Anonymous
map-marker Redwood City, California

The Blue Book Network Customer Care Review

stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full
Same thing here the salesman said we could up size down size cancel anytime also, then we find out its a 2 year contract. Liars. It's not for manufacturing companies either we would be just as good with a phone book ad for way less money. Stay clear of the blue book network of lies.
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Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised
Anonymous
map-marker Lincoln, California

Blue Book Lies

This also happen to us the Sales Rep said we could cancel at any time, however when we where getting no value leads I called to cancel and he stated that "you can't it's a two year contract" The Sales Man, or should I say Wiesel gave us the same fast taking lie, you can get out of it anytime if your not satisfied. So needless to say we are stuck with a 500.00! a month payment for nothing. This company has been in business for a long time and I thought had an upstanding reputation, however I have been fooled. If you are interested in leads, you better do your homework and speak with other customers that it has actually worked for prior to signing a contract. I will never refer or do business with the Blue Book ever again!
View full review
Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised
6 comments
Guest

Really, dude? If your rep is the same guy who handles Sacramento, which I think he handles all of the Sacto Valley, you are mistaken.

He delivered exactly what he sold us, and has helped us every time we've asked for it.

I have done very well with the Blue Book, and so have many of my friends in the trades.

I recommend Blue Book to any company who wants to grow their commercial construction business. Period.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1235950

Why are you anonymous?

You want to hear the facts give me a call 916-645-**** or continue hiding out behind your keyboard.

Hi G. T. is this is you? Read all the *** reviews that are stacking up.

I heard they moved you into a new position maybe all my complaining got you demoted. Its' ok my contract is almost up and I will continue to tell everyone how bad you dealt with us and how bad a scam the bluebook is.

Don't reply to this without revealing your identity. Man up or continue with your lame fake reviews

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1300003

Good for you Frank! Expose these people for the scammers that they are!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1235950

Definitely an employee, or post your business name!!

Guest

same happend to me i can cancel this thing im stuck too

Guest

I very much agree with your statements, they have slow customer service, offer nothing to me as a vendor as sold to me, now I have to wait out the rest of my contract that has NO value. I can without hesitation NOT recommend them. Please save your money.

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Anonymous
map-marker Cape Coral, Florida

Dumby bids dont join. no response .

so far i have been in contact with the trial bid blue book gave me. i have went out to the job needed done. the drawing was inaccurate the company just keeps on emailing me the same inaccurate drawings. since i live close to construction site , i went there to measure out pool for tile. sent quick bid with no response. the company that wants the bid. does not know anything about what to do. i have gotten no replies. just from blue book. its a waste of time. in business for 30 yrs.
View full review
Loss:
$250
Reason of review:
no response.
Anonymous
map-marker Rhinebeck, New York

Bluebook construction bidding

This company is a real rip off. I thinks that the companies offering the bids are fake, if you open the webs of all them you'll notice that these webs are on similar templets, let's say 5/6 different templets that they change just names and pictures. I contact directly one of this company and...surprise after the first few emails somebody from blue book reply to me informing me that I'll be removed from the free bidding newsletter..........So people what do you think?????? I think that a federal investigation should be done about this people.
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Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised
Anonymous
map-marker Bellevue, Washington

Bad very sub contractor with very bad quaility work

Called Glass Masters off the blue book , They gave a price and wanted 1/2 down so he was paid before he would complete his work he wanted the other half of his money. they also started to do window tinting it was so bad it had to be removed and redone by a second contractor they also broke a peice of glass and didnt want to pay for it.so he was kicked off the job.when the new contractor was installing the new glass he came out and started to bad mouthing and threatening the contractor so the police were called out. Just a word for other contractors beware of Glass Masters. Very unprofessional and shady do not use them!!!!!!!!!!
View full review
Loss:
$1600
Cons:
  • Being lied too
  • Cheating me
Reason of review:
Bad quality

Preferred solution: just to let everyone know not to use glass masters they are the worst contractor i have seen in my 35 years in construction

