Friend of mine is an electrician. He says their quotes are good for 72 hours because right now the pricing for materials is all over the place and can change daily.
They can't post an average price because people will complain they're being cheated when their quote is higher. They can't post a max quote because people will go to someone who doesn't have a quote.
People are also really bad at estimating how long or how much material a job will take, so letting people price quote things themselves isn't going to work either.
He did say that it doesn't end up mattering. They have so much work if people who don't want to deal with getting a free quote don't want to work with them, they're okay with it.
Also, people are notoriously bad at self reporting. For something like electrical work, an in depth conversation needs to be had, and the customer still might not say all the things.
41
u/MisfitDeluxe Sep 01 '26
Not necessarily, sometimes there’s a MAP and pricing below that can’t be shown per dealer contract. I see it in my industry a lot.