Would You Have walked Away?

Larry Millette

Larry Millette

Member
I'll try to give the short version of this...
So I get a call about 2 1/2 weeks ago from a landscaper/tree company to go and look at approx 12,000sq ft of concrete that needs to be cleaned. Also included were 7 concrete decorative 3ft tall light posts along a walkway, 3 areas on the building where mold had grown up on the glass and window frames, 2 areas of mold on the sides of the brick building 3 stories up, 1 concrete table and 2 concrete benches and about 600 ft of curbing. The guy Say's he's been doing all the landscaping for this particular company for over 10 yrs and THEY asked him to find someone to clean up all the walkways ASAP. He tells me it won't be necessary to go through the company and that he will handle the transaction...RED FLAG! The guy seemed to be real nice and we hit it off right away. Been in business since the early 80's and he seemed to be in his mid 50's. He asked me to write up a bid and so I did.

Over the next week and a half I did 3 follow up calls with him. (What happened to ASAP?) Finally on Thursday evening I get the news. I got the job. Bad news is they won't pay more than $700.00 for the clean-up but HE will pay me cash. (More red flags)... He also tells me not to worry about doing the curbing and that he will pay his son to do that as he needs the money and that HE will pay him to do it. ( another red flag ) My original bid just so you know was $ 1250.00 Like a dumb azz I told him I would still do it. All that night and into the morning it was bothering me that I was being screwed by this guy. He told me he had gotten 2 other bids. 1 for $650.00 and 1 that was $30.00 higher than mine but he thought that I was more capable of handling the job than the other 2.

Yesterday morning I called him back and told him that I ran my #'s and there was no way after all the expenses and based on an 8hr day that I could do it for less than $900.00 and to let me know by 1:00pm so I could get the materials and have my helper lined up. You guessed it. I never heard from him.

Here is my point...If another contractor is gonna handle all the negotiations with the company I have no problem throwing them a bone for the deal. I do it with other contractors all the time. I just don't like the feeling that I got from this guy. I'm sure he was gonna submit a bill for the $1250.00 or maybe even more and take all the credit while I busted my azz. I still, after expenses would have averaged approx $60.00per hr but it was just eating at me that this deal seemed to be very shady and I was smelling a rat...I'm just not a big fan of feeling like I 've got a big X printed on my azz and that someone loaded up on Viagra has me in their sights... :eek: What do you think? Would you have walked away?
 
I had the same thing happen here, I happened upon a fairly large commercial remodel starting up and went in to find the GC. A guy posing as the GC asked for a bid and I gave it, after no response I went back ( at just the right time) and found the real GC and the P.O.

Long story short I got the building wash and the painter got canned. :D
 
Hey Larry, I have done work like that for years with other companies. Actually if i was bidding that job myself it would have only been .06 a sq ft which would have been $720.00 anyway?

You should have called me, and i would have been happy to do it in 3 hours!! and throw you a few bucks. It all comes down to equipment and how quick you can get thru it.

You never know if this guy comes across alot of job's like that it can work out pretty good for ya. Here in FL thats all we can get .05 to .08 a sq ft so you would have done good at that price.

To answer your question, i would have taken the job and asked for more.
 
Larry Millette said:
I'll try to give the short version of this...
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So much for the short version!!:D
J/k Larry. If you didnt feel comfy doing for that much I would have walked too. Things like that get to me too. I think the problem for me is when someone tells me how much they are going to pay me and totally disregard the est. or bid.
 
This is how I see things,and I'm not trying to say you did wrong but I only call back one time.I think three calls in a week and a half would show me your desperate and need the money.I know I don't have to deal with the competition you have to deal with either.I deal with a lot of painters and other contractors that send me work, adn if they came back with a different price I would believe them because of our history.Some guy out of the blue I tend to not believe it if they come back way off like that.

I think sometimes cash gives people a little different look on things.I pay taxes on cash just like if it was a check.I don't want Obama coming after me for a few bucks later down the road when he is trying to pay back the bailouts.I don't discount for cash.

