Getting quotes
- Thread starter Softus
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Don't think any quotes given online would be very accurate somehow! 
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Sylvan Tieger
Considering every contractor has what they consider their own worth giving a price over the net is ludicrous as who knows what the contractors expenses are (over head ) what licenses and filing fee's are required and the cost of materials.
I know there are folks out there who do drain cleaning for less then I pay my employees and these types of individuals do not mind working 7 days a week for 12 -14 hours a day making the same amount of money I make working a 20 hour week BUT then again I am highly qualified and someone has to pay for my knowledge.
Ever call a lawyer (solicitor) and find out that if you call 100 lawyers you will get 100 different hourly rates.
Many drainers and some plumbers love to see how low they can go in pricing thus when asked how much a job will cost over the net I figure traveling time to OZ plus the baggage of taking my tools and while I'm already figuring going out of the country I may as well make it a holiday and put the cost of lodging and food and renting transportation into the guesstimate .
So when asked how much to replace a washer I would have to figure no less then $15,800 American dollars PLUS traveling to to and from
I know there are folks out there who do drain cleaning for less then I pay my employees and these types of individuals do not mind working 7 days a week for 12 -14 hours a day making the same amount of money I make working a 20 hour week BUT then again I am highly qualified and someone has to pay for my knowledge.
Ever call a lawyer (solicitor) and find out that if you call 100 lawyers you will get 100 different hourly rates.
Many drainers and some plumbers love to see how low they can go in pricing thus when asked how much a job will cost over the net I figure traveling time to OZ plus the baggage of taking my tools and while I'm already figuring going out of the country I may as well make it a holiday and put the cost of lodging and food and renting transportation into the guesstimate .
So when asked how much to replace a washer I would have to figure no less then $15,800 American dollars PLUS traveling to to and from
Yes, but when I suggesting removing 9b I didn't mean just the letters "9b"!Moderator 7 said:
Your alteration hasn't changed the meaning and the inappropriateness of it being there.
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Sylvan Tieger - I'm sure your posts are of interest to you, but personally I could do without you vomiting your barking madness over this topic.
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Shutpa
Most of us have at one time or another been ripped off. I for one paid £2500 for getting my small driveway lockblocked and discovered my neighbour got estimates for his drive ranging between £950 and £1350. As far as I can see the finished articles are more or less the same. Rule 9b may well be out of place but to me it is a very good piece of advice.
PS I am not trying to highjack this topic!
PS I am not trying to highjack this topic!
I must be reading the rule different to you then!
My take is that the forum is discouraging pricing as all factors need to be taken into account to give an accurate price.
This cannot be done online therefore get a few prices from recommended people.
Don't see why you are questioning this as I never take the first price as gospel and always look for a good deal.
I think you have been a victim of quoting for jobs in your own time and not getting them which I agree would **** me off too.
Agree with you on Sylvan Tiger though!
I can feel a poll coming on.
Rule 9 is excellent advice BTW.
Not really a rule but more friendly advice I think.
I thought Breezer would have given his 2 pence on this.
Yes - I agree. But it being difficult to quote (or estimate) without a site visit is not a good reason for encouraging people to get "a few" quotes. It's this last point that I'm suggesting is poor advice.Bahco said:I must be reading the rule different to you then!
My take is that the forum is discouraging pricing as all factors need to be taken into account to give an accurate price.
This cannot be done online therefore get a few prices from recommended people.
I'm questioning it for the following reasons:
1. You can't tell if someone is competent and trustworthy from the price they give. The best way is to go by recommendation from someone whom you yourself trust.
2. If you seek more than one quote, then, working on the basis that you can't engage more than one trader, you're wasting the time of the traders who don't get the job.
I don't know why you think that - why not just ask me? But to save you asking, you're wrong. I have only ever given 5 (five) quotes, and I was paid for all of them, including the (one) job that I didn't do, which was to support a court application.
There was a sixth quote I once did, which was an exact copy of one other, but I didn't tell the landlord how much it was because he dragged his feet over giving me his postal address. And landlords, as you're probably aware, have a credibility problem before they even open their mouths.
I don't need to quote to get enough work, therefore I don't do quotes unless either I'm paid to do them, or the client is a company which gives me a lot of business.
