Bidding for work driving down prices

[uug197h]

I got an email today wanting me to bid on a tiling job its another new site driving down the prices the customer has put a maximum £250 budget and there is one bid from a company that can do it next week for £350, for the work involved its a joke

Bathroom to tile I'm looking for an estimate on how much it will cost to tile my bathroom, the floor and walls to be tiled measure 18sq metres, I already have the tiles which are 60x40 travertine. Nicholle Anderson
Ratings 0

Material Provider Materials City Leeds Approximate Start Date immediately
Auction Closing Date 11 Days 23 Hours #Visits 63 #Bids 1 Max Budget 250£ Bid History

Questions

Bid

[email protected]
Hi we could have someone do your works as soon as next week ,,

www.westwise.info Ratings:0 Total Price:350.00£ Bid Date:2008-09-08 16:32:53

 

[graham31]

Customer would be aswell askin to get it done for nothin as that price.

 

[faithhealer]

As we all know she'll end up with a cowboy unless she gets lucky and gets a 'hungry' good tiler. Hope we can all hang on until this credit crunch comes to an end.

 

[TilingLogistics]

I would simply advise you ignore this sort of stuff. It is just another fly by night like U Find Us/Customer Street trying to make a fast buck from good honest tradesmen IMO.

Just ignore them and they will eventually crawl back down their drain to dream up the next scam

Kev

 

[davy_G]

You wouldnt know who you are bidding against. All the customer has to do would be to register as a trades person and put in a low bit, forcing future bids down.

Stay clear, i would only get involved if the bids where secret and you had seen the job. Same as noraml really!

 

[Fekin]

Max budget £250 = £13.88 psqm, bet she's expecting materials included too :lol:

Stupid, stupid, stupid :mad2:

 

[Olz]

I had the same email yesterday, looks like a waste of time, the price is the price, I wont reduce without a very good reason let alone get into a downward bidding war. I had a look through some of the other jobs posted on their, there only seems to be a couple of guys actually bidding and even then the same one is just bidding repeatedly asking for the customer to contact for a proper qoute.

Cant see it taking off really.

 

[LM Ceramics]

its getting a bit pathetic with tilers sticking in low prices.

i priced a job the other day B&Q travertine 20 m2 and porcelain 600x600 i put in £900 it was for a lad at the kitchen company i do work for he got another quote for £400 based on a £120 a day rate now he thinks i ripped him off and he wont speak to me now

 

[uug197h]

for £250 you could go in stick the tiles on the wall don't think about spacers, lips, how level they are just stick and run (the problem is we are not like that perfection takes time)

 

[GazTech]

Re: The Common Law of Business balance

It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.....

 

[CLAYS TILES]

it sounds toooooooooooooo dodgy !
customer street's sister company?
:lol:

 

[cjbombero]

I'll probably get a lot of hatred from this post but what the hell i'm going to be honest....

I'm sub-contracting for a local firm, they pay £12 per sq m and have got a lot of experienced tilers the main problem is that they can bid cheap for jobs and then hand the work on for minimal effort. I get £50 a day before my taxes which I bloody hate but I have tried advertising and still havent got anything coming in. The only way I will get any better is through practice but i've ended up in a catch 22 situation. I've got debts to pay from starting up and don't really want to throw hundreds of pounds at hoping for a call or two.

Like a few of you have said "cheap doesn't always equal quality" but there are certainly quite a few firms that are squeezing the sole trader out of the picture. At least thats the case where I live.

 

[Droopy]

I'll probably get a lot of hatred from this post but what the hell i'm going to be honest....

I'm sub-contracting for a local firm, they pay £12 per sq m and have got a lot of experienced tilers the main problem is that they can bid cheap for jobs and then hand the work on for minimal effort. I get £50 a day before my taxes which I bloody hate but I have tried advertising and still havent got anything coming in. The only way I will get any better is through practice but i've ended up in a catch 22 situation. I've got debts to pay from starting up and don't really want to throw hundreds of pounds at hoping for a call or two.

Like a few of you have said "cheap doesn't always equal quality" but there are certainly quite a few firms that are squeezing the sole trader out of the picture. At least thats the case where I live.

That is shocking.

 

[DHTiling]

Shocking day rates..but you are gaining experiance though and that is more than some can get...

 

[cjbombero]

Just trying to get better and quicker, the only way I can do that is by putting tiles on walls. Trust me taking home £38 a day isn't what I had planned on when I took my tiling course in May!