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RFQ sites any good?

Dennybob

Plastic
Joined
Apr 23, 2005
Location
Central PA
Does anyone here have any experience with those Request for quote site where you pay a fee and then you can bid on work that needs machining? They are a bit pricey for the small shop but, if the work comes in it would be worth it. Anyone that has delt with any please give your thoughts. Thanks.
 
I have not heard anything good about them. With
the mass amount of people bidding on those jobs
there is sure to be one doofus that will botch a
quote and lose money. Worked for a guy many years
ago that would run machines at almost a break
even rate just to retain workers during slow
times, he couldn't even bid low enough to get
work off those services, what does that tell you?
 
Cnczone spawned a new site www.rfqwork.com recently. There is not a lot of action on there yet, but I imagine it would take some time for word to get around. The good thing is that it is currently free (for the initial 3 months, I believe), and after that, there is a quite reasonable fee proposed, for both sides: buyer and seller. Might pay to check in there once in a while, to see what it grows into.
 
Tried one a couple of years ago, what a waste of money. Your competing against 30,40 or 50 others for a job, and some of the quotes are just incredibly low. The site blabs on and on about building long term relationships, but the buyer just goes back and prostitutes themselves again. Turned it around the other way and put up some RFQs and had a few things done for basically free. Quality was hit or miss, so we just gave up on it.

The thing cnc zone has going might end up being decent, but my suggestion is creating good relationships with some local buyers and keep the quality and schedule good, and they will come to you and say "hey, drop your bid a dollar and its yours".
 
That was one of my big concerns is the cost. The other sitr mentioned above, rfqwork.com and another one, buyorsupply.com both have much better ideas for those types of sites but, so far there is not alot of action on them. I do hope that changes.
 
I haven't had too good'a luck. (And I am very cost effective in my niche') I am still paying for it - but I wouldn't recommend it to a new feller - and I certainly wouldn't pay todays fees!

Maybe if you are REALLY good at proto work - maybe...


Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
$500 a month, is this for the standard website that nobody can get work off of that had been discussed here and elsewhere numerous times?

Thats insane. 6k a year to have the opportunity to quote. Do you have any idea how many lunches this can buy a local buyer or business owner? Heck, you could even throw in a bunch upscale hookers and still be ahead. What a waste.
 
A couple of years ago we were innundated with RFQ's from customers, mainly bolt companies, who started using the services of those RFQ companies.

We didn't bid any of them as it would have been a total waste of time. Our niche is not in making a million little washers. We had to explain to our customers that we would in no way be competitive on those darn RFQ's. They would still beg us to give them a price. It became very frustrating to get those RFQ's week after week.

I wouldn't subscribe to one of those outfits for anything. That is not the type of work we want.

Les
 
Hey,
I can see your frustrations with RFQ sites. I have just finished building one myself. From what I have seen on other RFQ sites, their are too many suppliers willing to drop their price way too low in order to beat out the competition. I have been trying too build a website that is different. Yes, suppliers still bid on the jobs, but I am trying too find ways to get the buyers too choose their supplier not just for the lowest bidding price. I'm trying to work up a strategy to get buyers to choose suppliers based on other factors as well. Such as experience, credibility, quality of work. The whole reason I have built this site is because I have seen far too many small shops that simply cannot find jobs. One of these shops is owned by a family member of mine. I am open too suggestions on how to make this website as good as I can. My ultimate goal is too create a long lasting relationship between the buyer and the supplier, and not between the buyer and BuyorSupply or the supplier and BuyorSupply. I only want to help the two find each other. Any suggestions would be helpful!

Yooperhillbilly
Owner of BuyorSupply
 
Mr Hillbilly, the only way I can see to keep the prostitution out is to keep the RFQs out.

Possibly a place where small shops can have a showcase page, that they can update with things like "look what we made today" or "check out this new lathe", "new machinist on board today" etc... The ones that update are obviously more serious than the ones that don't update or showcase their work.

The buyers can then see pictures of the shops, the equipment, the type of work and the quantities that they are comfortable with, also, location is important with shipping costs going through the roof.
 
I refuse to believe that buyers will continue to be ignorant. Sure, we have been having a problem with suppliers driving the bid price too low, but how long can it really last? Usually, you get what you pay for. If you are paying extremely low costs, chances are the service and product will not be up to par. Buyers are bound to get the hint soon, and I am going to do what I can to educate the buyers in choosing their vendors. Focus at BuyorSupply will be on quality and experience. Notice how affective Ebay's feedback system is? I am implementing my own feedback system at BuyorSupply. This will atleast ensure that we don't keep having the same bad suppliers over and over. People will guard their feedback score. A bad feedback score can end their ability to get jobs. I feel that I can affectively keep the bidding prices higher if I implement the right strategy, and that is what I am working on right now. I WILL emphasize QUALITY. Quality comes at a price! (price meaning higher bid prices, NOT high commissions at BuyorSupply)