Don't read me wrong - there's nothing wrong with a customer/client asking for a fixed price quote for a job to be done, so that they budget (and/or get a loan) accordingly, but IMHO it's the height of stupidity to use a process of competitive quoting as some arbitrary means of discriminating between different tradespeople.
So, you might wonder why I have an interest in discouraging quotes. "Why not shut up leave everyone else alone to get on with it?", I hear you ask. Well, it's because I have an interest in the general efficiency of the labour force of the industry and of the country. The more time that people spend on quotes, even if they get paid for doing them, then the less time is available for productive work. We live in a society which is increasingly divisive, and yet we (collectively) bemoan the fact that our manufacturing industry is pretty much nought but dust and memories.
Idealistic? Perhaps. But if you don't set the bar high then you'll grow and stretch to reach it.
Oh, and let's not forget that the reason a lot of people quote is so that they can pick the cheapest - this is just cost engineering at its most despicable. A little less time moaning from customers who instead would pay the right money for the right job, and the cowboy trader would have no work. We (again, collectively), have exactly the set of tradespeople we deserve.
Not wishing to upset you Softus but the nature of the beast is that you will not get every job you quote for!
I'm sure you are very good at your job but some people will always shop around and there is nothing you can do about this.
In an ideal world you are right with your comments but we do not live in an ideal world and therefore rule 9 is excellent advice to the general public. i.e get prices from people that have been recommended by friends etc.
I'm sure you are very good at your job but some people will always shop around and there is nothing you can do about this.
In an ideal world you are right with your comments but we do not live in an ideal world and therefore rule 9 is excellent advice to the general public. i.e get prices from people that have been recommended by friends etc.
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Shutpa
Quote:
If you seek more than one quote etc.
That must be about the daftest piece of advice that I've ever read on this forum!
When I moved into this area and found a house I liked, I phoned 5 or 6 solicitors to get a price for the legal work. These were not estimates but FIXED prices. I took the lowest one and saved myself £1000, so your argument just doesn't hold water as far as house purchase is concerned. Indeed is it not a fact that all contracts, local, national and international are won or lost on the basis of tender.
If you seek more than one quote etc.
That must be about the daftest piece of advice that I've ever read on this forum!
When I moved into this area and found a house I liked, I phoned 5 or 6 solicitors to get a price for the legal work. These were not estimates but FIXED prices. I took the lowest one and saved myself £1000, so your argument just doesn't hold water as far as house purchase is concerned. Indeed is it not a fact that all contracts, local, national and international are won or lost on the basis of tender.
You've completely, utterly, and stupendously, missed the point. I've never been interested in quoting - the only ones I've done, and do, are for existing clients who need the paperwork to get either insurance or landlord authority for a job to proceed, or (in one case) to support a court application. I don't see how you can misunderstand this point. I don't want to do quotes, I don't need to do quotes, I don't have time to do quotes, so I don't do quotes.Bahco said:
It has nothing to do with how good I am at what you (quaintly) call "my job". And I don't agree that there is nothing that can be done about it. I encourage people to seek recommended traders, and I discourage people from pointlessly getting quotes. Most people get quotes because they've never thought about why they do it - they just think it's the right thing to do.
That is not excellent advice. On this point we seem to fundamentally disagree. And if we don't try to change the world, or at least a little bit of it, then how will it ever improve?
FFS - that isn't what rule 9(b) says. How in the name of all that's holy are you reading THAT into it?... i.e get prices from people that have been recommended by friends etc.
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breezer
I thought Breezer would have given his 2 pence on this.
if you like.
all the rules came about as a "need" (for want of a better word) When i started on this forum there were no rules (yes really) but people asked how much is ..... (but also there was no spam, adult posts, most of you and Softus)
Being as the job can not be seen you can not give a quote or ball park cost, this is because the poser of the question does no always give all the information, in particular access to job etc
get several quotes was the only thing to have. Perhaps it should read 3 quotes.
Yes it is a pain for the person quoting a job to go out of their way to quote and not get the job, but life is like that, yes its lso anoying if you find out you are the 10th to actuly quote, that i admit is being silly (but people do do it)
so in conclusion:
Change forum rule 9 back to how it used to be,(all one paragraph, BUT change several quotes to 2 or 3 quotes)
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