+1

Or, the client met with the other two, and just didn't feel like they were getting good service, and got the "slick used car salesman" vibe. If so, then walking the job and pointing out issues likely will win the job.

As a customer, If the others didn't walk the job, I might mention it, as I'd have been surprised by your offer. I would have seen what you did, as a positive indication, that you are willing to work a bit more, to do a better job. As a customer, I'm willing to pay more for that. But, they could be getting 6 quotes... I guess if you get the call to do the work, you'll have your answer about which way this customer is.

+1

Its all about the relationship, and this way you will both see if you can hit it off and work together, as it will be around an 8 month to 1 year relationship. JMO

I can not tell you how many times that I have walked 15-20,000 sq ft homes and found the same crap.

It truly pisses me off that ANYONE pulling wire in 3500 sq ft and up houses can not at least pull one coax and one cat 5 to a TV location. TOTAL FREAKING TARDS !!!!!!

Looped phones??? you gotta be kidding me..........we stopped doing that in the 70s...........right?


That is why I do not work for ANY builder......they do not see the value in wiring a house correctly. For some strange reason, they are against wiring a house for low voltage. Even custom builders that are building for a client on the client's dime. Even builders building 2-3 Million dollar specs...........

Total dumbazzness.....................

Rant over...........

My nickle,
RR

I think about the only thing that makes this up in the air at all are the terms "bid" and "quotation." An estimate is that. Those other two are actual prices. An estimate says at the top that it may change. A price is what will be charged, regardless of how wrong the interpretation of the drawings might be. There are, of course, change orders, but these only cover changes requested by the homeowner, not things the installation company discovers after finally being on site.


Don't you always find things on the walk that change your initial concept of the quote? Do you just eat the extra charges or keep any extra that you'd get if something turned out easier than you thought?


And I hope this is with the understanding that it is an estimate, not a quotation, and that it will change when the wood is standing. Yeah, I wrote that.


Maybe, if you find that it's impossible to put where they want it once you actually see it.

How can it be wrong? They use a program to calculate the price, or use some cost/drop + formula. It might not be accurate, but I fail to see how it could be 'wrong'.

Making assumptions and estimating on the high side, with some mention of final billing based on actual T&M works for a lot of contractors, but they often know the client/designer and how they handle bids. With a new client, I would want to be pretty accurate, but still competitive.

You say the price is $12,425 from your calculations. The parts and labor make the job come out to $15,000. You give them an invoice for $15,000. They say the price was $12,425 so why are you charging them more? You say "That's the price. The quote was not wrong, it was inaccurate. Please pay me the $15,000."

Right.

I'd love to see an elaboration of how "inaccurate" is not "wrong." Speaking in formal logic, it's not quite correct to change the sense of two words, the meaning of which, when changed, cancel the effect, but to say "inaccurate is not wrong" is at least akin to saying "inaccurate is right." Again, it's not exactly that, but how can it even be in the ballpark? Of course, my logic could be inaccurate, but that doesn't make it wrong......

It's not a job until there's a house?

I must work in a different market. I can't image the look I would get if an architect or builder wanted to talk about a proposal and I said 'I'll wait until it's framed then we'll talk.'

I wouldn't get much work, if any.
 

"Concept of quote" changes are completely different than "I think the TV jack would work better on the North wall instead of the south"

as far as price, sometimes you win a little and sometimes you lose. usually its pretty darn close though.


I'll let ya know how we handle that situation if if we ever run into it. In 20+ years of doing new construction, I've never run into a situation where I could not get wire to a clients location during a prewire.

This isnt rocket surgery. we're talking about prewiring a new construction. Some rooms may take 10 minutes more than we estimate and other 15 minutes less. We might use 20 more feet of wire on one run, but then the next run will be 18 feet less.

If we are doing retro or even remodel, things are quoted very different. and often fall into T&M territory.

We always walk the house. And after the last pitty job my boss took we won't be doing any that someone else is wiring because " it's in the builders quote"
Electrician wired house after we walked through and told them what and where to run and it was still screwed up. 2 days of identifying and adding lengths to cables suck

I gave many a ballpark quote working from plans alone, and only did that in a meeting with the homeowner.

Them when the property was actually framed, I would do a walk through, taking notes as to what the client REALLY thought they wanted in the various rooms, before giving the actual quote.

Never that I can think of, did I do a job without a walk through prior to doing the job.


You don't do a walk through, you can bet something will be wrong.

Not doing a walk through before a quote and not doing a walkthrough before you do the job are 2 very different things.

Every company is different. When i hear "walk the house" i think "when you first meet the client at their residence and go over the system they want". This is where you literally walk the house...room to room and discuss which wall gets a TV and whether or not they want shades etc. This is also the moment where you mention products that the clients may not be aware of or "illustrate" scenarios like pressing a home or away button.. "You mean we can hide all of the dimmers and just use keypad buttons?" Finally...this is where budget gets discussed.

You leave that initial "house walk" with an idea of what they want and how much they want to spend. At this point you go back and put together a proposal...you submit the proposal and if they accept you begin the design phase of the project.

Other companies may invite the clients to their showroom/office (or a conference call) where they sit down with the prints and do a virtual walk through.

If an architect or builder wanted to talk about a proposal before a job site exists, we can talk about it all they want.

But as far as generating a project proposal, that's not going to happen until there is a project to walk.

Generating proposals for non existing CI projects is salesperson busy work.

I have been lucky in the fact that my builder points the customer to me directly and does not even get involved in the low-voltage part of the build. I always walk the frame with the customer before I quote anything because plans change and I don't like doing things twice. If they want numbers sooner - I tell them to budget $X per drop based on a cursory plan review. I have never run into a problem with timing because I easily have 30 days to to the wire after the walk. At that point the customer gets a "this is the price" document, the end, Paid for upfront before the first wire is pulled. They seem to prefer that to "oh, well that wall is different so sorry that screwed up your budget 4 months ago".
Bids take me about an hour because it's formula based on a spreadsheet. I used to draw up fancy schematics and such only to have the customer throw them in a drawer never to be seen again. Simple is now the M.O. for me.