:Yeah, I guess you've got a point there. Hadn't thought about it that way, but somebody would.
What about a monthly bill? Or maybe an annual contractual obligation? It seems that most customer's these days aren't very loyal, even if they're tickled to death with a couple of jobs you do for them, they're always looking for a cheaper way out. Most bean counters, and they are the ones running the business' these days, will cut your throat for a nickel, not taking into consideration the quality or level of service provided on their behalf.
And with today's 'hope and change economy', there is always another shop that's willing to underbid a job just to get a foot in the door of a potential customer.
I think we've all heard the 'This is just a prototype, but we need it made at production cost', or, 'We're going to need 250 parts, let's make 5 to make sure they'll work the way we want them to, then run the rest', not to mention 'You take care of us on this job (wink, wink) and we've got 2-3 coming up that we can both make good $$$ on, as soon as this 1's out of the way', and the list goes on...
Only to find out later that the customer gave your sample part, along with all of your engineering data, drawings, not to mention pricing, to some other shop that Billy Bob's cute cousin's boyfriend works at as a janitor, and they undercut you by $1.55 on a $300 part....
Now IF this site can come up with a way to help work around those types of issues, maybe it can get somewhere!