Yooperhillbilly
Owner of www.buyorsupply.com
 
Steve,
I think Bobw has the right idea, especially with location. Give perspective buyers a list of local shops that have the capabilities to perform the jobs they need. Then maybe they could send RFQ's to just those shops. I specialize in prototyping and small production runs usually under 200 parts. I am a one-man shop and don’t want to bid 10,000 part orders but I would like to generate new business.
Mark
 
Mr. Hockett,
I see where you guys are coming from. MfgQuote and other RFQ's have left a bad taste in peoples' mouth. (including mine) I made this website with the small shop in mind. That is the need that I see. I see many small shops that are running low on jobs. They don't have the big accounts with the big companies for thousands of parts. I made this website so that the small shop could find jobs. What I had in mind by way of buyers were small jobs such as an axle repair for a logging skidder or other parts that are hard to buy for big machinery. Or other jobs that small shops could tackle. The small shop is the reason that BuyorSupply was created. Thank you for all of your suggestions they are surely helpful. I am taking them all in and am going to incorporate them into improving the site. I still believe in the bidding process. I certainly am going about it differently than other sites. I am hesitant to even call my site an RFQ site.

Yooperhillbilly
Owner of www.buyorsupply.com
 
yooperhillbilly, glad to see you dropped the stupid game you were playing by admitting you own that website. That type of advertising is pretty pathetic. If you aren't upfront on that it makes me doubt your site.

The big problem with any site of this type is to keep the low-balling bottom feeders out of it. Even if you institute a feedback system they can at least get one job to screwup and cause people problems.

I was at least going to take a look at your site but it won't come up.

Les
 
Hey,
Yeah I admit that technique was foolish. Someone told me in marketing class that if you do that within 5 minutes you can see a spike in page hits on your site. Result of the test: It is true, but ofcourse the chances of hurting the image of the site and it's owner are tremendous. I do not want to jeopardize that do I?

Concerning the rest of your message:

No matter what you do you can never have only decent people on your website, but I am doing what I can. If it doesn't work I'll hop back on the horse and try another strategy. Giving up is not my style.

I don't not know why the site isn't running. I'm going to call the ISP and see what is going on. Usually I have 99.9% up time.

p.s. I think I am going to change my name from yooperhillbilly to buyorsupply as to show some credence.
 
One concern...the purchasing agents are going to be providing the feedback that translates into a shop's score?

My feeling is people in those jobs generally operate with some sense of ruthlessness and assume there are 100 people waiting to bid on their job, and would have few qualms about busting a shop for a minor beef that may have nothing to do with the "in-spec" nature or delivery of the parts...is there going to be some kind of reciprocal arrangement in the feedback dept?

-Matt
 
Very insightful matt.
That is a very legitimate concern. Right now I have no exact "system" for fixing any improper negative feedback. I suppose as of right now the party with "undeserved" negative feedback would have to contact me on the contact page of the site. Then I would have to hear from both parties. I would have to determine if the negative feedback was deserved. If it was not, I would remove the negative feedback and warn the person who gave the negative feedback that their membership may be revoked if there are many more problems. I can fix the feedback from my end if I feel it is innaccurate. Very good comments. You guys are really helping me see this from more angles!
 
If I remember right, MFGquote had some kind of feedback thing, though, from what I could tell, it was basically useless.

I'll agree with Matt, unless its a fairly small company, the buyers don't have a heck of a lot to do with it after the POs are cut. What happens when idiot QC guy rejects your parts because they can't read a blue print or fails it for "shinyness" even though it calls out a 250 finish. Or the idiots that send you prints that are flat out wrong and won't mate with another part that you had no print for. Or probably the biggest problem, you quote 60 days and when you don't deliver in 3 days your on their sh**list? I assume the supplier has feedback control over the buyer. Categories of

1) promptness of issueing a formal PO
2) Do they supply good prints, I can give you a pretty good quote on a crappy print, but if you want the part right, I better be able to tell if thats a 2.030, 2.050 or 2.080 +-.001. Also specs called out in the drawing.
3) If the buyer is supplying material or castings, are they getting them to you in a timely fashion, or are they sitting on it until past the due date, and are they supplying the correct amount, I love quoting a quantity of 50 and then the material shows up and there is only enough for 30, and then they say, well, we only need 25. Guess what, that costs you more.
4) Is QC retarded and rejecting your parts for stupid reasons?
5) do they pay????

I would say being a middle man could be very difficult. A simple one time feedback like E-bay probably wouldn't be sufficient. Something that could be filled out as the transaction progresses, up until and even after the check has been issued, like when they come back after 2 years and decide you didn't make the part like they wanted even though it was to print and passed QC.

An absolute idiot buyer could really screw a small shop. Possibly side by side feedback on the same page. Buyer complains that the job was not shipped on time, other side of the page, supplier could post that the buyer did not supply castings until 3 days after the due date. Buyer: supplier scrapped 15 of 30 castings. Supplier: 25 of the 30 castings were out of spec and I bent 10 of them into shape, get a QC department.
 








 
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