On Friday, April 17, 2015 at 5:48:46 PM UTC-4, Tim Wescott wrote:
On Fri, 17 Apr 2015 10:54:12 -0700, rangerssuck wrote:
On Thursday, April 16, 2015 at 2:14:03 PM UTC-4,
wrote:
RANT ON
About 45 minutes ago a guy calls and asks if I can heli-arc a casting.
I say sure, if it's weldable I can probably do it. So he drives to my
shop and shows me the casting. I recognize this casting, it's from a
Sears riding mower and I have welded a few for my neighbor as a favor.
Because I have welded on them I know how crappy they are to weld and
how much extra gusseting they need added when welding so they won't
break again. So I tell the guy I think it's a Sears riding mower part
and he says yes, it is. I then tell him to buy a new one from Sears
because it will be cheaper than me. He says that even though they are
only 27 dollars he can't wait. I say OK, it will cost you 60 or 70
bucks, because I already know all about these particular parts. He says
BAH! Too much. Then he says he has a TIG machine at home. So I say
good, go home and weld it. Then he says the water pump won't work.
So I say just hook up the garden hose to it. Then he says too much
hassle and leaves in a huff. Good riddance to the cheapskate. And I'll
bet his welder works just fine and he just doesn't know how to use it.
He looked to be about 65 and was driving a nice new full size pickup.
Maybe his truck payments are so high he has to try to get his expensive
riding mower fixed for cheap.
RANT OFF
Eric
Oh don't get me started. I wish I had a nickel for every time I quoted a
price and got, in return, "Oh, my brother-in-law's kid can do it for
much less." I just tell them to go ahead and have the kid take a whack
at it. When he totally screws it up, come on back and I'll do it for
double the price.
Occasionally, they do come back. And I charge them double.
I am so happy now that I've landed a pharmaceutical manufacturer as a
regular client. They pay their bills on time and do not, under any
circumstances, cut corners.
Every once in a while I'll get a prospect that'll give me some entirely
open-ended design task and want a firm fixed price. Usually if I can
engage with them at all I can get them to see why they don't want that;
sometimes we actually constrain things enough that I can give them a bid.
The rest I just wave down the road with all good will.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
When I get asked for a fixed price on open-ended work, I tell them flat out that if that's what they really want, then I have to cover myself, so let's call it a couple of million. If it ever gets close to that, I'll submit a change order.
And then there are the real dicks who want to push for a price up front including projected production costs on a big job which really should have an up-front engineering charge. They poke & prod, promising huge rewards at the end. By the time you've come up with a proposal, you've pretty much done the whole design.
Then they give the job (and your proposal with all the hard work done) to someone else who can charge much less to execute your design.
I don't get those nearly as often as I used to, and now I do insist on up-front costs before going very deep into a job. Usually. But I lost a good-sized bid a couple of years ago for a surgical device for a major manufacturer. I spent three days reading their documents and noted several errors and inconsistencies. I'm not sure why I didn't win the bid, but I can't imagine that they didn't submit my notes to whoever did win it.