Competition not following ADA and customer bid sharing.

In Spokane Wa we have our own set of ADA codes: 5 by 5 blue square, 6 inch wide blue handicapped stall stripes, access aisle stall stripes blue-six inches wide-24 inches on center and at a 45 degree angle. Most of the competition does not follow these laws and when bidding for restripe or new layout they have lest cost for materials and labor. I have done the best to educate my potential customers as to the laws and the need to follow them but when your undercut, most people shop lowest bid, not all but many. I also have had customers share a competitive bid figure voluntarily to see if I will go lowerthan the last bid, this is unethical as it is obvious they will share my prices to the next bidder to get lower yet.Keep in mind I have many loyal customers who don't shop bids at all and this is not a problem. Any ideas?

if they enforce there like they do here in NC there is nothing you can do but try to educate the property owner and show him that this is the way that the town/state wants it. Once a business gets inspected most could care less about a handicap space. A quick story here on ADA rules not being enforced.. A month ago or so here in NC we passed the lottery.. Ok, to sell lottery tickets one of the forms that the business had to sign was that there business was in complete compliance with the ADA codes which includes proper signs and marked handicapped parking places. In the small town I live in out of 15 places that got approved to sell tickets only two had handicap signs installed. I ask owners didn't they have to sign saying and swearing to the North Carolina Commission that they had signs? All of them said yes and signed the statement anyway without any signs or spaces. I called the North Carolina Commission and informed them of this fraud and do you know what I was told by the head lawyer at the commission? That weather or not the business lied on the form it was not up to the commission to make sure they were telling the truth or enforce the law they made themselves. That was exactly what I was told...

JimJack42 wrote on May 14, 2006:Go to #2

if they enforce there like they do here in NC there is nothing you can do but try to educate the property owner and show him that this is the way that the town/state wants it. Once a business gets inspected most could care less about a handicap space. A quick story here on ADA rules not being enforced.. A month ago or so here in NC we passed the lottery.. Ok, to sell lottery tickets one of the forms that the business had to sign was that there business was in complete compliance with the ADA codes which includes proper signs and marked handicapped parking places. In the small town I live in out of 15 places that got approved to sell tickets only two had handicap signs installed. I ask owners didn't they have to sign saying and swearing to the North Carolina Commission that they had signs? All of them said yes and signed the statement anyway without any signs or spaces. I called the North Carolina Commission and informed them of this fraud and do you know what I was told by the head lawyer at the commission? That weather or not the business lied on the form it was not up to the commission to make sure they were telling the truth or enforce the law they made themselves. That was exactly what I was told...

That lottery money is a heck of a lot more important than an ADA sign. Those boys need more slush funds to keep up with the Jones.

in regards to "customers" sharing yours and competitor's bids to see who goes lower - best advice is learn to live with it because it will unfortunately always be that way. in regards to noncompliance with ada striping - contact some advocacy group (anonymously) who perhaps will make it their mission to point it out. a few years back a handicap individual went around to banks, restaurants, hospitals and such and pointed it out, we got several new customers when we came in and corrected the situation. you'll get the satisfaction of your competition having to go back (no charge?) and correct their mistakes or the property owner having to pay again for just shopping price.

DB all that worked here for a short while..but it needs to be changed forthe long run so that we are all on same page.. to many people saying to me I am not going to put up a sign or paint a handicap parking unless the law makes me. I have even been told that they didn't mind losing handicap customers because they are always such a hassle to wait on and they spent very little...after they made statements like that I won't even go back on property... sick people...

UPDATE.......Well, in the last 6 weeks I invoiced over 70 re-stripes big and small, all of them I did to the ADA for my areea, to my surprise the competition is now following suit. I saw my first restripe to the new ADA, and not by me.

If we are just doing a re-stripe, then we will let the owner know if he is out of compliance, then it is up to him wether or not he wants us to make any changes. All to often, we are removing handi cap stalls on a re-stripe, because now that the business is open and already inspected, the owner would rather have the extra parking than a handicap stall. We just do as they say. As far as bid sharing, like the previous post said, its going to happen, I dont care to see other bids anyway, we set our pricing based on our cost to do that job, and each one is different, if they dont like our price because its too high, well oh well, that is what keeps people coming and going in this industry.

Asphaltman wrote on May 19, 2006:Go to #7

If we are just doing a re-stripe, then we will let the owner know if he is out of compliance, then it is up to him wether or not he wants us to make any changes. All to often, we are removing handi cap stalls on a re-stripe, because now that the business is open and already inspected, the owner would rather have the extra parking than a handicap stall.

I do the same at their request but I make a notation on my proposal and on my invoice that the proper ADA guidelines were disregartded at the PMs request. CYA

Thats a good call. I could see some managers calling you back up after they get a non-compliance letter, telling you it was your fault, and that they thought you were doing it right. I guess we have been lucky and not had that type of call back.

I also put right on the invoice that they refused to bring the property up to the current ADA Standards.