Anonymous
map-marker Royal Oak, Michigan

Other Product Review

Total waste of time and money. Its just a listing. Salesguy is a piece of ***,very unprofessional.
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Reason of review:
Poor customer service
Grecia Mck
map-marker Fresno, California

Blue book network is charging my credit card without giving anything in return

stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full

after 100 years in business the blue book network is not bbb accredited and has a bbb rating of C-. they have a history of not responding to bbb customer complaints and did not respond to a bbb complaint that i filed against them in march 2015.

these people are liars and thieves. take this as a warning and stay away. i was contacted by micah winrow in july 2014 about a customer lead generation service provided by the blue book network/ contractors register inc. he told me that they have a team working full time to send me leads which i can use to bid on and get contracts for my solar install business - indus solar in fresno california.

he was lying. the blue book network does not have the capability to deliver on their false promise to send me customer leads that i can actually use. to know that they cannot deliver useful leads and lie to a customer to get them to sign a contract is criminal. someone has to go to prison.

as they did not send me any customer leads that i could use, on march 26th 2015 i called in to cancel and legally revoked my authorization for them to charge my credit card. they are still charging my credit card. fortunately my credit card company is helping me by refunding the money charged. i informed their bill collector today that i am not paying them for nothing in return and that i may go to small claims court to get my money back.

if you also have been cheated by them you can contact me by searching for my company name on google or call me at 559-801-**** or email adam@***.net and we can get together and setup a class action lawsuit against them to get our money back.

And file criminal charges also. Someone has to stop this fraud.

View full review
Loss:
$1600
Cons:
  • Cheating me
Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised

Preferred solution: Full refund

Anonymous

Thebluebook.com. Awful Point of view from the General Contractor.

• The block on the account below that was requested to be removed, still exists. Nothing was ever addressed about the solicitation. I did not even get a response just to clarify someone will look into this. • Attached is an ITB that was sent out to my sub – contractors. Subject line states: “250k Life Insurance for $15/month”. This message was blocked by many of my sub-contractors firewall and they did not receive the ITB. Something like this can cost us a million dollar project. • Attached is an email sent on 5/11/2015 asking to have the block removed from a sub-contractor. This block as of today, still exists on this account. This sub-contractor is very competitive and has not received any ITB’s. Again, can cost us projects. • Again, attached is an email sent on 5/22/2015 asking to have the block removed from a sub-contractor. This block as of today, still exists on this account. This sub-contractor is very competitive and has not received any ITB’s. Again, can cost us projects. • Again, Email attached asking to remove block on 1/7/2015. As of today, the block still exist. • Email sent on 1/5/2015 about Union contractors receiving ITB’s for strictly non-union projects. I cannot stress enough how something like this can not only cause a discretion between myself and my union contractors, but cost us clients. When these unions find a non-union project, they call and not only harass the clients, but will picket the job site, the client’s office, as well as Axis Constructions office. So not only are we at risk for losing this client, but it was us who sent it directly to the Union contractor!!! Unacceptable and yet still happens to this day. • At first, I felt reassured that my ITB’s were being sent out to an average of 1500 contractors (both public vendors and my private list). I was soon realizing that out of the1500 contractors, maybe only 200 were really getting these messages. Whether it was a block on their account, the messages were going into their junk / spam folder, or bluebook possible puts some sort of limit of messages actually getting through to the subs on the GC’s free account. Only to later convince them that purchasing a different portion for bluebook.com will fix all of their problems. Whatever the reason is, it doesn’t work. When I tried to address this to a customer service rep. and see what bluebook.com can do to fix this, I wasn’t given an answer. Even when I created a fake project called “Vendors not receiving ITB’s” and added contractors onto this list to make it easier for someone from your company to fix this, it was not good enough. I was told that I have to contact each of the contractors myself to figure out why they cannot receive bluebook.com messages. This is the point I started looking into another portal for sending out ITB’s. I work for a general contractor, not the bluebook.com website. I am not going to call sub-contractor after sub-contractor and try to figure out why this website does not work.
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Reason of review:
Poor customer service
Anonymous
map-marker Las Vegas, Nevada

In process of them trying to sell me

Blue Book sends what I call teaser emails with supposed job bids. Then if you say you are interested in more info give your info.