Just walk away and know you did what you needed to do.To do a job just to have a job is not being in business its just working.
 
cajun cleanin said:
This is how I see things,and I'm not trying to say you did wrong but I only call back one time.I think three calls in a week and a half would show me your desperate and need the money.I know I don't have to deal with the competition you have to deal with either.I deal with a lot of painters and other contractors that send me work, adn if they came back with a different price I would believe them because of our history.Some guy out of the blue I tend to not believe it if they come back way off like that.

I think sometimes cash gives people a little different look on things.I pay taxes on cash just like if it was a check.I don't want Obama coming after me for a few bucks later down the road when he is trying to pay back the bailouts.I don't discount for cash.

Just walk away and know you did what you needed to do.To do a job just to have a job is not being in business its just working.
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I only did that because of schedualing. It had to be done on a Saturday or Sunday and I'm booked for the next 2 Saturdays. I also had to be sure that my helper was available.
 
greg/sd said:
Larry its easy for anybody on the boards to say they would have walked away. but nobody but you are in your shoes If you didn't feel it walk away and dont think twice about it. but If you need the money you need the money.
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It wasn't so much about the money as it was about the feeling I was getting that the guy was submitting his own bill for it which was gonna be in the $1200-$1300.00 range while i busted my arse....:mad:
 
I'd never worry about what someone makes from my work if I were subbing from them. If I'm comfortable with my price I hope they make money and send me some more. You never know how much money he spent in advertising etc to get his customer.

The only reason I'd walk is if I didn't get the price I was comfortable with or I was afraid of getting stiffed.
 
Larry Millette said:
It wasn't so much about the money as it was about the feeling I was getting that the guy was submitting his own bill for it which was gonna be in the $1200-$1300.00 range while i busted my arse....:mad:
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I was about to say.....
If you got a bad feeling about it Larry then it prolly wasn't right to begin with. I'm with you....seemed really, really shady.

~Jen
 
I love sales people not on salary, I think people often dont realize what i spend to get work with Five outside sales on staff.

Sure we closed alot of great deals this week. sometimes we dont, those companys that pull in jobs for me that are not on payroll I like.

I dont have any idea if this was profitable.If it was not great job walking Away.

Bottom line is the bottom line. Nick makes a good point, sometimes you never know how much work a guy can bring you. It has to be profitable....
 
I have done jobs this way before. I get my price and if he makes $$ over me.. I would have most likely not had the job anyway. I don't think I would have nearly cut my bid in half but lowering it for somebody (in the hopes of more work) is similar to lowering for maintenance type cleaning.
 
You did the right thing, I think he was gonna give you the ol 40% and poket the rest. if you were booked and didnt need the headache good job
 
Gut instinct is a great thing!!!!! I think I would try to get in touch with the PM and talk directly with him. I bet you could get the job.....maybe not htis time but in the future and still get it for the amount you quoted or more.
This guy is prob laying the pipe to his customer as it is.
 
I agree to go with your gut, but your gut had previously told him yes to his
price. Then you can't do it??
 
pb4ugo said:
I agree to go with your gut, but your gut had previously told him yes to his
price. Then you can't do it??
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My gut was put on the spot without anytime to think about it... My original price was for $1250.00 and now he wants me to do it for $700.00? That's a $550.00 difference. After paying my helper and for fuel and chems and busting butt for 6-8hrs on this property it wasn't going to be profitable. I was still going to do it because I felt that I had committed myself to it but the more I thought about the things he had said on the phone the more I got to thinking I was being,,,we will say--Taken advantage of! This guy is not the PM or anything for that matter of the property. He owns a Landscaping and tree service and does work for them. I'm thinking they asked him to PW the concrete so he figured he'd sub it out and still make good $$ in the process without lifting a finger. If he said that he wanted something up front I'm sure we could have worked it out but he chose to try and pork me instead. I don't get porked that easily and I try to avoid it whenever possible. This was just one of those times...
 
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