Letting a tradesman know they haven't got the job?

JustAnotherSaver

Aside from the obvious - "contact them & tell them they haven't got the job".

I had a chap out to price a job up last week. There's various ways of tackling the problem & he wanted to go the top end which we couldn't afford. Nowhere even close.
A few emails back & forth to explain this & he offered other ways (we supply materials ourselves which shaved off a huge chunk but still more than we could afford. I also wanted to go a different approach which he didn't respond to).
Eventually he responds to the approach we want to go, says best he can offer is charging for his time & we supply all materials ourselves for this other route.

Problem is, with some of it i actually don't know where to start.


Have another guy out this week to look at the job who has said everything we're looking at. Providing his quote is within budget then we will be going with this chap as he appears to actually want to do the job the way we want it doing.


Question is - how would you put it to the first guy after all the back & forth trying to come to a way we could afford it?

Not saying anything is bad manners.
I would've thought - sorry but someone else is more interested in doing it the way we want it doing & is cheaper & will supply everything themselves is a bit harsh.

Never had to do this before.

27col

People do tend to seriously over estimate if they do not really want the job.

macman

Just say you've placed the job elsewhere, no need to give reasons.

Plumber90

You cant get every job you price for, most people wouldnt even bother letting people know they havent got the job.

JustAnotherSaver

Maybe I just try to be too nice then. Also I feel bad kind of easily which doesn't help.

After some discussion they were pricing approx £8-£8.5k on materials.

When I priced it up myself it was in the region of £3-£5k. I was told £3k but added on an extra £2k for just in case purposes there.

Either way, way less than this guys pricing. I understand he will charge extra on top of the materials, but that much? He said it was due to tax that he had to.

srm1

They supply an estimate for works, normally free of charge.
If the estimate is acceptable for the required works - they get the work.
If the estimate is unacceptable they do not.
Any trades person would know and accept this.
No need to contact them again.

Ruski

As a trademan I find it really good for the customer to let me know - I always say "Let me know, one way or the other so that I can pencil you into the diary" - 9 times out of ten I get the job anyway, but on two or three occasions people have let me know that I haven't got the job, which for me is great as I know that I don't mentally have to 'reserve' a space in the diary.

That said - I once had a customer come back after three months to say 'go ahead please'... they didn't like the date 4 month ahead that I gave them but that's the way it is with good tradesmen!

HTH

Russ

paddyrg

'Thanks for your quotes for the work, we won't be proceeding, just wanted to let you know so you can free up your diary again. All the best,'

ljonski

"So long sucker"