I’ve had a couple quotes go stale on me because the project dragged out—one time, the supplier bumped up the price after just three weeks, which felt pretty quick. I get that costs change, but it’s tough to plan when you don’t know how long a quote will actually last. Has anyone ever managed to get a supplier to honor an old quote after it expired? I’m always worried I’ll get halfway through demo and then get hit with a surprise increase.
Three weeks does seem pretty short for a quote to expire, but I’m not sure it’s always fair to expect suppliers to lock in prices for months either. Materials costs can jump overnight—lumber was all over the place last year. I’ve tried pushing back when a quote expired, but unless it’s in writing, most suppliers won’t budge. Have you ever gotten a supplier to actually stick to an old price? Or is it just wishful thinking? I almost wonder if it’s better to build in a buffer for price hikes rather than count on quotes staying put...
I’ve never had luck getting a supplier to honor an expired quote unless it was in writing, either. Even then, sometimes they’ll try to tack on “market adjustments.” Like you said,
I’ve started adding a 10% buffer to my budget for exactly this reason. It’s frustrating, but with how fast prices can swing, I don’t really blame them. If you need more time, sometimes you can negotiate a longer hold up front, but it’s hit or miss.“unless it’s in writing, most suppliers won’t budge.”
I’ve never had luck getting a supplier to honor an expired quote unless it was in writing, either.
I get why you add a buffer, but honestly, I’m not convinced it should always fall on us to just accept price swings. If a supplier gives a quote—even with “market adjustments”—there should be some accountability. Otherwise, what’s the point of quoting at all?
I get the frustration with quotes that don’t really mean anything if the supplier can just walk it back. But I’ll play devil’s advocate a bit. Prices for materials—especially lately—are all over the place. I’ve had shingle quotes jump 15% in a week, and sometimes even the suppliers can’t predict it. If they lock in a number for too long, they might be stuck losing money, and then they’re less likely to give competitive pricing in the first place.
But here’s where I do think there’s a middle ground. When I get a quote from my supplier, most of them will honor it for 30 days (in writing), but after that, yeah, all bets are off. If I have a big job coming up, I’ll usually ask them to confirm in writing how long it’s good for and if there are any exceptions (like “unless asphalt jumps $X per ton”). It’s not perfect, but at least you know what you’re getting into.
I don’t love having to explain price changes to my customers either. It gets awkward when they’re expecting one number and suddenly it’s higher because my supplier changed things up on me. But at the same time, if suppliers were forced to eat every price increase, I doubt half of them would still be around right now. The market is just too volatile.
Maybe what we need is more transparency—like, instead of just “quote valid for 30 days,” maybe spell out exactly what could change it (fuel surcharges, material shortages, etc.). That’d at least make it less of a guessing game.
Has anyone actually had luck getting a supplier to stick to an old quote when prices spiked? Closest I got was last year during that insulation shortage—my rep split the difference with me on a big order because we’d done so much business together… but that felt like more of a one-off favor than anything official.
Curious how others are handling this dance between keeping clients happy and not getting burned by sudden cost jumps.