mfgquote.com (any good?)

Does anyone belong to manufacturing quote online?
I am a brand new CNC machine shop and i am debating on joining this site or not? any feed back from people would greatly be apreciated. My shop is in Canada so especailly any Canadians that have used it please let me know thank you.

Fogetaboutit


Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Thought about it myself , asked around , didn't hear anything good about it . When it's boiled down , the service is the only one to make money on a for sure basis .

Some shops are making money from it. We found the bulk of our current suppliers there, and we send out a lot of checks each month. We're happy and they're happy. Isn't that how it's supposed to be?

Do a search on the general forrum. I think Bob is the only one happy with them.

Dare I say tho - that they make a ~ sorta ~ web page for each shop and it must rank fairly high on the search engines. I get quotes acrost my fax on occasion from folks that found my name on the web. ??? I don't have one of my own - but that may change this yr? The kid thinks that web page design may be part of his 'putor class this yr. We'll see eh? LOL!

I am purdy sure that it comes from Mfgquote too as I have gotten 5 axis work quotes - and am listed as a 5 axis shop on mfgquotes.

(Depending on the part size and layout we can doo what could be argued to be 5 axis. Or at least we could doo some of the quotes listed as 5 axis on mfgquotes anyhow - so I updated to see those prints too. We don't currently have a 5 axis K&T.)

So there is some value in this form also.

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

We are currently looking into it to help diversify our shop. The price ($5000+ per year) and commitment (1 year contract) required are a little steep, but one "good" job could cover it.....

I have heard nothing good either, seems that
there is always someone who will blow a quote
and lose money on a job, and then someone who
will work for peanuts to get his foot in the
door. Not the people you want to pay $5k per
year to compete against. If you were lucky
and had the perfectly fit machine for a job
that not many people have, you might land a
job, if not your peeing into a fan,......Bob

Consider that you are competing against everyone who belongs to the site. i joined when i started my business in 2003. I bid many, many jobs and got 2. I paid 4K for the privilage!

I had a part that I had prototyped myself, in house. Fussy but not impossible. The quotes for production were all over the map. One shop was $487.00 per part for 200 and "might" come down at 1k qty. So we tried mfg qoute and the shop, here in the US, that we chose has been making them for less than 20 bucks each and great quality.(North End Tool, Illinois, if anyone needs a good shop). If you did it for a year and developed good relationships that continued on it would be a one time investment that might pay off. Most of the shops were competitive in price. We chose North End because their communication and response time(customer service) is terrific. This part is a new design and we needed good communication.

I tried mfg quote and it was nothing but a waste of my money. IMHO the only one making money in this scam is mfg quote. I will try every chance I get to dissuade people from signing up with them. They promised all kinds of customer support and I received nothing. The only jobs I got were ones I misquoted. I am glad that there are couple of people here for whom it worked out well - but I am not one of them. That's my two cents.

Joe

We tried it too. Got one job and that was at near give away prices. Largely I think this is Wal-Martization of the machine shop. With all the capital invested and skills, wage rates involved it is not good for our industry.

On the other side, as a consumer, I've used mfgquote quite a bit as it's really convenient. Also, compared to (many) other shops I've approached directly, the price is much better on mfgquote. But there are many way-out-of-the-ballpark quotes, which I assume come from shops that figure they'd throw something out there anyway in case no one else bites and I have no choice.
Lately, I've seen more and more Chinese and Indian companies quoting jobs, some with prices lower than the cost of just the raw material here in the U.S. This baffles me a bit since I've heard that our aluminum shortage is due to the Chinese buying it up from us.

On my last project recently I got 32 quotes ranging in price from $1.40 to $48 each. About half were thrown out immediately due to price, then a few more due to other issues. Of the rest ($1.90 thru $6), many are foreign ($1.90 to $5) and the rest from U.S. shops ($4 to $6), but the lead times for this order veer me towards the U.S. companies. I am tempted in the future to try a foreign company if I can figure our the logistics to protect myself and factor in the overheads of duty etc, but I'm still evaluating getting my own machinery as volume goes up and if I can justify that, I'd much prefer to be in control of this process.

As much as I'd like more companies to come in and quote my projects, I'd say for a U.S. company it may be tough now with the foreign competition.

On another note, mfgquote's customer service is crap, but I'm not paying for it, so not sure I should compain. Had a battle with them last year about email-notification failure and they were adamant that it was my browser, even though email has nothing to do with a web browser. As an IT person, I asked basic questions in our discussions to prove they had not idea what they were talking about. In the end, there was no resolution from them. But hey, there service works decently for the most part, and that's a hell of a lot better than First-Index ... don't get me started on those jokers.

