Fee for quotes

friendofcarlotta

Taking a day off to organise some maintenance around the house. The central heating is broken, so I'm getting someone to take a look.
No quotes for this sort of work though - several companies charging $90 call out, $30/ 15 minutes (120 /hour).
My question for the companies I called is - My central heating is broken, can you take a look and see if it can be fixed, and/or fix it? They say, yep, and here's the fee.

Now in our business, people say, My tree is broken/sick/dying, can you take a look? Typically we don't charge for a quote, so based on the prices above, just how much cash did we all lose today working for love?

Jeffrey Lovstrom

The answer is None! Get over it!
Jeff

Eric Frei

That's because you have yet to realise the difference between a quote and a consultation.

To diagnose and give advice is a consultation.

A free quote is for defined work, can be work recommended after the consultation. for example, how much to remove that tree? How much to grind that stump? How much to prune that limb off rubbing on the fascia?

Those are clear cut quotes.

But this, "and why is it dying back there, leaves dropping here and those holes there, what is going on and how do I fix it? .... This is not a quote, it is diagnosis and advice. Learn to separate the two, I give free quotes but not free advice, and I establish that clearly when taking the quote.

If the caller then wants to get just a free quote and you go there and get the guided tour, what's wrong with this shrub, has that tree got borers etc ... you need to decide what you'll do and it can be tough as some people only want free things and will waste your time, suck out your brains and give you stuff all in the end anyway.

I once had a woman ask me how I would remove this limb over the roof, she wanted detailed info on how to do it. In the end her lawnmower man quoted 1/2 the price I did but had no idea how to do it, so he set her up to call me and milk my brain so he'd know. I told her nothing but was cunning enough to get the truth out of her.

If people want self help, free, I tell them to take pictures and post here and with some luck they might get an answer but there's no guarantees.

I charge $80 call out fee and $20 per 15 minutes for advice, quotes are free.

An old bloke rang a few weeks ago, wanted a free quote on fixing his tree up. After a fair bit of questioning it was clear the tree was a prized old specimen with a few issues he wanted diagnosed, after diagnosis I could quote the work to be done. I told him it was a consultation and after the diagnosis he would know what the remedies were and I worked for nothing if I didn't get the job, so the consultation fee has to be paid.

In some cases I offered a refund of the fee if I got the job, that's after getting burned too many times where they promise you the job and "will" ring you .... but never do.

Money talks, bullshit walks. clearly establish up front the status quo on what they pay for and what is free. I also warn most that they generally get what they pay for, and a free consultation by a tree remover is likely to be a little chainsaw and chipper biased.

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