Charging for quotes & estimates

[Azure]

I agree; we have veered off.

And I agree, if you do design work, there is a cost involved.

I do find it strange though that you would say you do not charge for that on the civil engineering side? Or did I misunderstand?

I know there is no way architects will do work for free, and even still lots of them cut corners.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Azure

I agree; we have veered off.

And I agree, if you do design work, there is a cost involved.

I do find it strange though that you would say you do not charge for that on the civil engineering side? Or did I misunderstand?

I know there is no way architects will do work for free, and even still lots of them cut corners.

Again, in all my years of consulting engineering work, we have never charged a fee for quoting on a job, as long as our design is not given to the client. In fact, even on a design-build jobs, we estimate the volume of our work to do the client's work, rather than the work itself and that's the expertise we have based on our experience.

I have commissioned ton of work from architects (big and small), and I have never been charged a fee for a proposal. Exception is when I asked them to do a concept design work prior to quoting, which I have already elaborated on earlier.

As an illustrative example, think of the SW and W Ring Road design-build tenders. You do realize the huge volume of work the consortia bidding on those two jobs had to do, right? It was enormously complicated. Yet, they all did and all but the winning one wasted their time.

Now, think of that and think of a two-hour job to replace a hot water tank.

[Azure]

See, I don't think that is fair on the industry.

You should be able to charge for comprehensive work like that. For some people, that is what they do ALL DAY long. And then not being able to win the job?

I'd just rather not, and if that was acceptable for every big job in my industry, I would do something else.

[Sliver]

Yeah, that's an insane expectation. My wife used to write RFPs and her time wasn't cheap, let alone all the people that were involved in putting together a big proposal. Like, we're talking 100s of man hours. You have to be pulling in huge money on other jobs to even be able to afford to quote.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Azure

... And then not being able to win the job?..

Yeah, man. That's the game of being a contractor. You take the risks with the rewards. If that's too much to stomach (it is for me, personally), then you work for someone else, like most of us.

[GP_Matt]

For a clogged toilet I thought the normal business model was to quote a call out fee that covers the first hour of work.
The plumber tells you it will be $150 for him to show up on site, take a look and attempt to fix the problem. If he is done within the hour you pay the fee and he leaves. If he looks at it and the problem is bigger then he tells you a new price and you accept and pay or give him the $150 for his time.

That seems really reasonable to me. Especially for something like a toilet that is likely a 15 minute fix but could require a replacement or new septic tank install.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Yeah, man. That's the game of being a contractor. You take the risks with the rewards. If that's too much to stomach (it is for me, personally), then you work for someone else, like most of us.

Thankfully in my industry it is slowly changing.

I just don't think its fair that someone pours in a ton of man hours on a project only to lose out to someone else with a lower bid.

I also think its a reason shoddy work is done because we are prioritizing low cost over quality, both in the bid proposal and in the actual work done.

Half the reason we can charge for estimates is because our customers know the effort, quality and transparency going into our bids. Everything is detailed as much as we can and our customers always know what they are getting.