Ridiculous Quotes

[tails77]

I am having a moan.  Why is it when you ask for a quote for improving the garden and pool maintenance these companies always ask how many people living in the block, then send you a ridiculously priced quote that they think you are stupid enough to pay. I cannot believe that a quote can be £2000 to add onto the already existing pool terrace area, perhaps I am wrong.   If anyone has any contacts for paving work etc in the garden, that misses out the maintenance companies, then please let me know, or how to order your own chuckle (stone). Added to this, it has also been an absolute nightmare trying to find companies that will do pool maintenance in our area, with one quote coming in at  £1500 pound for the pool for 5 months.  Apparently, villas have smaller pools than us...our pool is not that big, honestly.  Moan over, but any recommends would be appreciated.

[Eric]

Its one of my pet hates 'quotes'.  Some companies think we are millionaires who were born yesterday.  We have never worked before, we don't know about electrics, plumbing, car engines, tiling etc etc  We obviously had servants to all this for us in our previous life!!!!

The thing that gets my goat is when you ask for a quote and their reply is "where do you live?"  I reply it doesn't matter where I live just give me a quote.  They are sussing where you live to work out how much money you have and adjust their quote accordingly!.  When I tell them that does not matter, just give me a quote, some have got very shirty.

We had a wonderful experience when we wanted some granite for a job.  The marble man asked our builder, who was with us at the meeting, how much to charge us.  He spoke to him in Turkish without realising we understood every word.  When we asked him, in Turkish, why he was asking our builder what to charge (the builder was innocent of any collusion by the way) he went bright red and did not know what to say other than " you speak Turkish?" "EVET" was our reply!  Surprisingly the final bill was a fraction of the original 'thought process'!

[lindaandy5053]

Had this problem on 2 occasions. The first time we wanted our flat roof re-grouted. The first quote form a Turkish company was for 6000 tl. the second was for 3000tl and the third was for 600tl Needles to say we went with the 3rd quote.  2 years ago we wanted to build a roof cover of heavy duty metal and got quotes. Again ridiculous quotes costing up to 9000tl. One man wanted to charge us 700tl for 16 squares or metal 10 cms x 10cms. They actually cost 70tl as we had already priced up the whole job previous to getting the quotes and even though we told the men that we did not want them to use any other specs for the metal than what we had given them they still came back with metal half the size and a price that was grossly inflated. My Husband decided to build the roof himself and even though he wasn't qualified in welding he succeeded in completing the job in march last year for a total cost of 2200tl.  The Turkish companies must think we are all stupid to ask for these grossly inflated prices and I do hope you have some luck getting someone to do what you want at a sensible price.

[tails77]

Well, thank you for these responses.  I will not give up on the garden quotes just yet, but boy it is very frustrating!

[Scunner]

I used to have all trades looking to get business and remember a painting company coming to the office to ask if they could quote for any jobs our customers may have in future. I was looking to get our house done so thought this would be a good way to see how they operated. They came and looked around and gave me a price which I was expecting to be super keen - I nearly fell over when they told me. I told them no way in a million years and they instantly halved it there and then. Now this really irritated me, they want not the business of painting my house but many more in future and just showed me they are chancers who look to make an obscene amount, then if that fails fall into reasonable territory.

I told them there was no way I could recommend them to my customers, and I asked them to leave. They became a little panicked, and told me they would take me to buy the paint myself and they would paint the house "as a gift". I asked them to leave and half an hour later they finally did. I never saw them again.

This is the attitude that drove me insane, I have plenty of similar stories unfortunately.

[usedbustickets]

We obviously had servants to all this for us in our previous life!!!!

Quite right sir, well said ... shall I prepare the morning room now?

[George Warner]

The most ridiculous quote."I know,I know"when you can see from their expression they aint got a bl**dy clue.

[stoop]

This is the main reason why ten years ago a 20 year Renault 9 (or something simliar) was the most popular car on the roads in Calis. Look now - big 4x4's and pick ups.

"The English are coming "

We had a quote for our balcony enclosing the other month. One builder was recommeneded to us so we thought we would give him a chance to quote. As soon as he turned up in his big 4x4 we had a feeling it would be a high quote. Nice chap. Spoke good English and obviously knew his stuff.

His quote - £3500 ytl

Local window man in village - 1750 ytl

Guess who got the job?

[mog]

without appearing to defend the extortionate quotes given by various Turkish companies, they are what they are, "just quotes" You either accept or you don't. It's not only the Turks who are guilty of this.
I do remember the practise of double glazing salesman in the UK. For example quoting £7000 for a job, but stating "if you sign tonight we will do it for £4000. After a phone call to his boss, that quote is now £3000. Needles to say most are quickly shown the door, but not everyone. There are stiil plenty of gullible people that fall for this type of sales tactic.
Regarding maintenace, and the remark "where do you live" he should also ask "how many Turks live on you complex, most just won't pay.

[tonysue]

Being ripped off by every" tradesman" in Fethiye was indeed a learning curve for us. We luckily found a man who arranges all our building and maintenance and now we never go anywhere else. He replaced our roof and when a neighbour wanted the same job done he got 3 quotes. one quote was 3 times the price.