Its a nightmare, the amount of jobs I've taken time to quote for is ridiculous compared to what I actually get and I know my prices are fair.
Best of all are the other guys in the same trade who try to get you to price a job for them so they don't have to make the effort. Easy to spot though, they always want a detailed breakdown. Yeah right, give me the job first and then you get the breakdown.
Makes it bloody hard to be in the business. And the yahoo (nice, will use that description in future) who does get the job usually costs a lot more after adding in all his little extras and still, as S.L.F. mentioned, leaves half the work undone.
Rant over.
Your rant might be over but mine isn't
I spent 2 complete weekends working on drawings for a potential customer only for them to go with a competitor who does half the work but because they have a big name in the business and charge more than me they got it.
If they were going to waste my time I'd have preferred they told me out straight.
Now what happens is I call to people and give them a price on the spot.
I really hate breaking my prices down.
I had one man ask me to quote him for 4 awkward wardrobes, spray finish, custom handles, mirrors and plenty of drawers...the works.
I thought what I would do since he was getting so much done I'd give him a better price on the work I was doing as compared to the work I was subbing out.
I gave him his quote I think it was around €10,000 he asked me for a detailed breakdown of costs.
Per drawer, per handle, per mirror, cost of spraying, what have you
When I gave him the detailed breakdown of costs he said ok take away the spray finish I'll do that myself, we don't need that many drawers take most of them away, we are getting our own handles.....anyway you can see the picture.
So instead of asking for what he wanted, he asked for the big job then took away the extras and got himself a very good price. I didn't understand what he did at the time but I'll never forget it.
Beware Shark about!!!
If someone wants a detailed breakdown now I just give them what I do to get the job done but with no defining amounts.
Maybe if there were more female tradespeople they might me more conscientious!
Women don't make good tradesmen they're not able to handle the dirt on their high heels
A few people never got back when requested to quote and I didn't call them begging for their price. If they can't be bothered to quote, what hope have you of them doing the job and doing it properly!?!
They were probably too busy to quote
sometimes a job just ain't worth it... downturn or no downturn!!!
I can vouch for that statement