OK I am a businessman and am looking for more marketing avenues to add to my spectrum. In particular I do want to penetrate the business market. I have been on the fence and the saleswomen makes bold statements and I ask for references for instance. I am glad that i did some searching because my gut was telling me, what I have observed as the salesperson goes through her canned speech has been validated by some of these complaints.

I do sympathize with those that have spent much. I want to say thank you to your site and for the comments

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Reason of review:
Comments on your site
1 comment
Guest

From my understanding The Blue Book is not for residential construction but commercial work. If you are in residential construction this is not the best service for you. I suggest you use Angie's list.

Jaythan Zeg

This review is from a real person who provided valid contact information and hasn't been caught misusing, spamming or abusing our website. Check our FAQ

Verified Reviewer
| map-marker Denver, Colorado

ALERT! WARNING

Do not waste your money. Unless you are set up already with at least 3+ professional estimaters, you will be frustrated beyond belief.

You will lose money. Bluebook lists at least 3 general constractors for every project. These are NOT the only GC's bidding on each project. You will only be able to submit your bids (which usually take a LOT of time) to those that list on Bluebook.

You could put in hours on a project and it will not likely fall into the right hands.

90% of the time, you will not get all of the information required to bid properly in the first place. You will spend HOURS just calling and emailing to get all of the appropriate information.

View full review
Loss:
$4000
9 comments
Guest

I'm sorry to tell you, but that is sometimes a part of commercial construction! If you can't estimate your costs from blueprints in a time efficient manner, than you should probably stick to residential work.

If you spend hours working on your bid to a bidding GC, did you call them to introduce yourself? Did you think that perhaps if you got to know the GC & they didn't get that particular project, they would want to use you for a future project in which they are awarded?? What trade are you in? Do you have a website, an email and answer your phone?

I ask you these things, because I run into these problems everyday! I use The Blue Book on a consistent basis to find my subs for various reasons (my regular guys are busy, the project is in an area I don't often work in, I need a niche trade for which I don't have a dedicated vendor, etc). In fact, I have my Blue Book Consultant on speed dial in my cell phone, and call her for recommendations all the time. There is a delicate balance between price and trust with a subcontractor who is new to me.

There IS NO OTHER company that can provide me with the insight on their subs and has the relationships that Blue Book does. I don't blast out ITB's for the low bid and pray that it all works out.

I need to know you are qualified and reliable. I use Blue Book when I have a need, because every single advertiser has a dedicated Blue Book employee, in the area, that actually knows their subs.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-961100

I am glad this service works for you; It did not for us. We are a construction company who signed up after our sales person completely lied to us about how the service works.

We SPECIFICALLY asked if the "leads" were from the job owners, as we did not want to waste our time with getting emails from companies who did not own the jobs. She ASSURED us that we would only receive leads from job owners. First of all, we received a lot of "leads" but had to filter through them because about 90% of them were for jobs that were no where near our service area. That aside, we bid on multiple projects.

It was only after following up each time that I discovered none of the companies owned the jobs! They were simply taking our bids and adding them to their own and then submitting them to the actual job owner!

It was a complete waste of our time, as we were not looking for a networking service. We had no desire to hobnob and smooth talk people to win them over just to get jobs.

My husband has been submerged in this industry since he was 16 so we didn't need to network; we were simply seeking cut and dry leads to bid. Once we got the job, our hard work would have earned us future work for that company. We DID NOT want or need a networking program and the sales rep was very aware of that and of our expectations. She spent 2 hours in our office, and after sharing personal stories and gaining our trust, she absolutely lied to us in that regard.

She also lied to us by saying that we could cancel at any time we were satisfied. She went from a 2 year contract (we refused) to a 1 year contract (we were still extremely hesitant) to, "You can use your credit card for the monthly billing so that, if you aren't satisfied, you can cancel and if it takes too long for the cancellation to go thru, you can dispute it through your credit card company."

She also left us with a copy of our "contract"; a one page paper that listed what we were paying for and the associated monthly charges.

