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repair shop replies to RFQ with boilerplate and irrelevant questions

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electricpete

Electrical
May 4, 2001
16,774
We send out detailed information with our RFQ's.

There is one shop that on two consecutive occasions resopnding to a refuribshment RFQ responded with a long list of questions that seemed like a cut/paste. These included items that seemed irrelevant to the bid process, items that could be found in our RFQ, and questions that didn't even apply to the motor.

Examples of some of the questions
[ol 1]
[li]What is the application of the motor? [It is prominently listed 2 different places in the RFQ][/li]
[li]What type of lubricant is used? [it's in the RFQ][/li]
[li]Will the hood be sent with the motor? [It's a vertical motor, we sent an outline, there is nothing called a hood... I think that term applies only to horizontal motors][/li]
[li]Is the motor driven by VFD? [We're a powerplant, none of our large motors have VFD's. We have sent many motors over the years to this shop including these two motor applications so someone there knows this. Besides all that, this is a refurbishment RFQ so does it even make a difference to the bid process if it is a vfd? ][/li]
[li]Does the motor run continously? When Was the motor last refurbished? [ok, maybe they're trying to estimate condition of the motor which could be relevant, I'll let that slide][/li]
[li]What are your PM cycles? [um which pm. you already asked us when last refurbished. do we need to tell you the interval of every pm done on this motor before you can quote?][/li]
[/ol]

In total about 12 questions. It's annoying because it takes time and I don't understand why they're asking. I responded to the first RFQ in detail but also pointed out which of the asked questions could be answered by reading the RFQ. (They didn't get the bid). I responded to the second round of questions a little more tersely, again giving answers and pointing to the RFQ where applicable and also adding at the end that many of these questions didn't seem productive at this stage of the bid process.

So why do I post here on eng-tips? Partially to vent. Maybe some here will be amused or have experienced similar. But also I am genuinely curious what is the mentality of a motor repair shop that would respond to RFQ's in this manner. It seems to me either they are genuinely sloppy and inattentive, or else they're playing a game (maybe they feel we've wasted their time with rfq's and their trying to turn the tables).



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(2B)+(2B)' ?
 
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Did you notice this accidentally got posted in Comm & Signal processing, not Electric Motors & Generators?

Me thinks they're too busy to treat you like they want or need your business.
 
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