It is funny after all

Mark Hunt

I just did.

Mark H

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Mark Hunt

Ever refuse to bid a project?



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John Starcher_4

Been there, done that......

....on more than one occasion, Mark!

There are a variety of reasons for "declining" to quote a job, none of which I'll go into, as they should be obvious. When in doubt, do a "gut check!!!!!"

Starch

Scott04

I had two this summer!

One I had bid, and had gotten the go ahead. Suddenly the HO wanted to cheapen things up, not put heat in part of the house, etc.. I ran from that one!

The other, it just didn't feel right, so I declined to bid the job.

Looking at a repiping job tommorrow that I believe will be nothing but trouble. Once I look at it, and get a feel for the job, I think I'll probably be walking away from that one as well.

I'm just too busy to take jobs that don't feel right, and/ or are going to cause nothing but trouble and headaches!

Scott

Wayco Wayne_2

All the time

Like Scott said you gotta trust your gut. When I first went into business for myself years ago I took anything. Damn the torpedoes. I soon learned that lifes too short to suffer all the fools out there. I still get into some bad Karma, but my radar has gotten pretty good. WW

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Darrell

I only do service work, so I don't give bids...Alaska Law...but when I go to a customer that I don't know I go in and visit for five or ten minutes with no tools... maybe a flashlight. If I don't think I can win, or even if I don't like the attitude of the people I get too busy to take the call. If they are rude to me...I'm gone. Be tense...something expensive broke, that's why I was called, but that's no reason to be rude. "Circumstance is no excuse for poor behavior." If I take the call, I and they must understand that we are starting a relationship that hopefully will be a fun one and last for years. It might be a frustrating one...and unfortunately, that will last for years as well! You can't save 'em all.

Ragu_5

Proud of You, Mark...

Seriously; that could have been an expensive lesson. I agree with all of the other Posters: go with the gut feeling. That is a basic instinct and is necessary to the survival of the species.

Anytime that I denied my gut and ran the scenario through my "rational, human thought process".. I lost. Badly.

Run, don't walk. See ya.

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amhplumb_2

In the spring a friend of a friend called! Needed a new boiler in rental property. As soon as I got there the guy cries poor mouth, if I could just cut him a break on this one, I'd be in, the future work cup would runneth over, he had soo much other work and new a lot of other people, STRIKE ONE! Then he'd be my helper on the job, he didn't want to pay some one to wait on me hand and foot, STRIKE TWO!(He was really out on this pitch though!) Then he'll go with me and pay for the boiler and material personally, it would save me some bookeeping I guess, STRIKE THREE! Last, just hook the new boiler up to the existing chimney, he can line it himself before heating season!(In the baseball theme, the catcher dropped the third strike, so he had to throw him out at first base!) I declined the job without even talking money. One of the local handyman/all day pub patrons I'm told did the job!

Brian_48

HO viewpoint

I've been gettting quotes for a major overhaul on my heating system. Most everything I've done to this house has been by my own hands and I can usually pick up on whether the person is full of crap and figuring out their paycheck as we go through the house. Just as easily from my side as the buyer, the contractor is fired before I even get a quote.

Mark Hunt

Just so you know


the local guy I was supposed to bid against charges $15/hr.

Mark H

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S Ebels

Lot's of them around

"loco er, I mean local guys"

It's that time of year when they all come out of the woodwork.

First call this morning the guy asks " How much do you charge to clean a furnace". No hello, no "Hi, this is ______ ...., just How much do you charge. I began to ask the normal questions, like oil or gas, what brand, basement or crawl etc. and he just cut me off and asked how much again. So I started again to tell him that I needed to know some info and that we not only cleaned the furnace, we also did a combustion test.......and he cut me off and said, "I got a guy that will do it for $35.00, can you beat that? I said "Make sure he shows you the printout from his combustion test", and hung up!

Second call, no joke..consecutive calls. Guy says "How much for a 75,000 btu furnace?" After asking a few questions it became apparent that he had an upflow furnace and he wanted to flip the new one and counterflow it. He said he talked to a friend and was told that you could do that by taking off all the ductwork below the furnace and just letting it blow into the crawlspace......... I just said Sorry, I can't help you.

Some days you're the bug and somedays you're the windshield

Tony_23

$ 15

I don't remember when that was

I'm sure he thinks he's doing the HO a "favor" by not charging as much as all the "crooks" in town.

Let's see, 8 hours @ $ 15/hr, a 30 pack a week for 2 months !

Mark Hunt

Wanna' hear the rest?

No?

Too bad.

I visited this customers house when the Entran II stuff was just getting started. He called me because his radiant system was not working. I went out and looked things over and noticed the Entran II. Further investigation revealed that he had some of the nasty crap that Goodyear produced. This had NOTHING to do with his heating problems BTW.

We solved his issues and moved on. This year he had a lightening strike set fire to his house. Darin estimated the job and gave the HO a price. The HO turned it into the insurance company and they approved it. We did the work. The insurance rep told the HO that we were "getting rich" off of this job. How many of you got rich off of a $4k job????

The HO then tells Darin that our rate is nearly 10x the local plumber. A rate that his insurance company thinks is fair.

This customer got ALL, I MEAN EVERY DOLLAR he spent on the original Entran II system PLUS what he spent to replace it from GoodYear. Tweens of thousands of dollars.

He asks me to submit a bid against the $15/hr guy.

I passed.

Mark H



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Bob Sweet

Just one more

4 thousand dollar job and I've successfully reached my goal- paying my supply house bill!!

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Ragu_5

The Brick Wall Syndrome

I almost forgot to mention something that I have been paying attention lately; I call it "The Brick Wall Syndrome". It comes up when I'm in the middle of discussing a potential project with a customer and the whole tone of the conversation changes, and it becomes less than fun. If I'm paying attention, I realize that the change is that the person has shut down the "information receptor" cells of the brain, and I am talking to a brick wall. That's when it is time to end the conversation.

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