During our dispute process, a customer service rep said that our contract said we could not cancel. I asked for a copy of it because the contract we had did not say that.

The customer service rep emailed me a TWO page "contract". The first page was what she left us with....the second page had the heading of "PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION". That was the signature page that authorized them to bill our credit card each month. That is what she said when she handed it to me to sign....and then took it back.

THAT PAGE listed, in small print under the large payment authorization section, the terms. It is on that page where it states the contract is "non-cancelable". Had the sales rep left me BOTH PAGES of the "contract", I would have immediately called to tell her to rip up our $100 deposit and that we did not want to participate, as the wording is that of a company who has clearly had MULTIPLE complaints!

But she did not; she said, "Here is a copy of your contract for your records", as she gave me the FIRST PAGE only!

SHADY! The ENTIRE sales process was a scam and I absolutely feel violated. YES, I signed something granting permission for them to bill my credit card. BUT, it was NOT presented to me as a "contract" with terms.

It was given to me as a credit card authorization slip to sign! How do people sleep at night when they treat people this way? SO....bottom line, ultimately, I signed a so-called "contract" and now after I sent an email to cancel the service in April 2015, and then disputed it in May 2015 with my credit card company (Like my sales rep said to do) ...I have been sent to a collection agency for payment. My credit card company said the dispute was resolved in my favor and was done.

So, since MAY 2015, based on the information from our sales rep and my credit card company, I assumed the service was cancelled and resolved. I have not received ANYTHING ELSE from The Blue Book; an invoice, a statement...NOTHING. UNTIL....August 2015 when a collection agency said we owe them $1676.00!!! Keep in mind that we have already paid the Blue Book $786 for being lied too.....BUT...we did not initiate the cancellation process until the end of April, so I did not ask for a refund.

We simply wanted to part ways. This entire process has opened my eyes to deceitful people and I am extremely saddened by the injustice of it. I am now stuck trying to fight what I know is going to be a losing battle because everyone keeps saying, "You signed the contract" I just keep repeating, "I signed a PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION FORM".....but no one cares to listen to how I was hoodwinked; they just see my name on a "contract".

SO....all of that to say....I am happy for you that the Blue Book was portrayed properly and you are able to utilize the service to your advantage. BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND that many of us did not have the sales person you had and we have been lied too and taken advantage of and scammed for a service that we do not need or want.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1033303

I knew that they had to be doing the same thing to others as well. Glad you took the time to properly articulate and explain.

Hope others will heed the warning. Dan Shaw

Sallie Boh
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1033554

Dan, what ended up being your outcome?

Melinda

Wayne S Ksh
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1033303

Exact same thing happened to me. Why hasn’t something been done about this company? How can they continue to scam and commit fraud

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-961100

It very well may be great for GC's but certainly not for this sub contractor and many others that I've heard from

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-961100

You are grossly presumptuous. I've been in commercial construction for decades !!! (Exclamation added since you seem so fond)

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-961100

Look the Bluebook scammers use Google and counter every negative review.

Bluebook is a scammer and a spammer. There info is total BS.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-961100

Sounds like either you're fresh out of training for the Blue Book and have bought into all of their crap.... or, you're one of their seasoned sales rep's making thousands of dollars by scamming these business's.

View more comments (8)
charlottephoto
map-marker Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bluebook Construction Review - Misled

We feel terribly misled by the BlueBook people. Our sales rep Allison convinced us that her personal contact with General Contractors would help us get in the door with folks. After many many many months of complaints we finally got a call from someone yesterday. We expressed the same complaints. His answer was "Have a good weekend" Supremely unprofessional.

Allison put in very little effort to help get us meetings or any type of communication with her contacts that she supposedly had and when we told her how disappointed we were, all that was said was it takes time and NO you can't have your money back. Before we signed up, we met several times and she expressed each time how she herself would play and integral role in helping us. Her emails were basically, "How is it going?" and "Come to a meeting."

Well it took two years and thousands of dollars we spent and still NOTHING from them. We were able to get one client that we had called on prior to BB and met them at a BB show for the first time.

Save your money and call on them directly like we do or spend your money on Google ads. We have had success with SEO and direct calling, NOT Bluebook.

If you are not directly doing work on a construction project, BB is not for you. They will tell you how they will help network for you but WILL NOT.

Brett Osborne

Clear Sky Images

View full review
9 comments
Guest

the blue book and bidscope have been spamming my personal and business email address for weeks now.

They are sending bid invitation under the alias " max hyden" I have not signed my business up with any of these two entities.the UNSUBSCRIBE feature clearly does not work since i am still being inundated with their solicitations.

I have called their corporate office and was told i will be completely unsubscribed within 24 hours. i will post an update

Guest

We are a construction company who signed up after our sales person completely lied to us about how the service works. We SPECIFICALLY asked if the "leads" were from the job owners, as we did not want to waste our time with getting emails from companies who did not own the jobs.

She ASSURED us that we would only receive leads from job owners. First of all, we received a lot of "leads" but had to filter through them because about 90% of them were for jobs that were no where near our service area. That aside, we bid on multiple projects. It was only after following up each time that I discovered none of the companies owned the jobs!

They were simply taking our bids and adding them to their own and then submitting them to the actual job owner!

It was a complete waste of our time, as we were not looking for a networking service. We had no desire to hobnob and smooth talk people to win them over just to get jobs. My husband has been submerged in this industry since he was 16 so we didn't need to network; we were simply seeking cut and dry leads to bid.

Once we got the job, our hard work would have earned us future work for that company. We DID NOT want or need a networking program and the sales rep was very aware of that... and of our expectations. She spent 2 hours in our office, and after sharing personal stories and gaining our trust, she absolutely lied to us in that regard.

She also lied to us by saying that we could cancel at any time we were not satisfied. She went from a 2 year contract (we refused) to a 1 year contract (we were still extremely hesitant) to, "You can use your credit card for the monthly billing so that, if you aren't satisfied, you can cancel and if it takes too long for the cancellation to go thru, you can dispute it through your credit card company."

She also left us with a copy of our "contract"; a one page paper that listed what we were paying for and the associated monthly charges.

During our dispute process, a customer service rep said that our contract said we could not cancel. I asked for a copy of it because the contract we had did not say that.

The customer service rep emailed me a TWO page "contract". The first page was what she left us with....the second page had the heading of "PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION". That was the signature page that authorized them to bill our credit card each month. That is what she said when she handed it to me to sign....and then took it back.

THAT PAGE listed, in small print under the large payment authorization section, the terms. It is on that page where it states the contract is "non-cancelable". Had the sales rep left me BOTH PAGES of the "contract", I would have immediately called to tell her to rip up our $100 deposit and that we did not want to participate, as the wording is that of a company who has clearly had MULTIPLE complaints!

But she did not; she said, "Here is a copy of your contract for your records", as she gave me the FIRST PAGE only!

SHADY! The ENTIRE sales process was a scam and I absolutely feel violated. YES, I signed something granting permission for them to bill my credit card. BUT, it was NOT presented to me as a "contract" with terms.

It was given to me as a credit card authorization slip to sign! How do people sleep at night when they treat people this way? SO....bottom line, ultimately, I signed a so-called "contract" and now after I sent an email to cancel the service in April 2015, and then disputed it in May 2015 with my credit card company (Like my sales rep said to do) ...I have been sent to a collection agency for payment. My credit card company said the dispute was resolved in my favor and was done.

So, since MAY 2015, based on the information from our sales rep and my credit card company, I assumed the service was cancelled and resolved. I have not received ANYTHING ELSE from The Blue Book; an invoice, a statement...NOTHING. UNTIL....August 2015 when a collection agency said we owe them $1676.00!!! Keep in mind that we have already paid the Blue Book $786 for being lied too.....BUT...we did not initiate the cancellation process until the end of April, so I did not ask for a refund.

We simply wanted to part ways. This entire process has opened my eyes to deceitful people and I am extremely saddened by the injustice of it. I am now stuck trying to fight... what I know is going to be...

a losing battle because everyone keeps saying, "You signed the contract" I just keep repeating, "I signed a PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION FORM".....but no one cares to listen to how I was hoodwinked; they just see my name on a "contract".

