes ?

 

Hes been around near me a fair bit lately but hes to cheap . Same guy that had a school boy directing traffic the other day ? Climbs in rigger boots

[skyhuck]

The stupid thing here is, the customer was happy with the first price, so this muppet is driving down prices in his own industry and cutting his own throat.

[Tom D]

I loose a job a month at least to this sort of thing, (not sneaking in after I've just quoted). Its a fact of life and you need to just get on with it. I'm not saying it doesn't hurt, especially if its a biggun. I lost a 3k+ job this time last year. I was fizzing but what are you gonna do? At the end of the day you need to remind yoiurself that these guys will never do any good in the long run, undercharging is the number one cause of small business failiure in the service sector.

 

FWIW I think you're too cheap anyway. I wouldn't put out 3 men for less than 600 and I often get 6-800 for a 2 man team.

[ArbjobsNick]

I had a guy keep undercutting me on every council job I quoted on sussed him eventually mate in places (nuff said) so waited till they offere dme a huge job put in a crazy price myself he again without even looking he undercut me and spent four days on site shifting timber for his cleverness

 

Also had a certain type of tree worker knocking doors opposite where we were working pretending to be with my well respected firm trying to get jobs got to give it to them there bloody cheeky.

 

Finally was in a shop recently and some lads came in bragging at how clever they were to undercut a massive tree job by £1,500 you have got to ask, why?

[Paul Barton]

Your price is your price, simple as that. It doesn't matter whether it's a few hundred quid for a day or tens of thousands for a big contract.

 

But that wasn't really your question....yes, it is low to poach work and undercut people. I wouldn't do it. The guy will catch a cold if he keeps doing that. It just shows that he doesn't know how to price work properly but you do.

[gensetsteve]

Question is did he ask your customer what the quote was. Customer says £225 so he undercuts it by £25. Its a bit like old joe does a transit load of logs for £50so phone him and get him to drop of three loads if its such a bargain why ring us ?

[The Destroyer]

People who pay peanuts get monkeys doing the work...sounds like you put in a fair price for a fair job....Our jobs hard enough without having to work twice as hard to make it pay its the way accidents happen!! I hope he crushes the maple smashes the fences and causes chaos....