ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion Bait and Switch?

I think the customer needs to pay someone to engineer or design the electrical for the laundromat.

If they want me to do it they should pay me to do it. Engineering or designing the electrical for their project should not be included in a free estimate.

I went to bid a restuarant. I get there and a guy shows me a basic floor plan with no electrical. He starts pointing that restrooms are going over there, the grill is going to go over there, there will be an ice cream machine going over there, table and seating over there, a salad bar over there, etc.

He wants me to give him a free estimate based on this?

I told him to call me when he has a set of plans drawn up with the electrical on it showing what equipment will go where and the electrical requirements for the equipment.

I'm not going to engineer or design his project for free.

If the customer wants a design that isn't inadequate he needs to pay someone for it before putting it out for bid.

Free estimates shouldn't mean engineering or designing the customers project. If he want's the EC to engineer or design his project he should be getting bids from the EC for this.

If the customer is too cheap to pay for someone to properly engineer or design the project than he deserves what he gets.

If he pays someone to engineer or design his project and it's not adequate than that should be between him and the company he paid to engineer or design it.

If I'm bidding a project and I see by the plans the design is not adequate I'll point it out to the customer. If he want's me to re-design it I'll do it for a fee, otherwise I'll submit my bid based on the plans. I will also have him sign something stating that I pointed out that I felt the design was inadequate.