customer wasting our time

[skyhuck]

Do most of you do free quotes? I do but, probably waste a lot of time/fuel in the process, ideally I would charge say £25 to quote to cover cost which is refundable if i get the job. But i imagine a lot of chances to quote may be missed out using this approach.

 

I reckon you would get no jobs to quote if you charged, no matter how small the charge.

 

I would never pay a contractor to come and quote for me.

 

Some people even go to the point of paying for the customers call, with an 0800 number, this I would never do, if the customer is too tight to pay for a call I don't really want them as a customer.

[easy-lift guy]

You are dealing with morals as you have not stated your rules to the customer.

that only leads to resentment and stress .

simply charge for your time if you don't want to give it away for free:)

 

This can not be stressed more. Any time one has an opportunity to submit a bid for services rendered, a complete disclosure by the contractor of how things are is very important for the customer to understand. Leave the Drama for the reality shows. As professionals we all have much better things to do with our time, esp. since the clock is always running forward.

easy-lift guy

[Stephen Blair]

I reckon you would get no jobs to quote if you charged, no matter how small the charge.

 

I would never pay a contractor to come and quote for me.

 

That just puts you into a customer category , I have charged my time and costs before for quoting if it's out of what I feel a reasonable time and distance, but this will be well down my enquirer questions list, some never get by the what's your address.

I will find out as soon as possible if it's worth my while carrying on the conversation.

this may seem arrogant to some, outragous to others, which is fine by me, the ones that go' sounds fair to me and obviously !!

your my kind of people

[Pedroski]

Do most of you do free quotes? I do but, probably waste a lot of time/fuel in the process, ideally I would charge say £25 to quote to cover cost which is refundable if i get the job. But i imagine a lot of chances to quote may be missed out using this approach.

 

We do free quotes, and usually get the work. On times we don't get the work then the fuel costs are just another business expense that is covered by the good stuff. One of the pitfalls of pricing so low that you only just cover the cost of the wages is that every other expense, like fuel for quoting on jobs, seems unbearable as the money isn't in the bank to cover it. Then you end up with a business that isn't economically viable as you're dipping into your own pocket to go and quote.

 

Only jobs we would charge to quote are those where we had been specifically asked to travel a long distance (we'd talk to the potential customer about this beforehand) and/or where technical drawings are required for landscaping schemes. It's crap when drawings are done to support a quote, the quote isn't accepted, and the drawings are then given by the customer to a friend or another firm to do the work. I think it's fair, in these cases, that the drawings should be paid for by the customer.

[easy-lift guy]

Pedroski, I have given the customer the option of reviewing my landscape design and if the customer decided to secure my services I would deduct the cost of the design from the overall cost of the job. Otherwise they could purchase the design work outright and do what ever they wished. In either case the time and effort was paid for. Every so often some customers would have a memory laps and try to pull a fast one on me buy not paying for said design work or hiring another company to use my design without permission. I always remind the customer up front that the design work is copyrighted material that belongs to me and since the customer has signed a work order in advance it is funny how fast their memory or opinion about the matter changes!

easy-lift guy

[likeitorlumpit]

Hmmmm..

so no cool comments then..

shame

Stephen- I don't think your method would have worked for me here as the customer led me to believe I was recommended and so I went out of my way so to speak. Foolishly I've come up against a clever customer who wants the best deal with a known face and doesn't want to upset a recommended contractor that he can use in some future project. I've been out clevered!!

Really in hindsight I wish the customer hadn't called as then I would have just forgotten the job.

To all recent businesses (past 40 years) I say this is the modern way

Going back further there was a time when estimates were charged- maybe the wheel will turn full circle soon:thumbup1:

[Stephen Blair]

You are human, we make mistakes:biggrin:. Learn and move forward:001_smile:

[Johny Walker]

priced a job this aft for £650, guys says had a price of £600, but i didnt like the other guys atitude ??,so you can have the ,job ,whos time has been wasted ther ??

[skyhuck]

priced a job this aft for £650, guys says had a price of £600, but i didnt like the other guys atitude ??,so you can have the ,job ,whos time has been wasted ther ??

 

Thats called selling yourself, you clearly inspired confidence, nice one

[Johny Walker]

Thats called selling yourself, you clearly inspired confidence, nice one

 

gives me somthing to do next yr ,& hes keeping all the wood