Customers **** me off

[Somecamel]

Quoted a job and while back but customer didn't have funds available. ( customer is known to us through my engineers mum)

Told the guy that I would requote when he was ready etc and chased up for the deadline EPC coming in.

Anyway, it worked, money came in for him, bit of negotiating, email from him last night saying if I do it for £7100 we have a deal.

Agreed etc, he said fine lets go- I ordered and paid for panels.

5 hours later get an email saying our main competitor has been on the phone to him and can I quote..


"he is coming round this Saturday am to apparently match £7100 or less with a stronger inverter and higher output panels , apparently German . So ill get a higher return "


really fooked off.

This is first job since Feb 12th cut off

I did reply asking why they didn't quote on a stronger inverter and higher output panels in the first place but kept it civil.

We quoted on Hyundai 250 and SMA inverter

Just needed to vent

 

[solarsavings]

And breath.............................

 

[Somecamel]

Nothing for weeks lol and then rush rush rush all over again-- GRRR

 

[Somecamel]

Peed me off more that he actually told the other company what I had quoted

 

[SolarCity]

That's pretty crap. Did you ask what panels and inverter the competitor were suggesting?

 

[solarsavings]

Peed me off more that he actually told the other company what I had quoted

Yep and we're supposed to protect their data.....

 

[Somecamel]

Not yet but assume they will be Mage which tout themselves as German but pretty sure are made in China

 

[SolarCity]

It would be interesting to see what system they are suggesting. We can run it through PV Sol and see what a computer simulation predicts.

 

[Somecamel]

The guy from the other company is dodgy as ****, they have a planning app in to the council for a 9.75kW system on a church in my town and were pushing for it to be granted approval before end of month to miss the EPC deadline, so tempted to put an objection in

 

[Somecamel]

Small update- Just had an email from the customer.

Giving away my prices here but o well

The other company has told the customer that they will fit a higher rated inverter because he lives in such a sunny place and that the inverter I have specified is under powered!!

It's a 3kW system with a SMA 3000HF. What they gonna do- fit a 4000tl!! haha

This is the same company that told another customer that they were the only solar panel company in the county


Have to laugh

 

[dansk]

Its mental isn't it - ive lost a few quotes on similar grounds, what peeves me off is the other install word is gospel! or "they" can fit 16 panels on "you've only quoted 12" - yeah coz only 12 will fit on! duurrrrrr.

Customers eh? who'd ave em.

 

[SRE]

Our customer for April is trying to get us to match price with a national company installing Phono and a new inverter called SMA/Fronius/Power One/Mastervolt which has a 5 yr warranty (maybe the best of each one at the mastervolt price??). We've come in £100 cheaper, with a Power One and 10 yr warranty, REC panels and Power One monitoring kit and he wants me to drop the price.

We charge a bit more than you guys so I guess I could but I'm not prepared to get into a bidding war with a national company and a man in a shiny suit. Fortunately we've come recommended and the guy who recommended us came from this Forum - we did 2 ground mounts in Nov for him and our new customer thinks he's ace and our old customer thinks we're ace.

I've told him that if he wants to reduce the price - we're happy to take off the £200 of monitoring equipment it's entirely his choice. We're surveying on Saturday - could be interesting, beans for tea maybe!!

You can shoot me down in flames if you want but I still think that once the market has settled down there will be new customers who can suddenly afford solar (such as our April potential customer) and once the rush to beat tariff deadlines has stopped - because lets face it who is going to rush to get 13.6p instead of 12.9p then business will slowly start to rebuild. If prices don't come down we'll have to resort to LDK type panels to get the figures to work but it's still a business, generating income and better than being on the dole.

Customers just don't understand the current solar market yet - mind you neither do I!!

Mind you my income expectatons aren't that high being in a mud hut in the rural north lol.

 

[Somecamel]

I told this guy I won't get into a price war with this other company and that our price is very competitive.

The more I think about it why on Earth was I even contemplating selling 4kW system for £7500 when this other lot are doing 3kW at £7100

 

[SRE]

One other thing - I always ask what the competition has quoted, otherwise I wouldn't know what I was up against with the next job. If it's a national company I usually get the full monty cos we're strange round hear and like to use local installers. If it's a local company I get a price about 75% of the time but I'm more often quoting against nationals.

 

[Somecamel]

*long list of expletives that will get me banned if I type them out but you get the idea*

Lost the job to the ****- putting an objection in for that Church now