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Question Has anyone heard of.......................................
- Thread starter Gino
- Start date
Gino
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
Don't know anything about them but they're located in Durham, North Carolina ... not Durham, South Carolina.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
Thanks, Freddie.
Okay, so the same question, but the company is in NORTH Carolina.
Hero Signs
If they let me make it, they will come
I installed 2 locations for them in the Houston area, they were ok. Just got rushed to do work when the GCs were not ready had a few extra trips. My contacts were Matt and Tyler
gnubler
Active Member
I frequently get labor/survey bid requests from this company, for corporate accounts. Lately they've been sending out bid requests with a deadline of 2 business days...no frickin' way. Some of these projects are extensive, and several of them are 50+ miles from me. I sent them a comment stating their deadlines are unreasonable, but they keep on coming. Is this typical? I think giving a week would be more reasonable.
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
It might be their weed out process. If it takes you a week to just quote the job, how many months is it gonna take you to get it done?
gnubler
Active Member
No months...one day to install. These are labor only bid requests, they're shipping all the signage to the site.
Evan Gillette
New Member
I have the same experience with gnubler. I get their bid requests frequently and rarely even bother to look. I had one experience with them that I will share, not to slam anyone, just to provide my experience as requested by Gino.
We get a bid request (one of the first few I received from them) for an install only for a new ground-up car wash going up a few towns over. I looked at their "suggested price" and almost instantly decided I had no interest. It was probably around 60% of what I would bid. Apparently the same was true for most of the local shops because they emailed a couple times asking if I was going to bid. I finally replied that we rarely do that type of work and suggested a few contacts who might but would be well above their suggested amount. They go away, no big deal...
About two weeks later I got a call from the project lead on a Friday and he is in a rush to get the "Coming Soon" sign moved because the shop they hired not only put it on the wrong lot completely, but installed it in front of a Bank that was still open and in business. I got a laugh but he said the shop they contracted with wouldn't make it back until the middle of the next week and the bank was pissed. I asked how much and he gave me the typical whatever it takes answer and I asked about how and when I would get payed and COI requirements and he basically said "oh we can figure that out later". Yeah, sure, nope. I also asked for him to send the permit for it and he told me "it doesn't need one" which it definitely did (this town requires permits even for temporary signs). I told him I would stop out and mark locates if I had time and he promptly told me that locates were unnecessary and I "should be fine", after all its just a couple 4x4 posts in the ground. At this point, I was well beyond wanting anything to do with these guys.
That sunday I was driving through that town and out of curiosity stopped by the site. All that was left was a single 4x4 post that someone had half attempted to remove sticking out of the banks nicely mowed grass. Just for fun I put a couple white flags up where the sign was originally supposed to go, just a little help for the next guy ha ha. Actually, where they wanted it was about 15 ft closer to the road and beyond the property line and also in the highway right of way, so I moved it back per local code.
Their suggested cost for this temporary sign in the original bid was scarcely more that the cost of the lumber "to be provided by installer".
In general, I get the feeling they are using as cheap of labor as possible with little to no care about quality or longevity of the product. Not something I want my shop associated with. Hope this helps.
We get a bid request (one of the first few I received from them) for an install only for a new ground-up car wash going up a few towns over. I looked at their "suggested price" and almost instantly decided I had no interest. It was probably around 60% of what I would bid. Apparently the same was true for most of the local shops because they emailed a couple times asking if I was going to bid. I finally replied that we rarely do that type of work and suggested a few contacts who might but would be well above their suggested amount. They go away, no big deal...
About two weeks later I got a call from the project lead on a Friday and he is in a rush to get the "Coming Soon" sign moved because the shop they hired not only put it on the wrong lot completely, but installed it in front of a Bank that was still open and in business. I got a laugh but he said the shop they contracted with wouldn't make it back until the middle of the next week and the bank was pissed. I asked how much and he gave me the typical whatever it takes answer and I asked about how and when I would get payed and COI requirements and he basically said "oh we can figure that out later". Yeah, sure, nope. I also asked for him to send the permit for it and he told me "it doesn't need one" which it definitely did (this town requires permits even for temporary signs). I told him I would stop out and mark locates if I had time and he promptly told me that locates were unnecessary and I "should be fine", after all its just a couple 4x4 posts in the ground. At this point, I was well beyond wanting anything to do with these guys.
That sunday I was driving through that town and out of curiosity stopped by the site. All that was left was a single 4x4 post that someone had half attempted to remove sticking out of the banks nicely mowed grass. Just for fun I put a couple white flags up where the sign was originally supposed to go, just a little help for the next guy ha ha. Actually, where they wanted it was about 15 ft closer to the road and beyond the property line and also in the highway right of way, so I moved it back per local code.
Their suggested cost for this temporary sign in the original bid was scarcely more that the cost of the lumber "to be provided by installer".
In general, I get the feeling they are using as cheap of labor as possible with little to no care about quality or longevity of the product. Not something I want my shop associated with. Hope this helps.
Boudica
I'm here for Educational Purposes
Great share! Thank you.
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
I get requests from them CONSTANTLY. Their pricing is an absolute joke. $250 to install a set of channel letters. Hahaha
monroesigns
New Member
Just received another request to provide installation for a auto glass location - today is June 3, and the deadline is June 2. I guess they are desperate for someone since we have told Signs Unlimited we are no longer interested in receiving RFQ's from them.
Moze
Active Member
Companies like this have a bulk set of email addresses that they blast the quote requests to. They're basically throwing it out and seeing what sticks.
I guess I should stop referring Signs Unlimited to Texas_Signmaker every time they email me.
I guess I should stop referring Signs Unlimited to Texas_Signmaker every time they email me.
gnubler
Active Member
Good to know I'm not alone with my experience. I realize my shop is on a bulk list, they must blast every sign shop within a 100 mile radius around the job site. The last one I got was actually for one of my customers who evidently had to go through corporate for all the new signage. What a stupid system, as I could have made and installed all the panels right here just down the street, but instead they'll be shipping them across the country and hoping everything fits and nothing goes wrong.
Scotchbrite
No comment
Some franchises are really fussy about that and others aren't. The ones that insist they buy corporate signs, are probably making some of their money from that purchase. The other side of the argument is the franchisee will get better pricing because the sign manufacturer is doing them in high quantities. But that also means you're stuck choosing from a small list of size options.
I've had a few franchisees buy signs from us even though they are supposed to use corporate. They have enough spine to tell the franchise to suck an egg. The one guy was the largest single franchise owner in our state, so that helped give him some FU power.