lost the bid

[plowking35]

Got the letter today, and lost the bid to another guy for $ 300.00 on a seasonal contract.
The good side is that they stayed with the same contractor they were using the last 3 seasons, and were happy with his work. So at least they are loyal.Also I was bidding against the biggest contractor in my area, and we were comparable in numbers, so I am at least in the ball park bidding wise.
Oh well another one sitting on the desk to bid, maybe I will have more luck there.
Dino

[Lazer]

We lost a $11,000 job because we were $300 too high.

But WE were the contractor who did it for the last 5 years.

Customer said they were always pleased with the service, it was just a business decision.

-- go figure....

[cat320]

Lazer cheaper is not always better,I hope you doule the contract price if they call you because the other guy doesn't do that great of a job.5 years and they gave you the boot can't understand people especially when the job is done right .

[n y snow pros]

We lost a contract this past week to a company that joined Sima.This erritates me since this other company is in the construction bussiness and bids all his work by the hour.The only reason he joined SIMA was to look good for a bid earlier in the season which he lost to us.The one we lost last week ,well we lost it because he went to the site and told the owner what ever N.Y. Snow Pros price is well he would do it for half the money.Cant argue with ignorance.

[GeoffDiamond]

Didn't get a job i bid one, because my cost per year was 500 dollars more a year. Only the guy who got it, is a good guy, just trys to do much a storm. Thats typical up here, most guys take 18 hours to do there route one time through.

Geoff

[Lazer]

Not that it's part of this thread, but we figure 4 hours on a light snow to 8 hours in a major storm.

[GeoffDiamond]

My Max for a one time trip through a route, is 12 hours, thats only for residential. I figure I am 6 hours under the other guys, and you will pay for it. I guess my commercial which includes private roads, is a little different. I wouldn't call it zero accumulation. Only we keep plowing lots and roads, so there is no more than 3" and sanded heavy on the lot during the day. At night when the lots are closed, we let it pile up a little more than that, but never more than 6" for a small lots, less than 4 on a large one.

Geoff

[John Allin]

John,

I'm fairly certain I know who you're talking about, and that's a tough break. Seems to me that they were saying the same thing about you a few months back.... IF you will recall. I know, I know.... that's no justification for what just happened. But they may have figured they had to make SOME sort of statement given their feelings about what took place a few months back....

[plowking35]

I know the feeling lazer, this contract was a little over 13K.
Dino

[SLC1]

We do complete maintenace for three large medical sites in our area all are affilliated. Last November 1999, we lost all three to one contractor, it was over $50,000 in work. Well I went out and replaced almost all the work and had a pretty headache free winter. Well guess what, Two weeks ago I signed the contract with one three that canned me and on Friday morning one of other three managers called me wanting to talk to me about this winter. So the only thing to say if you were doing good work then you need not worry because the customers will always get what they pay for and you just have to wait for the other contractor to screw up. I knew last year when they went with the other contractor that there was no way he could do a better job than us for almost $15,000 per year less and I said to myself that I would rather sit at home and let the equipment sit in the garage than go out and do work for nothing. Just my two cents.

[John Allin]

Now... that's 4 cents counting the other thread.

Keep this up - you'll get to a dollar fast.

But....you got the idea. Quality almost always comes through sooner or later.

[iowastorm]

Dino: Sorry to hear about you losing that bid; it stink.
This is a big week coming up; we'll find out if we're going to get some nice accounts. . .

[diggerman]

We just got done being rejected for a bid on student housing here.It included drives and walks,and bid per time.I knew we might not get it when we bid it because I have bid against the physical plant(universities maint. dept.) here before.I think that buildings and grounds and student housing lose track of what people have to pay in the real world.They were complaining how high the physical plants price was and it turns out we were double the U.'s price.The way they bill their eqipment is weird,they bill according to life expectancy of the piece of equipment and the number of hours the equipment will get used.Trucks are like $6/hr and blades are $45 and sander are even more. I guess trucks get used that many more hrs during a year and are expected to last alot longer and have a better resale value.