A handyman who wants to charge 2000 baht for a "survey fee"

[billd766]

1 hour ago, bignok said:

Tradies going to Uni?

 

 

Why not?

[billd766]

8 minutes ago, bignok said:

Women?

No.

[bignok]

2 minutes ago, billd766 said:

No.

I give up

[OneMoreFarang]

I clicked to follow this thread about 2h ago. It could have been interesting.

Now I read the posts from the last two hours and 90% is garbage.

 

It would be nice if some members here would look in which section a thread is posted. If it is not in the pub, then people expect useful answers... 

[billd766]

4 minutes ago, bignok said:

I give up

Many of us came here to work.

 

I did, in 1993, 1994 to 1997, 2001 to 2004.

 

In the 1990s I was employed by Motorola UK, and tasked by Motorola USA, and in the 2000s I was a self employed contractor servicing and building mobile networks for AIS and DTAC using 1G and 2G technology and then the first CDMA network in Thailand.

 

Like many of my colleagues I eventually met my Thai wife and married her in 2000.

 

Of the 25 or so guys I worked with around 15 married Thais, and to my knowledge only 3 divorced them. Some live in their home country, some in Thailand, and some still work internationally.

 

In my 50 year working life I lived, worked and visited some 38 countries and the only places I was happy enough to settle down in were Singapore in the late 1960s and early 70s, Portugal in the late 1990s, Germany in 1999 and 2000 and Thailand.

 

NZ in 2008/2009 was OK too.

[JeffersLos]

The OP wants a professional to spend his own time and his own money (gas travelling expenses) to travel to his home, where depending on the person, might not even be bothered being home. Then spend his own time and expertise finding and diagnosing the OP's issues. For free. 

 

And the OP is upset because he won't. 

 

It's unbelievable how entitled some people can be. 

[JeffersLos]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

It would be nice if some members here would look in which section a thread is posted. If it is not in the pub, then people expect useful answers... 

Just what question do you think the OP asked?

[mstevens]

8 hours ago, chuang said:

Nothing is for free not even in your country 

I can't speak of other countries but in my country, New Zealand, pretty much all tradespeople across all industries (building, plumbing, gas, electrical etc.) happily provide a written quote (fixed price) or an estimate (non-fixed price) of what a job will cost, with details of exactly what the job involves. For any professional, this will not take very long at all. Paying for a quote is almost unheard of here.

[bignok]

6 hours ago, billd766 said:

Many of us came here to work.

 

I did, in 1993, 1994 to 1997, 2001 to 2004.

 

In the 1990s I was employed by Motorola UK, and tasked by Motorola USA, and in the 2000s I was a self employed contractor servicing and building mobile networks for AIS and DTAC using 1G and 2G technology and then the first CDMA network in Thailand.

 

Like many of my colleagues I eventually met my Thai wife and married her in 2000.

 

Of the 25 or so guys I worked with around 15 married Thais, and to my knowledge only 3 divorced them. Some live in their home country, some in Thailand, and some still work internationally.

 

In my 50 year working life I lived, worked and visited some 38 countries and the only places I was happy enough to settle down in were Singapore in the late 1960s and early 70s, Portugal in the late 1990s, Germany in 1999 and 2000 and Thailand.

 

NZ in 2008/2009 was OK too.

Nothing to do with topic.

[pomchop]

So did op ever answer the question as to what kind and how big a project he was talking about....if he wanted an estimate to repair a toilet i can see the guy wanting 2000 thb to come take a look....if he wanted an estimate to build a significant house add on then would seem to me a fee could be applied with the agreement that if contractor was hired to do the job the fee would be refunded...in other words don't waste his time on small jobs but if big job where contractor stands to get paid a lot then should be some flexibility...

 

..in Chiang Rai the guys would come take a look i would ask for price and they would tell me and then they got to work.....no idea if i told them no that they would have asked for looking/estimate fee?..but again that was CR and op maybe different location/rules.

[bignok]

29 minutes ago, pomchop said:

So did op ever answer the question as to what kind and how big a project he was talking about....if he wanted an estimate to repair a toilet i can see the guy wanting 2000 thb to come take a look....if he wanted an estimate to build a significant house add on then would seem to me a fee could be applied with the agreement that if contractor was hired to do the job the fee would be refunded...in other words don't waste his time on small jobs but if big job where contractor stands to get paid a lot then should be some flexibility...

 

..in Chiang Rai the guys would come take a look i would ask for price and they would tell me and then they got to work.....no idea if i told them no that they would have asked for looking/estimate fee?..but again that was CR and op maybe different location/rules.

I agree. If it takes 3 hours to provide a quote vs 10 minutes.

[georgegeorgia]

11 hours ago, chuang said:

Nothing is for free not even in your country 

95% of quotes are free in Australia,you saying in your country a quote to do work is not free ?

[OneMoreFarang]

3 hours ago, mstevens said:

I can't speak of other countries but in my country, New Zealand, pretty much all tradespeople across all industries (building, plumbing, gas, electrical etc.) happily provide a written quote (fixed price) or an estimate (non-fixed price) of what a job will cost, with details of exactly what the job involves. For any professional, this will not take very long at all. Paying for a quote is almost unheard of here.

