Ever call up a few landscapers and you get wildly varying estimates? Here are some top reasons why this happens in the landscaping industry in Victoria BC.
They Don’t Want the Job
You phoned them up to get them to do an onsite visit. They asked you some general questions and decided to drive out. But when they came out and took a look, the landscaper realized perhaps the terrain might be too difficult or the job is well beyond their capabilities and experience. Rather than admitting such, the most often tactic used by landscapers in Victoria BC is to quote absurdly high.
They Can’t Do the Job
It could be that a landscaper is just too overbooked but doesn’t want to let people know and so they decide to let people down “easy” by quoting ridiculously high. It could also be that upon arriving for an onsite look, they realized special equipment and/or skills were needed, equipment and skills that they don’t have. Rather than appearing incompetent or unprepared, they may quote ridiculously high to get out of doing the landscape work.
They Are New and Clueless
Typically new landscapers will underbid due to a lack of confidence and market awareness. Sometimes you will get a brand new landscaper who has no idea what the prices are and bid way out of left field. It could also indicate they have no idea what it takes to complete a job and their price doesn’t reflect that. This would be a major red flag as it tells you they have no idea what to do and haven’t thought it through. After all, most people can become landscapers with a pickup and some shovels, right?
Poor Organization
This is typical of companies that are too big and have too many inefficiencies. They have a large overhead that they need to meet to survive and their prices reflect that reality instead of the reality of the market. This is most common with the largest companies with fleets of trucks (usually on payments) and machinery (also on payments). Their quotes will stand out from other smaller companies unusually high as a result. They will tend to justify it with “reputation” and “brand” but good work is not going to get substantially better when you start paying for their truck payments and an extra secretary and let’s be honest, more often the smaller companies do better work than the bigger corporate ones.
Conclusion
In our experience, those are some of the main reasons landscapers in Victoria can give wildly varying estimates and quotes for a job. Generally speaking, no reputation is worth doubling the cost. There’s a ceiling to how well the craftsmanship can be and paying more beyond that is only supporting big corporate entities and large payrolls without bringing any actual value to you.