I received a call recently from a regular client who wanted to apologise for declining our latest quote. He had been hounded relentlessly by a local QS whose quote was “significantly cheaper” than ours and so decided to give him a try. Unfortunately the experience was not a good one and ended up costing the client more than our original quote.
The local QS has made some basic errors and, because he worked alone, his work was not able to be peer checked by a colleague. Had our client not picked up these errors himself prior to presenting the report to his client he would have been out of pocket by tens of thousands of dollars.
When the client pointed out these errors to the new QS and demanded a refund, the QS refused but offered to correct the errors for a “small additional fee”. Needless to say the client had lost all confidence in this QS and asked us to help him repair the damage. My QS who had done several previous jobs for this client and understood what he needed rectified the situation and negated any damage and financial loss that may have occurred.
As many of you will have heard me say many times, we quote all of our work up front so there are no surprises and there is no obligation to accept any of our quotes. We understand that there are competitors out there offering cheaper prices than ours however, as with builders, cheapest is not always best.
With our regular, repeat clients the feedback I have received is that they view our services as an investment rather than a cost. In approximately 90% of cases our fees equate to around 0.5% or less of the total build cost and can give peace of mind to both the builder and their clients that the project has been independently priced by a professional.
In conclusion, the answer to my question ‘Are all QS’s Created Equal ?’, is a resounding NO. Unfortunately many clients will learn this the hard way.
Call Paul if you want to discuss in more detail, Ph. 027 238 1866