How to reason with someone who agrees to an estimate then asks for money off?

[jamieh76]

@paulmartinnnnnnn At our service department we had a certain kind of customer that was easy to identify and would ALWAYS try to negotiate on price. Culturally, these customers just thought they were getting screwed if they didn’t haggle at least a little. One of our service advisors decided to start marking the quoted price up slightly, and when they inevitably tried to haggle, he would go back and forth with them before giving them a discount back to the normal price. Those customers left happy every single time.

 

[chipthamac]

@celtish Don’t provide a quote with a range. Use the high end of your internal estimate range and then they agree to that. So they agreed to 14 and it takes you 12, they are pleased it came in under quote.

 

[voteninamayorlondonon]

@chipthamac Why give them the discount? Your garunteeing them a price, that's the cost of certainty.

 

[ikimi100]

@celtish Just charge a flat fee or be firm about the price. They agreed to pay however long it would take it’s on them. Don’t let your customers bully you around. They’re being rude in the first place by even having the audacity to try to haggle you like that. Don’t be afraid to fire problematic customers if you have to.

 

[melita8]

@celtish Sounds like you are under estimating projects. You might want to be estimating high so that most the time you're coming in under or at the lower end of the estimate, and only in extreme cases coming in at the middle, top or over estimate.

 

[duzt]

@celtish

Me: your estimated hours are 10-14 Them: okay, sign contract Me: your total is 12 hours, please pay Them: give me a discount because I thought it was going to take 8

Me: I knew it wouldn’t be 8 which is why I told you 10-14. Check is fine.

 

[grampatom42]

@celtish The old saying everything is negotiable.

Your rebuttal would vary slightly based on your service.

I once received a quote from a carpenter who did amazing work and his quote reflected that he was significantly higher than others. He had no rebuttal he stated I do quality work and this is the cost for my experience and craft. I sat on the quote for two weeks before deciding I’d go with his services only to find out he was now booked for the year. I lost out on a great contractor because I didn’t value his time or talent until it was too late.

Not everyone is meant to be your client and that’s ok! Stick to your pricing no justification is needed

 

[izzy65]

@celtish That happened to me once. The person argued with me when they came to pick up the vehicle amd refused to pay the full amount. I relented because it was Christmas Eve and they had made me late already waiting for them to pick up the car.

They came back a week later wanting me to do more work. They left me a one star review when I refused to work with them. They will never be allowed back into my shop.

*Edit: I replied to fast. I just read your entire message. Always big too high. Then, offer a cost reduction if you save time. You get less jobs, and deal with less jerks, and make more money.

 

[nuovacreatura]

@celtish Signatures.

 

[lilypearl]

@celtish Do you need the work? Is your price competitive?

 

[mikesmiles]

@celtish They don't literally mean they thought it would take eight hours, that's just what they want to pay.

There is no room for reasoning or explaining ypur expertise because they fully understand that it took twelve hours.

"No, it took twelve, right in line with the estimate."

If they give a bad review, who cares -- respond with the truth and everyone will see the situation for what it is.

There's a reason lawyers take a retainer. In the future, charge the full 14 hours upfront, then give them a cheque for the unused portion at the end.

 

[stephenaaron]

@celtish You say no

 

[logansc]

@celtish I'd play the game with them... let's say the rate is 100/hr... 12 hours = 1200.

"Ok, I will charge you for the 8 hours but it will be at my corporate price level." hand invoice with corporate price level at $150 an hour. "Thank you for understanding"

 

[shar7]

@logansc Funny, but passive aggressive is no way to run a business.

 

[brealmonte]

@celtish What works for me is to immediately (right away, any hesitation or wavering and you’ve lost), with a smile and direct sustained eye contact, say “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. We’ve found what we believe to be the best balance of quality service and value for your money. If we had done the job in 8 hours, it wouldn’t have been a job you’d be happy with. To do this job the right way, the first time, it took 12 hours. We don’t cut corners, and stand by every job we do. That’s what you’re getting from us, consistency, quality, value.”

Then pause, the person that speaks next loses the negotiation. If you are confident that what you are doing is fair and adds value to your customers, then it will show through. If the customer doesn’t get it and still pushes, that is just their identity and can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t mean you have to give them a deal, but don’t lose sleep over it. That’s just how they are wired.

 

[gaildren]

@celtish Your estimated hours are 10-14 hours
We invoice in the middle ( 12 hours )
And adjust the job on completion if needed

Put this on a quote firm that they sign
Problem solved

 

[zman0101]

@celtish Have them sign a copy of the estimate that has a clause that they will pay the total, or the actual amount of completed costs, whichever is less (or more of that's how you want to do things).

 

[bb4christ]

@celtish “These estimations are based on our nonnegotiable internal practices and can’t be adjusted as we need to charge for our time. If you’d like to budget for less hours, please let me know what part of our internal process you’d like to take on for yourself and we can adjust pricing.”

I make it very clear to clients that if you wanna pay less then you’re going to get less.

 

[bringmehome]

@celtish If you're good at estimating, you could use a time and material "not to exceed" approach. I have clients who really like this kind of bid / proposal. Of course I set the NTE figure at least 10% over my high end estimate. I've gone over in the past and have had to eat it, though.

 

[olaolala]

@celtish Start your price anchor at the upper end and then once you calculate and it comes in lower they will be happy. You could even tell them what a corporate price would be and say fortunately it's not as expensive as corporate jobs at $10k. Most residential is only $4k. But yours turns out it's only $3500. They will be thankful even if you charge more than you usually do.

You could also throw more services in for a discounted bundle at a higher price. Never take less money. Only more with bigger bundles.