Well DNK, I'll throw in my thoughts. If we were doing residential work I'm sure we would have to offer 'free quotes' or we wouldn't get any work. It's expected in that market and most, if not every EC offers it. In the retial/commercial market we have found over the past 10 years that they "shop around" just like a homeowner. We have established a good customer base that we rely on. Customers that use us because we are a proven entity. They seldom ask for quotes and when they do we can offer a 'ballpark' without ever having to make a site visit because we know the location. They accept the ballpark and 99% of the time just give us a green light. Then we have the shoppers, and we know who they are. We also know they are "shopping" and our response to "we would like you to quote a job for us" is always, thank you but NO thank you. We get those jobs 50% of the time w/o a quote.
Bill