If he sent it out is of no concern to you. You are his customer and the way he gets the job done is the same as the way you get the job done. He may have thought that he could outsource it and get it done cheaper than doing it in house. Just as you did when you contacted him.
Ummm yeah- actually it is. My initial contact stressed that I was looking for local source - and that I had other sources, but wanted someone locally who could cut metals and has 3D capabilities. The guy that does our acrylic and pvc is totally awesome... but he doesn't do alum or composites.
I have NO ISSUE with him not quoting the job. None. My issue was/is that he sent it out for another process - unrelated to anything we had talked about - to a non-local vendor that I currently use. I already had other quotes on the job - including one from Gemini. I didn't need him to do anything other than A.) Tell me if you can do the job. That was the first question I asked in my email; and B.) If you can - what will the cost be. I also asked what material he felt would be best for the project if he could do it.
At no point did I imply or say in any way that I needed a quote on anything other than the above. If he had just said "I can't do it without vector art" I would have respected that answer. I can't quote some jobs without vector art. If he has said "Hey - my considered opinion is that you need to have that done in formed plastic - would you like me to quote it that way?" then I would have never posted. I would have thanked him and told him we would have Gemini quote it for us.
I'm sure he meant well. Actually I'm positive of it. But I guess I expected some sort of dialogue between him and our shop. I'll mark it up to different ways of doing business...