Obviously, there are traditions in every country. Often first visits and quotes are for free.

But traditions change, and people change. 

 

Let's look at another sector, HiFi shops. They almost don't exist anymore anywhere in this world. Long time ago people visited those shops, listened to music and advice, maybe they visited a second shop to do the same, and then they bought in one of those local shops. And then the "smart" guys figured out that they can take the advice from those shops, look at and touch the products, and then buy cheaper online. Result: The real shops basically don't exist anymore.

Coming back to here: It seems many people want everything cheap. And many don't care about the time and income of others. The result is obviously that after a while those others (handymen, etc.) don't play that game anymore.

Nobody should be surprised by this development. 

[oxo1947]

10 hours ago, billd766 said:

And if he does not win the contract, you think he should should do the work for free?

Speed reading again billb766 ?? ...... -----

 

Quote

some people think that if he has to spend time , maybe measuring etc , that he should get some compensations--others feel that's the price of winning the contract.

 

[Henryford]

If you had a medical problem would you expect a doctor to come to your house and diagnose the problem and offer advice for free ?

[Andrew Dwyer]

 

 The op stated he traded texts and photos with the construction company if he posts the photos here then maybe he will get some reasonable answers.

A simple search of the construction company involved i learned they undertake small projects up to complete roof replacement, swimming pool tiling and bathroom design and renovation.

Without giving us details on the work to be undertaken it is impossible to say whether the 2k survey fee is unreasonable or not.

[brianthainess]

13 hours ago, chuang said:

Nothing is for free not even in your country 

Getting Married at the Amphur, was free. and then  ????

[lom]

13 hours ago, billd766 said:

Why would you expect somebody to travel to your place, in his work time, in his vehicle, to use his expertise for free, with a chance of not getting the job?

It is his chance of getting a job by bidding for it, if he didn't then he would not have any customer.

I've never charged a potential customer for a quotation and find it unbelievable that so many posters here finds it acceptable to do so.

[mstevens]

46 minutes ago, lom said:

It is his chance of getting a job by bidding for it, if he didn't then he would not have any customer.

Precisely!

[transam]

13 hours ago, bignok said:

Tradies going to Uni?

 

 

I didn't think you were that dim...................????

[bbko]

47 minutes ago, lom said:

I've never charged a potential customer for a quotation and find it unbelievable that so many posters here finds it acceptable to do so.

Wouldn't it depend on how detailed/size of the job the potential customer wanted the estimate? 

I mean if the request for a small job like "how much to paint my living room?", I understand, but if the request was for a large job like "how much to addon another room to my house?", then I can see the need for charging a fee.

I didn't see where the OP mentioned the size of the request, which only adds to the disagreement/confusion among posters.

[transam]

12 hours ago, bignok said:

I give up

That would be a plus here.......................

[transam]

1 hour ago, lom said:

It is his chance of getting a job by bidding for it, if he didn't then he would not have any customer.

I've never charged a potential customer for a quotation and find it unbelievable that so many posters here finds it acceptable to do so.

Really.............................

[bunnydrops]

Being in construction in the states, you can almost feel the people who have you out just to get ideas on how to do it with no intention of having you do the work. To run up a bid on a custom house would take around 30hrs. One time I will never forget, we ran a bid on a custom home. There were 3 others bidding. 3 of us came in within $10,000, ours the lowest at around $320,000. The guy that got the job bid $260,000. The rest of us scratched our heads. It turned out that the guy was giving a completely different set of plans with lower specs. 

[gearbox]

7 hours ago, mstevens said:

I can't speak of other countries but in my country, New Zealand, pretty much all tradespeople across all industries (building, plumbing, gas, electrical etc.) happily provide a written quote (fixed price) or an estimate (non-fixed price) of what a job will cost, with details of exactly what the job involves. For any professional, this will not take very long at all. Paying for a quote is almost unheard of here.

Exactly. The OP is not buying professional services, he wants a job quoted. Quoting is cost of doing business and should be absorbed in the pricing, same as the bookkeeping and accounting costs. Usually people or companies take a couple of quotes before making up their minds, in the corporate world heaps of work is done via competitive bidding and tenders.

[billd766]

12 hours ago, bignok said:

Nothing to do with topic.

Strangely enough I was responding to this poster.

 

So if my post had nothing to do with the topic, then neither did the post I replied to.

 

  19 hours ago, bignok said:

I give up

[bignok]

9 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Strangely enough I was responding to this poster.

 

So if my post had nothing to do with the topic, then neither did the post I replied to.

 

  19 hours ago, bignok said:

I give up

Strange post. Talking about life history.

 

Topic is handyman quote.

 

 

[billd766]

23 hours ago, bignok said:

Cheap stuff?

 

21 hours ago, billd766 said:

No.

 

21 hours ago, bignok said:

Women?

 

21 hours ago, billd766 said:

No.

 

21 hours ago, bignok said:

I give up

 

[bignok]

5 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

 

 

 

 

So its my fault you wrote your life story on a handyman topic 55

[rocketboy2]

500 baht would be an ok amount.

can't expect people to do this for nothing.