Emails for Quotes Unanswered

[Citydude]

And there you have it.LOL..

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I'm supposed to be mowing the lawn. But here I am on my phone....

Admitting you have a problem is the first step.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Or they show up and look at job and promise to get back with a quote.....and don't.

This is the one I don't get. Guys who come out once and then you never hear from. Why waste both of our time if you're not interested in the work? I'd much rather deal with someone who says, "let's talk on the phone so I can figure out if this is a job I can do for you" before coming out, even if they end up saying, "I'm sorry, from your description that's not my line."

 

[Diggin It]

Had one of those too. Guy came out, we walked the whole job. He says he has his personal truck, no ladders or anything to measure with and that he'll be back in a day or two to measure and work up the estimate. Gave him three or four days, called him again, left a message. Never heard from him again.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have been a contractor for thirty years. I have just about lost all interest. Things just get harder and more compicated for the little guy. Sure, technology can bring you business, but more likely it can also kill your profit and really muddy your waters. No one should have to work for little renumeration, when there is so much EXTRA work involved, beyond the actual job, and you have so much responsibility and financial risk at stake.

Funny and quite telling of the times when a contractor gets really excited about what appears a lucrative contract, and then when he finds out, there are strings attached, disappears.

 

[Barnbuilder]

It works both ways. Spend a bunch of time figuring materials and time. Type a proposal email it and never hear from them again.
Half the people think because it's a barn should cost next to nothing but materials come from same lumberyard as the residential job. Concrete is $4 sqft and you want the barn for $20? Not going to happen.

 

[grsthegreat]

I use my iPad for bidding both the electrical work and the generators I bid. I ALWAYS get my bids back within 24 hours....unless the job or the potential clients really sucks.

I just bid a new generator at 11:15 today and have already emailed him the proposal. People have told me my prices are not the lowest, but they never complain it took too long to get back to them.

I absolutely, positively will not quote over the phone or thru text or email messages. I HAVE to have a job walk. I used to have a web presence years back...caused too many problems including lost emails. I gave up my website years ago...do not miss a thing.

 

[Diggin It]

I absolutely, positively will not quote over the phone or thru text or email messages. I HAVE to have a job walk.

Again, I was not seeking a 'job quote' that would have required any kind of site visit. I sent a specific list of materials using their descriptions.

 

[mikester]

If you send a contractor an email, and he doesn't respond, it's because he's not interested. If he says one thing on the phone and still doesn't respond, he's still not interested. I decline half of the jobs that people call me about just from the call. Then when looking at a job, I probably turn down another half. I have a 3 to 6 month waiting list. If somebody is willing to take a job that everyone else is declining, you gotta wonder why? Then you have to ask why are they not wanting to respond? Is it the job, is it the client? or is it just not worth the effort to get paid doing it?

Another problem with email is SPAM. Once the business email address gets out in the wild you get thousands of emails daily from hot Russian girlfriends, African princes lawyers wanting to hide money, and pharmacies selling boner pills.

AND when you contact businesses using anonymous/disposable email addresses like HAPPYCAMPER52938 at gmail or Hotmail its you just dont get taken seriously because it looks just like the same email address used by the Russian girlfriends and online pharmacies.

Clients dont always check/use/answer their emails as well. Email ends up being a big time waster for business with very little return on time invested.

Use your phone to call the vendor.

 

[Oaktree]

Another problem with email is SPAM. Once the business email address gets out in the wild you get thousands of emails daily from hot Russian girlfriends, African princes lawyers wanting to hide money, and pharmacies selling boner pills.

Is email spam still a thing? I use both gmail & outlook addresses and I doubt I see a half dozen spam messages a year.

Now maybe these services just have really good spam filtering compared to having your own domain hosted by Godaddy or someone similar, but my experience is that spam is much less of a problem than it was, say 15 or 20 years ago.