"Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)" wrote in message
. ..
In article , Pecanfan
URL:mailto

snip


Generally the time taken to quote will be proportional to the value of
the
job anyway so your valuable time will be rewarded accordingly.

Only if the job is booked. Otherwise it is a waste of time and money,
neither of which you feel you are liable to refund.

To expect
customer to shell out 2-3 callout fees just to get a quote is utterly
ridiculous

No-one is suggesting that at all. A realistic estimate of the cost will be
given over the phone, so that way it costs nothing.

Not true. The last couple of times I've tried to get quotes for things
(plastering a room and replacing my soil stack), the people who I have
spoken too have insisted on coming to have a look rather than quoting over
the phone. In both cases I was happy to provide any relavent info they
wanted but their immediate responses were always "I'll come round and have a
look". And I'm sure if charging to come and give a quote was the norm, we
would be even less likely to get phone quotes.


and the fact that the industry takes your point of view as 'the
norm' only goes to highlight the sorry state of affairs we're in.

But in general, the industry (any service organisation) doesn't want the
type of customer who wants everything cheap. They are ALWAYS trouble,
expecting champagne for beer money. I would rather they went elsewhere.



I don't necessarily want everything cheap - but I want to get quotes from at
least 3 people, especially when I have no idea how much a job should cost.
If someone quotes way below the others, I'm instantly suspicious - and if
someone comes round and is more helpful and seems more able than the others
(in most cases I have general idea what is needed which has so far enabled
me to get rid of anyone who is trying to exaggerate the scale of the job) I
would be more likely to go with them.


I had a phone call earlier from a woman who already rang me a couple of
days
ago for a price. She is obviously trawling round everyone in the book
trying
to shave off the last penny. What she doesn't want to be educated about is
the quality of the equipment to be installed. Now we could do a typical
"cheap" job, with contractor equipment etc, but then she will be back on
the
phone complaining about it. Why bother, let the cowboys have the hassle,
they come and go, we have been around since 1986 and intend to be around
for
a long time to come. Makes you think the business must be running
correctly?

I'm sure there aren't many businesses that would say "we've been around for
a long time but intend to go bankrupt within the year" :-)

If it works for you, fine. But if I phone round for quotes and someone says
"I'll come out, it will cost you £x" I won't go with them - their quote may
be ludicrous anyway, in which case I've lost the callout fee for no gain.
Why bother?

Jon