SO....all of that to say....if the Blue Book was portrayed properly and you are able to utilize the service to your advantage....then great! BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND that many of us did not have honest sales people and have been lied too and taken advantage of and scammed for a service that we did not need or want.

Guest

Paulson’s Construction of Howell was selected as the recipient of the 2012 National Contractor of the Year

for Residential Exterior Specialty.

Paulson's Construction

Paulson's Construction Review

Guest

The Blue Book gets you in front of thousands of people that are specifically looking for qualified commercail contractors. GC's DO NOT use Google to find Subcontractors they use The Blue Book in print and online. Home Owners use Google not GC's.

You get phone calls and emailed ITB's everyday from being a part of The Blue Book so for anyone to say it did not work it is all on them. No other Network gets you the exposure and opportunity like The Blue Book. Every time a direct ITB comes into you it's from all the hard work the outside sales Reps are doing face to face meeting with GC's to show them how to upload their plans and put their jobs online to our customers. Everyday you get several sent directly to you from these users looking for exactly the trades you do.

Best investment a company to do to grow their commercial business, period!!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-578785

BB sends an invite to bid to the subcontractors that masks what the job is, when it bids, and who it's bidding to until you click through their sales links. I Squared foot includes ALL this pertinent detail as well as a customized message describing the scope of work on the invitation to bid email. Blue book is a continuous pain in the rear to get the drawings from. There is no way to directly download the drawings. Instead you must opt to be emailed with them through their print room. Anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours later an email arrives with a link to DOWNLOAD THE DRAWINGS! It's absolutely ridiculous that you can't simply opt to download straightaway.

They also strong-arm the GC's into signing contracts requiring that they be the sole bid transmission company that GC may use. The result is that I get nameless invite to bids that each require at least five minutes of stern attention and downloading to figure out what it is. I'm constantly bombarded by out of state GC's looking for bids in the next two days. For GC's looking to access new bidders, this is a firehose distribution network that's low on service, information, and functionality. Every day I wish they'd get bought by someone who's interested in making service a priority.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-595243

So you apparently have a free listing with The Blue Book and are not a network customer. To bring up that they try to strong arm the GC's??

GC's are not paying a dime to use the services, and I square foot they pay. The Blue Book will not solve all the worlds problems, but I can tell you that there are huge benefits to belonging. You tell me where you can put yourself in front of potential customers as well as get the opportunities.

I am guessing you have not talked to someone that covers your area, and learned how their system works. Matt- Florida

Guest

RIP OFF ALERT. STAY AWAY.

I am writing today to express my frustration with the Blue Book Construction Network.

The company is filled with your typical sales people. They want to be your best friend before you buy and then once you sign on, you get treated like a piece of meat.

I've been misled and even worse, robbed, by the Blue Book.

I advise anyone who is thinking of "Advertising" to just get a free listing.

They will also try to sell you on the lead service..... It's a complete joke that no one uses.

Perhaps the scariest part of Blue Book is how easy it can enter a downward spiral. For example, as frustrated customers like myself leave, there is less to the Blue Book. As there is less, the value goes down. As it goes down, more people leave. This is the cycle that Blue Book is in as of 2012.

RIP OFF ALERT. STAY AWAY.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-566353

We too signed up with Blue Book. While we got six months free, we are now locked into a year-long contract.

While we receive leads, few if any are relevant to our company. When we reply and ask if our category is being sought, rarely do we receive a response. Our category is buried in another which is not only tedious to wade through but should have its own category in our opinion. We've submitted five bids in 15 months and received no work.

We are very anxious to dump this $247/month expense since it has returned nothing on our investment. Many jobs are "prevailing wage" which means union companies only in no uncertain terms.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-651109

5 bids in 15 months?!?!?! So you only bid once every 3 months - this sounds like a problem to me.

If I only talked to 5 people in 15 months, I would be homeless.

What trade do you do that is so rarely sought? I would expect that would be a benefit, as it wouldn't be competitive.

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