Invite to Bid

Oldman · October 05, 2007, 05:51:39 AM

Yesterday I recieved a invite to bid as a sub-contractor to a DOD contractor. All is good until you get to the "REGS" then it becomes a figgin' nightmare. (BTW do to a time line I have to have my bid with job scope in by Tuesday~~!! !! !! !! !! !!)

I'm sitting here thinking..."What Fool Wrote This Stuff?" One REG leads to a documtment of 10 pages and on those pages is another 8 REGS that lead to another 10 pages each. Plus some of the secondary REGS have 6-8 REGS on them.

I think there are people in our goverment that leave their common sense at the front door. I wonder if they don't just write this stuff for job security.

I've been dealing with SOCOM at MacDill AFB in Tampa for years, and a couple of years at another DOD -- a Defense Contractor, and never in all those years have I seen such a cluser -Yuck.

BTW the contract is for a simple janitorial service. Go figure!
Olds

sherlock · October 05, 2007, 07:14:04 AM

Know what you mean. All of our work is with governmental agencies.

MacDill AFB in Tampa? Is that close to home for you? I am in Wesley Chapel which is just north of Tampa.

Oldman · October 05, 2007, 07:23:33 AM

QuoteMacDill AFB in Tampa? Is that close to home for you? I am in Wesley Chapel which is just north of Tampa

We are in ST. Petersburg....

Oldman · October 06, 2007, 08:10:12 AM

The last two days we've done our numbers. I have good faith doubt that it will come down in my favor. I just flat out will not short change my employees to make this work.

A really clean building cost from $1.12 to $1.15 per square foot annually. I've got a gut feeling they are looking for $00.80 per square foot.

Susan and I are not going to lower our standards.

Olds

Oldman · October 08, 2007, 11:55:31 AM

We walked one (1) million square feet of facilities today. Every restroom needed attention. One female restroom smelled so bad that Susan left within 20 seconds. Several of the men's urines where so bad there are sign above them that said WE eat the big white & black men.

These folks will not like my price but I will not lower our standard. Man what a cluster - Yuck! The scale in the bottom of the urines is so bad it is thick and totally black. Sit on a toilet... sorry Charley I will go find a bush! Just hand me the toilet paper to go...

As that mad scientist said in a Frankenstein movie.. "IT IS ALIVE...! IT IS ALIVE...!"
Olds

iceman · October 08, 2007, 12:45:41 PM

Kind of makes a guy wonder what some of those folks homes look like. That's pretty scary Old's. :o For what they would get from your services one would think they wouldn't hesitate a bit on requesting you to start ASAP. ;)

sherlock · October 09, 2007, 04:48:34 AM

"I will not lower our standard"
I applaude you for that. If one can not be proud of their work, it creates low self esteem, which in turn leads to getting used to substandard workmanship and acceptinging it as a new lower performance goal. As our Grandfathers told us, "If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing right".

Wildcat · October 09, 2007, 07:58:10 AM

Quote from: sherlock on October 09, 2007, 04:48:34 AM
"I will not lower our standard"
I applaude you for that. If one can not be proud of their work, it creates low self esteem, which in turn leads to getting used to substandard workmanship and acceptinging it as a new lower performance goal. As our Grandfathers told us, "If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing right".

And at a FAIR PRICE.

Oldman · October 10, 2007, 07:05:32 PM

Well after several days of work and two "site" visits I got my bid in today 2 hours before the dead line. The bid with specs and color coded floor plans it dang near filled a 3 ring 1" wide note book.

Got some brandy, drank a fair amount of it, ate some supper and fell asleep in my chair.

I'm glad this one is over with. It is the hardest proposal I've ever worked on in my life. It covered 5 buildings and over 1,000,000 square feet.

Next Monday it will start again with step #2 on another project. That one has about 360,000 square feet of cleanable space. It has a couple of large 24/7 call centers so I will have to modify the 30" wide area vacuums to be as quite as a running car. I've got an idea on how to do it.

Phew I should be 35 and not going on 58.

iceman · October 11, 2007, 09:21:17 AM

Whew Old's. I need a vacation just reading about this. :o
Good luck and if they're smart we all know who will be getting the job. ;)

Oldman · October 11, 2007, 03:52:58 PM

Quote from: iceman on October 11, 2007, 09:21:17 AM
Whew Old's. I need a vacation just reading about this. :o
Good luck and if they're smart we all know who will be getting the job. ;)

Truth of the matter is we really did not want to bid on this one. We did, only to insure we did not tick anyone off and our current contact would continue to be funded.

dburanich · October 14, 2007, 09:36:47 AM

Oldman,

I also do my fair share on bidding of public funded jobs. I'll be honest with you though I believe a lot of the what seems to be meaningless paperwork is there for a reason, mainly to eliminate those individuals who are not qualified to perform the services. Every time I have to fill these forms out I say to myself "what a waste of time". But then I remember the stories of past bids where the low bidder did not even have a manufacturing facility and hired temporary labor for his jobs. Needles to say the job ended up not being to the standard that it should be. But the government paid for it anyway. Just try to think of it as weeding out the bad apples.

sherlock · October 15, 2007, 10:57:21 AM

Dburanich,

You are exactly right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, when they deal with repeat venders, a lot of that info should be eliminated.

Thank God, more of our dealings are on the State, City or County level. We do a little with the Corp of Engineers and we sometimes wonder if its worth the hassel.