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Topic: mfw we win a bid on a job i quoted high mostly because i didn't want to do it

squeegee started this discussion 8 years ago #72,602

the job was, uh, actually super risky. it was slightly dangerous, but mostly the risk was in whether or not we fuck it up. there was also a NDA attached, and we had to pay to insure the job (because our insane insurance wouldn't cover damage above 1 million bucks.) so i can't talk about who contracted us except to say it was a conglomerate, and i can't talk about the work except to say that involved a very large piece of machinery in a private museum collection.

i can also say that this job is not the type of work we typically do, but because of the line of work we're in we're literally one of a few companies even capable of knowing what to bid. so i went out there to bid on it and found the job to be... this absolute bitch of a pain in the ass, and at first i declined. just told them no, there was a miscommunication when we agreed to come out, this isn't the type of work that we do, and i just threw a huge number at her, like really fucking huge, and told her that'd more than likely be the ballpark, but that we don't do that anyway.

long story short, we got 3 times my original ballpark... and that was actually my idea, once i went back to my bosses with basically a blank check (they really needed the job done, and their next option was to literally start flying in experts from other states) they went out personally and we spent 3 hours detailing the order of operations to getting the job done. and they were cool with my big bid, but i suggested we go higher. they would literally have to fly in experts, like buy them plane tickets and put them up for a day just to get a bid, even if they get that far, fucking pictures of the space would've been enough for us to have declined, there's no way anyone in our like of work is going to hop on a plane and go bid this, i was there because we didn't know all the details. lol. they got lucky.

so my bosses agreed that if we decline they'll be spending double that, easy - if they could even get it done at any price. so we went for it and decided to go big or go home.

and they fucking went for it.

best part, we finished the job today. we've been on the job site for 2 weeks, and today we completed the work. we basically had to shut our business down for everything else too, this was all hands on deck kinda thing. so we're 2 weeks behind on everything else, but i got a fat bonus to spend on my vacation this year.

and i'm super relieved, i've been a nervous wreck for 2 weeks. i'm smoking a big fatass bowl right now and going to drink lady drinks in my PJs till i pass out.

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squeegee (OP) double-posted this 8 years ago, 12 minutes later[^] [v] #869,221

and to give you an idea of how this job was related/unrelated to the work we do, image if i was an engineer at a car manufacturer who designs, builds and sells new cars. Now imagine some random company calls you up and says, "hey, so we've got this private museum collection and there's this Model-T in there..."

my response was basically, "oh, that's nice. um, but we manufacture and sell new cars. we don't do... Model-Ts..."

and their response was essentially, "oh fuck, you don't? we really, really need someone with automotive experience to come in and not fuck it up royally."

and i was like, "yeah, i bet not. fuckers a priceless museum piece. shit'll be fucking expensive though i'd imagine. it is just an automobile i suppose. we do know about automobiles being an automotive design and manufacturing company..."

she looked at me stern faced and deadly serious, "money is no object, you saw the name on our door, right? you know who we are."

so i kinda just took that back to my bosses and said let's get paid. and they were like, "fucking windfall."

and then for two weeks i was praying to all the gods. yes, even that one.

(Edited 1 minute later.)

Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 8 years ago, 7 minutes later, 20 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #869,222

squeegee (OP) replied with this 8 years ago, 1 minute later, 21 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #869,223

oh, oh, oh, and my favorite part. when i was talking with my bosses about what we should charge, i mentioned the Trump tax cuts, cause he was thinking we were actually too high, and i said, "these are the companies that benefit the most, and we're working for their parent org, they just got back hundreds of millions. lets get some of it."

and he agreed. lol.

it was fucking a bitch of a job though, imo we weren't high at all. it was just the largest bid we've ever made for the amount of time spent on a project.

we basically got paid a premium to take almost our entire workforce and dedicate them to a single project that also happens to be bumping several other projects back by weeks.

lots of paid overtime, and everyone who worked on it got bonus pay as well.

turned out to be lucrative for everyone.

i guess it is true what they say, it does eventually trickle back down.

squeegee (OP) double-posted this 8 years ago, 55 seconds later, 22 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #869,224

@869,222 (B)
if i brag in front of my friends then they think less of me, i don't care what you people think. half of you fuck dogs and i'm pretty sure at least one person here eats poo.

Anonymous B replied with this 8 years ago, 32 minutes later, 54 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #869,225

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squeegee replied with this 8 years ago, 1 hour later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #869,384

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