Ring-Ring (price shopper)

:good:

LOL,

My MINIMUM charge for a Flood Elevation Certificate is $595 and that is only if the BFE is nearby. (like within 300’) Otherwise it’s hourly @ ($200/hr).

Have a great weekend!

> No, I'm fine with her not wanting to pay my fees. She can hire anybody she wants. Call somebody else, you might get lucky.
>
> "You're kidding, aren't you?"
>
> No ma'm. Have a nice day. click..

That's how the free market works. When the buyer and seller meet at an agreed upon price, a transaction typically occurs. Since we have a free market, the potential buyer, in your case, was allowed to waste more of their own time trying to save $50. I hope it takes two afternoons of phone calls to save that $50.

Maybe we should offer a continuing education course to the insurance agents, so they get a feel for what it takes to perform an elevation certificate these days, and randomly throw out some "approximate" costs involved, and explanation of our liabilities as the signing party.

You just tossed away three things. Your fee, less $50. Future referrals from the unhappy property management person, and the referrals you wont get from a satisfied client.

Was that really worth fifty bux?

Plutae, when the original fee was 350, and she wanted it for 300, well who cares?

(I don't know what the original fee was, but I am guessing it was not over a grand)

So, when the price is already depressed, you eventually get fed up.

N

Paul, it was worth every penny and then some. 🙂

BTW, I don't see how I threw away anything...except a chance to stop by Walgreens and get some Tums. I never lost a penny on a job I didn't do.

> You just tossed away three things. Your fee, less $50. Future referrals from the unhappy property management person, and the referrals you wont get from a satisfied client.
>
> Was that really worth fifty bux?

Heck, it might have been worth $100 bucks to me. They way I see it, if I wanted to haggle over every price, I'd sell oriental rugs in a bazaar somewhere.

Besides, I have to differ on your last point, anyone that wants negotiate the price like they're on Pawn Stars wasn't a client, it was a customer:

customer
1. a person who purchases goods or services from another…

client
1. a person or group that uses the professional advice or services of a lawyer, accountant, advertising agency, architect, etc.”

James, I agree

There is a large difference between clients and customers.

In my years I've come to realize that someone who feels they are paying too much in the first place are rarely, if ever, satisfied.

> You just tossed away three things. Your fee, less $50. Future referrals from the unhappy property management person, and the referrals you wont get from a satisfied client.
>
> Was that really worth fifty bux?

So we're supposed to lower our rates whenever we're asked to make someone else like us so they will get a bunch more cheapskate clients to call us?

No thank you.

Paden I think

you should raise your rates by $100 for those. Then, when they want it for $50 less, you still made $50 and they have the satisfaction of "thinking" they got to you. Everyone wins! 🙂

Seriously, there are some people who come through the door (surely we've all done this) that I know from the area by reputation that love to haggle. It's cool if you know this going in. When those individuals walk in, I raise the rates by 30% or more depending on the job. Then we haggle. Those folks LOVE the challenge to haggle, always shop price. The kicker to these folks is to haggle with them. I've got a few customers who were only clients that we've done that with and they always come back. The rules are the same for them as repeat clients, and they always have a smile on their face when they leave and I've always made a premium on the job, just less than what I started out quoting. It's fun for me too. Thankfully, there aren't many in the world like that because that would make life a little too much like hell in my opinion. 🙂

I’m curious Paden; have you ever shopped for the best price and have someone hang up on you? Or do you agree to the first price you hear because you know you are talking to a professional?

Here in my office, if someone hangs up on a potential client, they get reprimanded. They certainly don’t brag about rude behavior.

> I’m curious Paden; have you ever shopped for the best price and have someone hang up on you? Or do you agree to the first price you hear because you know you are talking to a professional?
>
> Here in my office, if someone hangs up on a potential client, they get reprimanded. They certainly don’t brag about rude behavior.

I'm curious Gene, but how many times have you haggled a price with a professional for an opinion, say a doctor or lawyer? Their answer would be that "that is my rate" and that you can choose to find someone else if you like. Unless it's an ambulance chaser (lowballer in our surveying parlance), I don't think I've heard of that happening with those types of professionals.

You have to educate the potential client that they are paying for your professional knowledge & expertise and what makes you valuable, not a hamburger from the $1 menu at McDonalds.

To me, there are two models of business; one is to have many clients that you do work for where you make very little money on each job, or have select clients that understand your value and professionalism and you do fewer jobs while making the same or more amount of money.

Don't get me wrong, I don't approve of rude behavior or hanging up on someone. Perhaps he was having a bad day, who knows? However, he apparently runs his own business, and if he chooses to not deal with hagglers, well, that's his perogative isn't it?

We are not a trade, but a profession.

I can’t recall price haggling with a doctor (I usually select my doctors based on how available they are since my insurance company has already bargained the price). I do like cost effective attorneys, in our 15 years of business we have gone through four of them. Of the three we fired, one was for over-charging. So what does that have to do with rude behavior? I certainly do not remember any doctors or attorneys hanging up on me. However, I have had some surveyors hang up on me. (probably because I was being rude).

I am not advocating accepting lower fees than expected, just a lost opportunity to exhibit civil behavior.

Hey..I told her to have a nice day. There was nothing rude or uncivil about our conversation. I was pleasant.

She told me the person paying the bill wouldn't pay over a certain amount, below what I charge. As far as I was concerned the conversation was over...and I did wish her luck.

I feel sorry for surveyors that either don't know how or think that it's rude to turn work down.:-)

> I can’t recall price haggling with a doctor (I usually select my doctors based on how available they are since my insurance company has already bargained the price). I do like cost effective attorneys, in our 15 years of business we have gone through four of them. Of the three we fired, one was for over-charging. So what does that have to do with rude behavior? I certainly do not remember any doctors or attorneys hanging up on me. However, I have had some surveyors hang up on me. (probably because I was being rude).
>
> I am not advocating accepting lower fees than expected, just a lost opportunity to exhibit civil behavior.

If you'll re-read my post, I wasn't condoning rude behavior either. I think we're both trying to say the same thing.

YES

I always spell it out for price shopper:

Multi-story in a VE zone on piles or piers= $500.00+
One story in a AE zone on crawlspace or slab= $300.00+

+ is for the distance to the nearest published BM.

it never ceases to amaze me how many people will fight over 5 dollars yet take decisions in other aspects of their lives that will cost them literally thousands of dollars.

There must be an old English expression somewhere about this, I would suspect.

:beer: