If it be either in PM or the thread that originated the quote or personal e mail, we need to get some of these people/companies posting their rfq's to communicate with us. Its just a matter of courtesy saying of saying "your quote is too high" or whatever it may be and "I have found some one else" or posting on their thread the price and when the job was awarded etc etc. Its just not nice to have some one sit down strategize all of the machining operations it would take to make a part, what tooling they will need to buy, what the prices of materials will be etc etc, all this while changing game plans a thousand times to try to get the best deal for the customer, and they don't even answer your e mails. Is that the epitome of courtesy ?

Seams that way.

__________________
Thanks,
Paul G
http://www.3dxhobbies.com
http://www.cnczone.com
http://www.rfqwork.com

should we make a list of not so serious RFQ posters.

Not a bad idea.

__________________
Thanks,
Paul G
http://www.3dxhobbies.com
http://www.cnczone.com
http://www.rfqwork.com

Or I can just start baning or start charging a fee to join?

__________________
Thanks,
Paul G
http://www.3dxhobbies.com
http://www.cnczone.com
http://www.rfqwork.com

too drastic. I prefer the public pillary approach myself. Serves two purposes, tells people approach with caution and gives offender a second chance.

OK, here is my take on this, my first thought is to agree with you and it is likely that personally I would reply with a confirmation of receiving the quote, but in reality these people are under no obligation to reply, they asked for a quote, we send one, that's it !

I know some of these people are inundated with quotes.

My pet peeve is no replies to personal questions, no drawings just some link to a picture on eBay or site, a reply with one long sentence with no periods, capitalizations or "Hi ken", thank you for your interest."
These do not even warrant a second look in my opinion.

That said, lets not be too critical, after all they are the ones thart are paying.

But common courtesy dictates a reply, especially if some one has gone through all the trouble of estimating or maybe even writing up a program. Maybe we should be so kind as to throw around meaningless quotes, make the parts, regret the prices, and say "OH I'm sorry that will be 5X more than what I quoted or you don't get the parts you orderd." Whose time is getting wasted then, is that a problem?
Man when I make stuff and all of a sudden I broke my last cutter or whatever I'm in constant communication with the customer even if I will make the due date. I also like to include photos showing progress. After all I don't know Joe and he doesn't know me, should he be sitting there anxiously and nervously twiddling his thumbs away waiting for these parts that might just save his behind?
All I can say is that a good client vendor relationship must have good communication.

"But common courtesy dictates a reply"

Does it really, perhaps not too them, I guess that is where we differ, not saying you are wrong because I feel you are correct but what I consider common courtesy may not be another's, in the scheme of things that can go wrong, it should not be a big deal when we do not get a reply. In actuality a no reply is a reply, they are not interested in our quote, so be it, I have no intentions of altering a quote because they feel it is too high any more then I expect them to say, that quote is too low add another 20 percent.

Maybe ask that they acknowledge receipt of the RFQ or if they have any questions or problems with it.

Ken

Contemplating quoting on a few jobs, yet every time when I look at the threads I come to the conclusion it's a waste of time.

I like the idea of going to one place to get or post a job, which leaves more time to get the real work done!

What would facilitate this considerably is if there where a detailed form that must be completed for every job (kept in a database) and made available for each job. There should be some mandatory fields and every job must have a drawing.... Kind of a wizard to complete and the job only posted once a drawing file is uploaded and mandatory fields completed.

Before I quote I would like to know if there are any preferences such country of origin. Lets get real, articales crossing a border if you are in North America is not a big deal but there is some additional paperwork that not everybody is prepared to deal with. Shipping costs can be a big factor and affect delivery times so a ship too zip code should be mandatory. Price expectations should also be indicated as I don't even want to bother where I cannot compete. Similarly a feedback rating is important for both buyer and seller, similar to E-Bay (it's not prefect but it helps).

Every quote response should have a similar process. I sure would like to know the succesful bid price etc. and who all quoted. Non of this back door stuff.

It would be nice as a buyer or seller to have an account that keeps track of job activity. I have no problem with calculating into the price of a job a transaction fee such as a commission but listing and quoting should be free.

This process would also go a long way to alleviating the courtesy issue.