# Customer Providing all materials?



## heavy_d (Dec 4, 2012)

Inner10 said:


> Don't let these assholes scare your away from a job, price it out in a way you can make money and get to work.


The problem is that pricing it that way usually leads to dead ends, due to the cheapness mentality of the customer who wants to provide their own materials.. it's a red flag. Don't you guys always preach to pay attention to red flags?


----------



## KAP (Feb 19, 2011)

tucnasam said:


> Haha yeah. You gotta take those risks to figure things out. I usually spend a lot of time doing research and use excel too formulate a bid.
> *I don't see losing money on this one. Just potentially not making as much money if I don't bid correctly.* She also wants it booked for August. I expect to be busy then so I won't be making any concessions.
> 
> I met with her. Seems like it can be a good relationship.
> ...


*RED FLAG!​*







Also... Be sure to take detailed pics of the "materials" that have been sitting for 10 years and bring any issues to her attention before installing them...​


----------



## tucnasam (Feb 1, 2016)

Sorry, I misunderstood her before. Her kitchen Is 10 years old and put together in a janky fashion. She is ordering the cabinets.

No worries. I'm not taking their comments as scare tactics. And just because some guys jumped into things without doing their homework and got hosed does not mean that's what I'm going to do.


----------



## KAP (Feb 19, 2011)

tucnasam said:


> Sorry, I misunderstood her before. Her kitchen Is 10 years old and put together in a janky fashion. She is ordering the cabinets.
> 
> No worries. I'm not taking their comments as scare tactics. And just because some guys jumped into things without doing their homework and got hosed does not mean that's what I'm going to do.


I'd still encourage you to have a hand in what she is ordering from a design/install perspective so her lack of experience in such doesn't become your problem...


----------



## tucnasam (Feb 1, 2016)

I am. She is doing an IKEA kitchen. I have her log in and have a drawing layout she did on the IKEA website of all the cabinets with part numbers. I'm now looking up the cabinets and seeing what it takes to assemble them.


----------



## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

tucnasam said:


> Sorry, I misunderstood her before. Her kitchen Is 10 years old and put together in a janky fashion. She is ordering the cabinets.
> 
> No worries. I'm not taking their comments as scare tactics. And just because some guys jumped into things without doing their homework and got hosed does not mean that's what I'm going to do.


Where is that rolling on the floor laughing smilie..

You are in for an exciting ride. It isn't jumping into things that gets you into trouble, it's lack of experience. Though jumping is part of that. Even after you have experience, you will lose money, you will realize you missed something and you will screw things up.

When you do, I will bring this post back up. Good luck.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


----------



## RangoWA (Jun 25, 2014)

tucnasam said:


> I am. She is doing an IKEA kitchen. I have her log in and have a drawing layout she did on the IKEA website of all the cabinets with part numbers. I'm now looking up the cabinets and seeing what it takes to assemble them.


I had that happened but worked by the hour. It was a pile of boxes and she expected me to know what went where. It barely barely fit in the space, she got very lucky. The cabinets were garbage too so I beefed up every corner and glued the pieces together. Good luck!


----------



## tucnasam (Feb 1, 2016)

It sounds like working hourly is the way to go, which I'm not so interested in. 

Hey, you don't think though that starting my business I knew what I was getting into? I expect bad jobs. I've had 30 jobs in my first year and have done well. My first job I grossly underestimated labour hours. Still finished on time. I alleviated job under estimating by bidding at $60/hr instead of $40. Then made the excel bidding sheet with everything being calculated while I enter.


----------



## pcplumber (Oct 12, 2008)

One of the major problems in this world is rather than asking someone questions we (not me) think we know what they want and think and never ask that person to clarify.

There are thousands of legitimate reasons why a customer may want to purchase their own materials i.e. maybe the customer owns a Home Depot, the customer already purchased the materials for another contractor and he quit, or maybe the customer has been burned too many times by contractors who did not install the quality materials they specified. 

A smart contractor salesman asks customers the reason they want to purchase their own materials, discusses the pros and cons with the customer and tries to get the best solution that satisfies both parties even if that means the contractor gets an extra 20% for the liability and dealing with the hassle.

The best solution is not always all about you and is one that makes the customer happy and earns you a good profit. If you can earn a profit that is commensurable with handling the customer's materials you do it, but to throwing the customer off a bridge just for asking is not good thinking for a salesman.

When customers want to buy their own materials I bid the job for the exact same price as when I furnish the materials and deduct 50% of my actual cost for the materials. That is a sweet deal for me to get the materials for 50% less and is worth a little bit of hassle. I always put a clause in my contract that states that I charge to re-mobilize and for additional costs for when the correct materials are not on the job site and when we have to remove and re-install materials for any reason.

Of course, during every sales presentation I tell the customer many times that it is better for my company to purchase the materials because we give the customer written a guarantee whereas if anything goes wrong with the items they purchase they will have to pay us to remove the item and then pay us to re-install. Most customers change their mind and prefer to have my company bear the liability and costs.


----------



## Stevarino (Sep 28, 2013)

To be honest I have been having more issues with other contractors and construction companies supplying materials. I often do sub contract work for other companies and they have been screwing up orders so often. I was on a job today where they have messed up the doors 3 times and I'm still missing one of the ones I need to finish their job. Another job I have going as a subcontractor has also messed up materials and scheduling. 

The more I can control typically the smoother things go. Project managers who try to do their entire job from behind a desk are the hardest to work with. They are always out of the loop and I end up telling them how to do their job. "No you can't schedule me to start tile the same day the painter is spraying the trim with laquer."


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------

