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A rant and with ethics
About 2 years ago, i was asked to quote to apply graphics to a Pizza Shop window,
I produced a design and quoted (for argument’s sake) £300.
The owner called and said she preferred my design, but another company had quoted £200, but if I could match the quote the job was mine.I declined
so far no problem, the other company installed the graphics, which in my opinion were in keeping with the lower price quoted, (rubbish)
Anyway every time I passed the shop I cringed, but recently the graphics had been removed, and I assumed because they were not that good.
The shop owner called in to me the other day to ask if I would quote to replace the graphics, because her window had been smashed, OK I assumed she now realised that price may not be everything, and after doing a site survey called her and gave her a quote, (again for arguments sake) £300.
she said thats fine, but can I have a receipt for £600 for the insurance claim.
This is when I almost lost it,
I explained to her that she was asking me to commit fraud, and politely declined to do the job. she probably had already done a deal with the company that supplied the original graphics, but needed a second quote for the insurance.No wonder my insurance is so high
rant over
Peter
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12 Replies
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Not naming names, but i have sign companies local to me "offering" huge over charged fee’s then offering a cash-back to the customer. (if its an insurance job, grants etc) This sort of thing happens all over the place in every industry, we deal with it and move on. but some of the quotes/deals i have been hearing about are pretty heavy. It has got to catch up with them at some point…
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I applaud you Peter for standing up and refusing to agree to this.
It is fraud, and at the end of the day the money comes from somewhere (i.e the insurance premiums).
Not an easy decision to make I agree – but the right one non the less :appl:
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Thanks Phill.
I was actually more offended that she thought it was normal to offer a job for an inflated invoice,
rather than the quality of the product,
Peter -
disgusting…. the pizza lady has some front. Reinforces my opinion of you though Peter…..
… we get it all the time in the transport industry.
Especially in heavy vehicle signage.
Its pretty standard here to charge absolute maximum price on an insurance job, but charge the absolute minimum on a job that is uninsured, when dealing with panel beaters and coach builders.
If you do a lot of work for them, things work out in the wash, but if they call you in for a one off, and the job is uninsured, it gets a bit ugly as the panel shop feels that you should still ‘play’ the game.
I don’t get involved in it usually, but being one of the few local sign shops that specialises in coach signage, it crops up from time to time when called out to a new client.
I just charge maximum for everything…. and my conscience is clear :lol1:
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i wold say that my most prolific customer gets very good rates (well, discounts from the quote), the only difference with any insurance jobs i’ve done for him are that he’ll accept no discounts but, i’d never even considered hiking the price.
I quoted for a sign in Tonbridge, a lorry had bust the old one and i went up at very short notice a day or two before xmas 08 to make it safe, they wanted to replace it with a new, all singing all dancing led this that and the other so i produced a quote fo a like for like replacement (for insurance purposes) and the quote for the all singing, 2 large signs which worked out a shade over £5k 😮 ultimately no jobs got done there, I was paid for my time but no sign went up as they decided insolvensy was the better bet with the tax and vat man after them…
they re-opened with two of the stores and i signed them, then went bust, then re-opened again as a franchise in a new store, i did the sign at one branch, the other was done by a local co in maidstone i believe..
anyways,
about 6 months ago i got a letter from an insurance co asking for the invoice for the completed work, I don’t think they were impressed when i sent them an invoice for a few hundred quid for the surveys, making safe of the other sign and explained that the work had never been done and that, in fact, no work had ever been done by any sign co on that building,
seems the insurance co paid out on the basis that they needed to pay up front (which was a condition with that customer) but, they’d never contacted me to confirm etc.
personally i was quite concerned that i’d be dragged into it but, luckily i had all the email correspondence and in hindsight, i think their intentions wee clear enough so I sent them all the emails, proofs, quotes, artwork etc. I would imagine that as it’s now another ltd Co -assuming they’re still trading- that the insurance can’t chase the money, shame really, adding a few bob i can understand in some cases, ethical or not – to help with excess etc perhaps but, to rob over £5k… made me feel quite sick.
good for you for standing your ground Peter, tha sad thing is though, someone else will do it.
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You were 100% right Peter.
I no longer will do any insurance estimate without a site survey fee of about $75. I can’t count the number of times (I’ve been at this 25 years) where I gave a quote for an insurance job, then drove by and A) the sign was never fixed though you know they got the check or B) they fixed the sign themselves and kept the check.Handing them a quote is like handing them a check (via the insurance company) for whatever the price of a new sign is.
At least if I bill them $75 I am getting paid for my half hour of time, I think I may raise it to $100 though.
I know it’s a lot harder to get insurance $$ for a wrecked car than it is to get it for a sign, probably because of all the fraud perpetrated.But that client was totally c***ly.
You should have nabbed the pic of Gareth’s girlfriend’s pizza and stuck that on her window.
😉
Love….Jill -
:thumbsup: spot on Peter 100% the right thing to do……maybe you could have offered to send the quote direct to her insurance company……I bet that would have made her panic a bit.
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quote Jillbeans:But that client was totally c***ly.😳 I couldn’t fill out the blanks, are their enough? 😀
Anyway completely different profession, vets! If you go in and have something done on your dog not under insurance you seem to get a reasonable rate. If you tell them you have Pet Plan or the likes they fill the forms out for you and deal direct with the insurance company. You eventually find out how much it cost! 😮 Inflated or what.
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I actually refused to pass on a bill to my insurers for my dog who was not treated with any care by my vet and who died on the way home from the surgery after picking up a virus there a few days earlier. They got really difficult about it but when I said that I would inform the insurers of the of the background etc and I would be prepared to see it through right to the end they backed down. I still refused to put through what I considered a fair bill based upon his treatment and paid it myself personally in cash to the owner face to face – a******s as Clint would say.
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This reminds me of an insurance article once, written in one of the major horse magazines.
Basically, the horse had an unspecified lameness, and the owner was insured. The vet said they could look at this and that,probably operate etc, and the cost approx £2000:00.
The owner asked about treatment suggestions if she wasn’t insured. The vet said to turn it out in a field for a year. 😕 😕 -
Sounds about right Barbara!! Either cost you money or time I suppose . . .
We always weight insurance/warranty quotes as they take forever to pay and they do take up so much time. But that’s just to compensate us for having to deal with them.
The other pains are the ones who have to supply 3 quotes (usually even though they’ve already got it organised with one company) Had one last week, "Oh yes I’ll just cancel all real paying work this afternoon, so you can please your admin department . . ." Think I’ll take Jill’s approach in those cases :lol1:
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Completely agree with you Peter.
We had a customer try this very same thing with us. Was a lot more than £300 thats for sure too. When I told them no, they got a bit arsey and tried to bully me into it.
Simple explained it as "let me get this straight… you want me to help you gain £xxxx pounds with no risk to you and every risk to me. Yea.. that REALLY sounds fair." **cue phone getting put down.Now if insurance companies were offering incentives for shopping in people like this.. 😉
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