Caller: This is Acme Fence Company and I need a survey in your town because of a property line dispute.
Me: What is the address?
Caller: 123 1st Street.
Me: Wow, that is only a block away from me.
(I've done previous surveying in that same area, so I know there are accurate monuments that I set).
Caller: What do you charge?
Me: I could do it for $300 since you are so close and I have done surveying in that area only a couple of years ago.
Caller: Oh... Well, I called XYZ Surveying in Mayberry (20 miles away), and they gave me the same price. I guess I will just go with them.
Me: Good luck, let me know if you have any problems.
> Caller: Oh... Well, I called XYZ Surveying in Mayberry (20 miles away), and they gave me the same price. I guess I will just go with them.
Well, it was nice of the prospective clients to let you know (a) they were idiots and (b) $300 was a heart-breakingly large amount of money to them. They did you the favor of firing themselves so that you didn't have to fire them.
I had a prospective client call about a week ago asking about cutting 10 acres out of an 81 acre parcel. He asked if it would be over a certain amount. I said yes, and he said he was going with someone else. Called back yesterday and asked about surveying the entire parcel. I gave him a rough estimate and he said no thanks (again). Sounded like he was trying to see if the other surveyor was overcharging him.
Well, you could run out there, and place about 6 pcs of extra rebar at each end of the line... Just to make it fun for the other surveyor. (ok, ok just kidding!(
Had a call this week for a job that would be tougher than normal for several reasons. Told the lady to send me the details and I'd get back to her with an estimate. She actually called the next day to tell me she had decided to go with someone else because they said they could get it done this week. (Ha ha ha ha ha) I had already told her it would be at least three weeks to get there. She had called me because she had been dinking around with someone else who kept stalling her off and finally shot her a fixed price of $2850. She hadn't told me what the first guy's number was but that it was ridiculously insane. Once I knew I wasn't going to get the job, I asked her about the price of her survey. She proudly announced it was $1500. That's when she told me about the earlier offer of $2850. I told her she was getting a tremendous bargain for some odd reason as I was going to give her a good deal at something a bit over $3000.
I bet she'll never wonder why the "lucky" surveyor agreed to do the job for half of what it should cost. Well, that is, until someday when an adjoiner gets a survey that differs greatly with hers. Either that, or the "lucky" guy has to adjust his number to account for the extra time spent dealing with the "tougher than normal for several reasons" issues that I knew about in advance. I think the first guy who stalled her off was learning about those issues before giving her a price instead of shooting from the hip like ol' "lucky".
> I bet she'll never wonder why the "lucky" surveyor agreed to do the job for half of what it should cost. Well, that is, until someday when an adjoiner gets a survey that differs greatly with hers. Either that, or the "lucky" guy has to adjust his number to account for the extra time spent dealing with the "tougher than normal for several reasons" issues that I knew about in advance.
Thats becoming the norm around here. Its called "low-balling", the car sales industry used to be famous for it; shoot a low price to get you in the door and then find a bunch of "extras" as the job progresses that were "unexpected".
And we wonder why we are not considered professionals by many.
So, surveyors and used car salesmen are sort of similar!