On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:58:51 -0400, "Scott"
wrote:
While I appreciate your comments, to suggest that consumers shouldn't shop
around is ludicrous. Also, to suggest that the person who bids more must be
the better provider is just as bad. As a person soliciting for work, you
are a salesman. To suggest that all sales people should get paid to show
their wares is unbelievable. I suppose when you go car shopping, you just
go and buy from the first dealer you stop at. Of course not! You shop
around to find the best price AND service. I'm not saying I don't believe
that your time is valuable it's just the nature of the beast and you decided
to go into this line of work so you must deal with the occasional window
shopper. By far the best recommendation is word of mouth and no complaints
filed against you at the BBB. I have no reason to believe that you don't do
quality work but I'm sure the scammer ready to rip me off would say his work
is top notch too. Using your logic, if he's more expensive, it must be
true!
I don't think he said that. IN fact he didn't say how to find a good
contractor.
In this case, it seems to me that no one would have to pay 300 to 500
for 3 to 5 estimates.
I've never done this, but are these 100 dollar estimates in writing,
with a drawing, showing what size cabinets are used?
So you pay for one, and you get one, and then you take the drawing to
the other guys, and get an estimate from them for the same size, type,
etc, cabinets. They don't have to come to your house, they don't have
to measure. How much, if anything, do they charge for that?
Admittedly if you hire one of the ones who have never been to the
house, I think they will all insist on measuring themselves, after the
contract is signed**. How much would they imbed in the contract for
doing so? Whatever, you'll be paying no more than 100 dollars extra
for the first guy to come out.
**Although maybe not if the customer a release that he measured and
he's accurate, and will pay extra expenses. Surely if I'm just
replacing the cabinets I have with identically sized cabinets, I can
measure the size myself. Rico, would you trust me to do that, if I
signed a release too?
"RicodJour" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jun 22, 8:50 pm, "Madx" wrote:
"RicodJour" wrote in message
I started charging for estimates a long
time ago. Same deal. You sign up, you get a refund. Cuts down on
the tire kickers. It also lets people know that you value your time,
and you expect them to do the same.
So then a person with a remodel job would have to pay $300-500 up front
to
get 3 - 5 bids and then only $100 would be credited back. Seems like
quite
a racket. Why even be the low bid. You could make a living just going
out
on estimates - just give an outrageous bid. I will never pay for a
quote.
It's highway robbery.
Wouldn't it be more like burglary since we're talking about
houses? 
You've heard the old saying, there is no such thing as a free lunch,
right? Well, it's true. You may not think you're being charged for
that "free" estimate, but you are. The contractor just buries it in
his price somewhere. I prefer to be more upfront about it.
It requires effort to prepare an estimate. There's the site visit,
discussing the customers wants and needs, working up the estimate
itself, then sitting down with the customer to review the estimate and
point out where there are areas where money could be saved, or areas
where more money will be required to do it right. In short -
educating the customer.
Where do you think that time comes from? I have no more hours in my
week than you do. I can't just ignore hours anymore than your boss
will ignore hours if you decide to skip work. From your comment, it's
obvious that you're not the boss or I wouldn't need to explain this
stuff to you. An estimate and presentation might take three hours or
more. What do you feel would be a reasonable amount of money to
charge for that time?
Since you brought up the 3-5 bids, where does that come from? Do you
think that somehow gives you a better project or saves you money? It
doesn't work that way. Most people that get more than a couple or
three bids are simply price shopping. They think that all contractors
are interchangeable and will pick the lowest bid. My work is far
above the norm and so are my prices. You and I would never get past
the initial phone call. I screen potential customers at least as
carefully as the owner screens me. If someone is price shopping,
there are other contractors who are eager to race each other to the
bottom of the barrel. I'm not. I've never been the low bid, and if I
was informed I was, besides being shocked, I'd assume I'd missed
something and go racing to double-check my estimate.
When you hear about a remodeling project where there were horrendous
cost overruns, it's usually due to an owner price shopping, taking the
lowest bid and hoping for the best, or because an owner doesn't
understand the correlation between what they'd like done and what has
to be done. Both scenarios are recipes for disaster.
R