Client told me my bids were too vague, now I break every line item down

Had a guy in Red Deer call me out for lumping materials together, so I started listing each cost separately. Has anyone else had customers demand that level of detail halfway through a quote?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordan_webb498d ago

Next thing you know they'll want a separate line for the screws and the dust mask. Might as well start charging by the hour just for writing the bid.

lindareed7d ago

And what nobody's talking about is how this actually hurts the homeowners in the long run too. When we have to itemize every little thing, we end up padding the bid to cover the time we spent separating it all out. I had a guy last month ask for a breakdown of my travel time to the hardware store and I just added an extra 50 bucks to cover the headache of doing his paperwork.

brookekelly7d ago

That bit about padding the bid is so real, it's the kind of thing you don't realize until you've been burned once or twice. I've had clients ask for the same kind of breakdown and you just end up factoring in the time it takes to even think about it. It's never about being dishonest, it's just that the extra paperwork costs time and time is money on a job like this.