mild rant, contractors and repair folks
Having run. what I feel is a successful business, for 40 plus years. We have always called folks back. And showed up when we said we would. On occasion, where something came up, we always call or e...
Forum Discussion
WTP-GC wrote:philh wrote:
That sword plays both ways, just because you're super busy, don't waste my time by quoting 3x the cost of the job because you're busy, or you think I can pay that much.
As said before and which is pretty much common knowledge...good contractors are busy. The pricing structure of good contractors is based at least partially on their current workload. Its always best to get quotes, but if you have 3 contractors give you a price within 10% of each other and one guy who's half what everyone else is...avoid him.
This is why I try to avoid competitive bidding and work exclusively from strong referrals. This reminds me of a job I almost lost about 15 years ago during a 3 way bid on a 400k house. During the initial interview I took notes of all their wishes for the house they wanted to build. When the prospective homeowner called he was a little confused and said we were over 100k higher than the other two builders. I told him that wasn't even possible. As it turns out the other builders low balled it, such as Anderson 200 series windows vs. 400 series WHICH THE HOMEOWNER WANTED. or the fact they WANTED CUSTOM CABINETS but the other builders put in a unrealistic budget for crappy off the shelf stuff etc. This went on down the long list of items. By the time he ended up making a spreadsheet with the 3 builders and adjusting for our items vs. the lowballers we were right in there and we still were the highest of the three but we got the job because WE LISTENED.
Knock on wood but I have been very blessed with my jobs and customers and do my best to take care of them. It does make a difference too who you work for too. There are people who are willing to pay for a job done right and those who are simply cheap. Ive been in this business long enough to quickly weed out the cheapskates and work for those who want it done right. I charge fairly and they never complain either, those people I go out of my way for. In fact a lot of my customers are either business owners or in the field of business and they understand what it costs to do business.
I always get a kick however reading people on our local Facebook groups looking for a businesses that can do xxx and it usually always says in there somewhere for a reasonable amount (code word for cheap) I always pray I don't see my name listed lol.
Dan
