"Noozer" wrote in message
news:huTCd.716209$%k.48515@pd7tw2no...

"TURTLE" wrote in message
...

"Noozer" wrote in message
news:EUBCd.705555$%k.62084@pd7tw2no...

EXCELLENT reply, Turtle.!!! I get so tired of losers calling every
company
in the phone book for free quotes and especially free information!

I hate customers if it wasn't for their money I would drop them all..

And with this attitude I hope they all drop you.

If you went into a grocery store and there were no prices on any of the
items, would you bother putting anything in your cart? Would you spend
you
time chasing someone down to ask prices?


This is Turtle.

NOOSE , your speaking about a grocery store and we are talking about the
service
business. Call up your local grocery store and tell them to get all their
prices
on the stuff in the store and bring it over to my house and I will see
what I
want to buy from you. Now this is a free estimate and if I don't like your
prices i just send you on your way and call the next store to come see
about
what prices they have. Secret here NOOSER , No grocery store is coming to
your
house to discuss prices.

So it was a bad analogy... It was supposed to demonstrate that customers
make their purchasing decisions based on information that they can only get
from the person that they want to buy from.

What I get from this thread is that contractors expect everyone who calls to
know exactly what they want, how much it will cost and what work is involved
to get it done. Customers are expected to wait months before hearing back
from their contractor if they are at all good in their trade. Contractors
have no obligation to actually give their customers any idea of what their
project may cost, any idea of how long it may take or even when the
contractor will contact their customer to discuss the project, if they even
bother getting back to their customer at all.

As I said in another post, I do not expect to get a detailed estimate for
free. I don't expect to get more than 15 minutes of time with the contractor
for free, and that when he has the time.

If I call a contractor and tell him "I'm looking at getting a 24'x32'
garage, three door, with roofing and vinyl siding, no power or drywall. The
pad is already poured" all I want to hear back is "That should be between
$12,000 and $16,000 and take about 10 days to do. Right now we could start
in about six weeks."... From that point I can decide whether I want to deal
or keep looking. That shouldn't take more than a few minutes for someone to
figure out.

Anyhow... the whole point for joining this thread was to post my
experiences. I don't expect anything to change.


This is Turtle.

NOOSER , 1/2 the customers that calls are just looking for the cheapest price
they can get and has no knowledge of what quality is or cares about it. You can
say different here but when a customer says I went with the cheapest bidder and
I liked the way he bull****ted me into thinking his way was the best. Most all
these customers will be back when it comes apart and does not work like he or
she was told it would. I'm in the hvac business and if you don't install it
correctly the first time. The cost rerepair in the years to come is a very big
cost. I would say about 1/3 of my business is just going behind other installers
and correcting problem that should have been corrected when it was installed.
I'm right now going behind a hvac contractor that should have put heat in 2 --
15 ton hvac systems and was paid for it but here now years later they found out
that the heat was suppose to be in the deal and it was not. Now it is costing
them about $6,000.00 extra to finish up the job. The contractor was low bidding
because he knew he was going bankrupt and was getting him some extra money to
try to put back and take with him when he left town. If price of the job was all
that counted on the jobs. All the real professional would be in other
professions and just leave the Hacks to give the lowest prices.

Now I will say your my kind of customer for you will go with the lowest bid and
I will repair / rebuild / fix the lowest bidders job after he is gone. If every
hvac contractor would install the hvac equipment correctly about 1/2 of all the
contractor in the hvac business would not be needed. When the customer base goes
with the lowest bidder it calls for 2 X the people needed to keep the equipment
running down the road. Thank the Lord for Hacks and Low Bidders.

TURTLE