Bid Ethics 1

[jproj]

We have recently bid on a project in which we were the low bidder. The only problem (in our customers point of view) with our proposal was that our unit was significantly smaller than our competitors proposed unit.

After convincing our customer our design was technically acceptable (and after a P.O. # was given), our competitor proceeded to sling mud. Our competitor gave names (to our customer) of people to call who were unhappy with our units or people who would say that our units were not performing to design conditions.

Our customer then decided to hold on sending us the P.O. (pending further information)

Come to find out, the names our competitor gave were personal friends of theirs, and furthermore, people who had no technical knowledge whatsoever (for example, our competitor gave a contact in purchasing to explain to our customer how technically unsound our units are). Besides that, they have also told out and out lies. (where our lawyers got involved)...

Anyway, I'm curious how prevalent this is and what others think about this situation. Personally I'm flaming mad at the lack of ethics involved in this whole situation.

jproj

 

[redtrumpet]

I have never seen badmouthing to this degree in 2 years of technical sales and 6 years of consulting engineering. I have heard vendors take minor potshots at competitors during sales calls, but the more they badmouth the competition the less credibility I give them.

Sounds like you are dealing with an unsophisticated customer. Ideally the customer should retain a qualified consultant to perform an independent technical review of the bids and sort out the fact from the fiction.

Asking for references from an installed base of the vendor's equipment is commonplace, but I have never seen a vendor provide a list of "customers" to badmouth their competition!

The closest I have ever seen to this situation involved the failure of heat trace cable at a mine site. I was evaluating the specification of heat trace cable for a similar installation. A competitor of the manufacturer who had provided the failed heat trace was only too willing to point out how and why the installation had failed so miserably. Unlucky for him that I knew the engineer who had been responsible for the failed installation, and I had already been filled in on the real reason for the failure - which did not match what the competitor was claiming. Needless to say the competitor who did the badmouthing did not get the order.

 

[muyi74]

i agree with redtrumpet about the client having an independent and qualified consultant who would do all the background checks and follow up.

It's unfortunate that the other company had to reduce themselves to badmouthing. Such practice should be penalised in the profession as it is against the laid down ethics.

Did the client invite all companies bidding for a technical clarification meeting(s) especially with respect to the differences in the proposed unit. @#@#@#@

 

[jproj]

Well, chalk one up for the good guys We finally got the order. Thanks for the responses redtrumpet and muyi74, I enjoyed your input.

FYI, our customer did their own technical evaluation and did ask for similar installations (along with references). There was a meeting held with each company (seperately) regarding technical design aspects, but information about competing designs were not disclosed (which was about the only positive thing about this bidding process!) We only recently learned the size of our competetors unit.

This has happened before (from the same competetor) and I'm sure it will happen again (just hopefully not to this degree!).

I believe the real problem came from a rookie project manager who was uncertain (and unwilling) to make a decision. Ultimately, our competetor bypassed the project manager and went to their boss who told our competetor (after inviting the project manager into the office to listen in): "it was a fair bid and you lost the order... stop calling."

Thanks again guys, I'm glad most of us have some ethics!

jproj