Cheers,
-Neil.

Lately, I've seen more and more Chinese and Indian companies quoting jobs, some with prices lower than the cost of just the raw material here in the U.S.

Click to expand...

On the rock bottom quotes companies are actually
figuring in the "value" of reclaiming scrap
into their quotes, you can reclaim scrap pretty
cheaply at $.38 an hour labor.

We are a Indian Shop, and used to be the member of mfgquote as a supplier. Wasted money, on other side many US companies want their jobs made for peanuts. I also disagree with many of your views on Indian shops. Please don't compare them with the general Chinese. We have some of the best foundries in the world. I give some shell castings to my customers which they say are far more superior then what they get in the USA and at 30% less price. For this combination any professional organisation would merit purchase decisions from overseas. I have 6 customers in the U.S. and from niche segments. If you don't know Indian companies capabilities pl don't blame on all. There may be many shops in US with the quality and work culture of China? You cannot rate everyone in one grade.

As far as the Mfgquote system goes its worst in suppliers interests. I never received my money from one customer whom I quoted through Mfgquote. They (mfgquote) didn't even bother to reply any of my mail.

Yogesh,

I also disagree with many of your views on Indian shops.

Click to expand...

Huh? Unless I am missing something here, I am the only one who mentioned Indian and Chinese shops, so I must assume you disagree with my views. Please clarify if this assumption is incorrect. But what views?! There was only mention that my last RFQ was quoted by more Indian and Chinese shops than previous RFQ's, with some ballpark prices.

Then your statements...

Please don't compare them with the general Chinese. We have some of the best foundries in the world.

Click to expand...

and

If you don't know Indian companies capabilities pl don't blame on all.

Click to expand...

...suggest that there were derogatory statements made towards the quality of Indian products, but there were no such statements/implications made. This begs the question though -- why the defensive tone? Guilty conscience?

BTW, I do not know that mfgquote's service extends to handling, monitoring or collection of money, but that they're just a locator service... at least from the consumer side (me). Your loss of inability to collect from your customers is between you and the customer, so again, unless your contractual agreement with them includes services which they never delivered on, I would recommend that you not assign blame without substantiation.

-Neil.

Hi Neil,

I had noting specific on your quote. I am following many of the threads on this forum, and the general tone of many people here is not too apprehensive on Indian companies.

I am dealing with US customers for last 6 years, so no way about a guilty sense. I am confident about what I do. If there was any misunderstanding on your particular quote? I am sorry.

Regarding mfgquote, I clearly understand they don't have the responsibility of collecting moneys of any contracts generated from their site. Though, when you pay them USD 5K, you can expect some customer service?

Yogesh

I have been running my part time shop 4 years now. With lots of hard work, phone calls and referrals I managed to keep busy and make almost as much as my fulltime programming job. Of course my $25/hour shop rate has helped too. I hired someone to run now and then when the work load becomes to much for me so it works out good. It's not hard to find out who is outsourcing work if you do your homework. We don't need MFG quote to be successfull.

I notice the only people on here that are happy are people that are buying.

MFGquote sucks. They must be rolling in the dough. We joined about 4years ago when it was "only" $200 a month. Spent hours and hours and hours and hours quoting only to have every job go to someone that quoted at less than material price.

We finally wised up, cancelled the credit card that the membership was on, and went back on as a buyer. We dumped a few jobs we were going to lose money on, and actually made money on them. Only did this a couple of times, quality issues and it just felt wrong buying things for pennies on the dollar.

It left a really rotten taste in my mouth. Take that hard earned money and go buy some lunches and beers, don't just piss it away.

Last place I worked we signed up for mfgquote& 1stIndex. Being a decent size shop with some high end high dollar machines it seemed that unless we low balled the quote just to keep poeple busy it went somewhere else. 6 won jobs total, (all BIG losers) from the 1 year investment was a joke.

On to my soapbox now.......

The old saying "Cheaper isn't always less expensive" comes to mind. I quit and started my shop for this reason. I tell my customers the benefits of buying parts from me as follows

1. Keeping it here in the good ole' USA
2. I'm close quick response
3. No shipping, handling, tariffs etc
4. God forbid it is wrong....a call and I'm there to make it right immediately.
5. Keeping it in the good ole' USA....Oh yeh I already said that.

We are still struggling but growing a little each month. I try to make every part perfect, make every part trick, (translate pretty), and deliver ahead of schedule. Hopefully this will work towards the end of having a few core customers who understand that "Value" isn't always Just about "Money"