Low ballers...or just stupid surveyors
Excellent point you make. It's not in statute here, but think it is in MI. It is certainly wrong though. The low baller mentality is alive and well in any business, even if we call ourselves a profession. So many forget about the value to the client, and their extended liability.
I won't be dropping anything fee wise for a likely one time client, and probably won't do the job. I'm still just thinking about my explanation... again. A long standing contractor type who needs a bit of help on a bad job, maybe. But those guys never even ask for a quote, they just call and say this is what I need.
Low ballers...or just stupid surveyors
Are you saying that your clients have no idea how much the product will cost before you start work?
Outrageous prices can come back and bite you ...
I used to write & sell geodetic & photogrammetric software (MS-DOS). Got a request from the Middle East for a UNIX version of my software, and I didn't want to re-write it for the UNIX operating system, so I quoted a price three times what I charged for MS-DOS. Six months later, I got a Purchase Order, so I had to convert the stuff!
lawyers practicing in certain segments do it to. Ads for cheap divorces, cheap bankruptcies, and personal injury attorneys who work on contingency and undercut each other on percentage are pervasive.
> lawyers practicing in certain segments do it to. Ads for cheap divorces, cheap bankruptcies, and personal injury attorneys who work on contingency and undercut each other on percentage are pervasive.
Exactly my thoughts. Drive down the road and count the billboards, or watch some late night television. Attorneys have their low ballers too, the difference there is that the clients believe that they will get what they pay for, and so the fly-by-night lawyers tend to stay doing what they do, and not being brought in to represent larger firms or more well off individuals.
The public doesn't see the difference in what we do as compared to the $200 survey from Surveys-R-Us. They are usually told by an official that they need a survey, and they don't particularly care or know what the difference is. If they get a sheet of paper that the building inspector is happy with, they're happy too.
If the public was more aware of what it is we do and the problems we solve (yes, this means we need to solve problems rather than just documenting them and running for the hills), there wouldn't be an issue.