I'm about to lose a gov't. client and I don't care.

[Rick Lee]

If I were allowed to fire clients, this city gov't. agency would top my list. This is the contract I won about a year ago after a competitive bid, not because we had the best price, but because I was the only person who correctly filled out their affirmative action form and filed it with the city before submitting my bid. They had to award to us. It then took months of legal wrangling because of their contract language and my own company's dragging their feet because our top legal eagles don't usually bother with such small contracts. Nevertheless, we then customized a good deal for them at a slight discount and they were very happy.

Last week the city wanted to make a few changes. They wanted to write in a two year extension (whew!) and require us to notify them within two days if we lost our insurance (WTF?). It was previously 30 days. This took countless emails between my legal dept., boss, COO and the city's contract folks. The city wouldn't budge on a single thing and said "sign it as is or we cancel." So we signed.

Today they said they want to cancel because we did not properly notify their contract folks about enhancements and improvements we made to the services they buy. The end users were trained on this months ago and have been happy with it. We really only combined the services into one platform, requiring one logon instead of two and changed the name. The city wants to cancel over this. They say we're in breach.

Here's a perfect example of a gov't. agency 1) not getting the best bang for the taxpayers' buck because of affirmative action and 2) canceling a service they say they need and are happy with because we improved it (at no additional cost) and didn't think it warranted a contract amendment. And they did this after the whole rigamaroll of their own amendment request. This ain't worth my time. And if I were a taxpayer of this city, I'd be steaming mad about it. If I leave this job anytime soon, I'd be tempted to tell a local reporter about this.

[chocolatelab]

Rick

I've been doing state and muni bids for the past year in a new roll at my company.

It borders on disgusting. Bid specs are generally 5-10 years old forcing them to take equipment that is way more expensive and less efficient than need be.

It really is insane.

I feel for you.

Speaking for southern california it suprises me not at all that the state and local muni's are dead broke.

[Rick Lee]

Uggghhh. I just reread the whole contract and the section about making changes requires an official amendment only if the change is substantial to the scope of work and/or increases or decreases the cost. We didn't change the cost, just the name of the service and we simplified the logon procedure. They're still getting and using everything they asked for. This is unreal. I can't wait to see this get rebid and awarded for more money IF the other bidders fill out the affirm. action forms correctly. And I hope the call me and ask why we didn't bid.

FWIW, I did win a bid for a CA state agency a while back only because their previous provider and our main competitor decided to not bother with them anymore. We didn't give it away, we won the bid and they've been pretty cool to deal with. But I've heard horror stories from folks at other CA agencies.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

5% of the world's population, 60% of the world's lawyers.

That's at the heart of a great many of out problems.

[red-beard]

I have a contract with the State of Texas to supply instrumentation. Two companies combined, and the discount structure changed. When I signed the contract, I submitted our cost to the state and showed our markup, so that if something like this happened, we could put the increase in the contract.

I submitted the new pricing, and they said I was only able to raise prices at the inflation rate. So explained what happened. They asked for me to submit the information about the changes. I did. Yesterday they said they were removing most of those items from the contract.

I reallly don't care, since this was supposed to be a $300K/yr contract and it has been more like $15-20K.

Oh, and what this really means is they are going to go out for bid on these items, and I expect I'll get them back, with my new pricing.

[NY65912]

I have 7 "Requirement" contracts with New York City. These contracts are for emergency and maintenance of plumbing and fire sprinkler/standpipe systems. They all have a one year option to extend the contract, not a bad thing (for us).

We also do Fed and state projects and are pre-qualified and CCR'd. The insurance requirements are very stringent. Our carriers must inform their insurance department withing 30 days on cancellation of the policies, this a normal formality in the insurance world. I have never heard of a 2 day notification. sounds strange.

I never thought that dealing with NYC agencies would be easier than dealing with a municipal agency somwhere else. We just signed three 2.5M contracts and there were new insurance requirements that were included in the bid package that my estimator did not pick up, it will cost me 30K to obtain new OCP Insurance (owners and contractors protective). It is a new requirement that snuk in under the radar. You should have to buy Railroad Protective Insurance, now that is fun. On a 500M policy we're talking serious cash. The gov't agencies (due to lack of funds) are negotiating down each proposal we send to them, but it beats not having the work.

1 director, 2 managers and thirty lawyers to run the procurement department, I think it's BS. Litigation makes the world go round.

I feel your pain.

[slow&rusty]

The private sector can be as bad too. I work with some large name Oil and Gas firms and if we or our subs do not have the correct liability limits on the certificate of insurance..boom contract cancelled. It takes weeks of back and forth with attorneys for compliance..very administrative and painfully slow.
Yasin

[GH85Carrera]

We have one contract that is with another private firm, but the final client is the federal government. The want us to fill out the dumbest forms that only a bureaucrat trying to show they are doing something would ever want. They want us to tell them the sun angle at the moment the project was done. They want to know the time of the project in Julian days and in regular date formats. They want to know everything almost to the point of if the pilot wearing boxers or briefs. 99% of it is useless information. We fill it out so we can get paid.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

They want to know the time of the project in Julian days and in regular date formats.

Just wow.

I had one years ago that was for a foreign gov't. office in DC. Their specs for submtting the bid required the envelope to be folded a certain way and "Not to be opened by the mail room" written across the seal.

[red-beard]

University of Houston will accept bid by fax, but not e-mail. They prefer the "sealed bid" by mail. But regular mail doesn't work. They want it overnighted, even if you send it early. So we fax them.

They are going to do away with the faxing, since sealed bids should be sealed. The guy I talked to didn't like e-mail at all and thought faxes were bad. So, it's like 1950 all over again.

[Rick Lee]

I must update this after finishing my plate of crow. I called the end user boss and he said they were never notified of the changes, never migrated to the new platform and their reports just stopped coming one day. This is a big problem on our end and this is the first I've heard of it. When I called them in late June too check in on how the migration was going, the newbie I spoke with totally talked through his hat and said all was well. He had no idea what either of us were talking about. Turns out the lady who probably got the the email and phone call about this was on maternity leave and didn't return. So the other users were totally in the dark and I was too because the one know-nothing I spoke with told me it was going fine and he had no idea. Anyway, they're going to rebid this and want us to bid but, in so doing, to explain how the product works now.

[dienstuhr]

...so apparently there's no confidentiality clauses in any of these contracts everybody's blabbing about...?

[Teutonics]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

....The want us to fill out the dumbest forms that only a bureaucrat trying to show they are doing something would ever want....

I just heard today that we completed/submitted a 2600 page () RFP to a government agency. What is absurd is that a 20 page RFP should be more than sufficient... it's not rocket surgery software or anything. I don't know what is more asinine, the 2600 page RFP request, or the fact that my company completed it with no chance of ever winning the business!

[Rick Lee]

And of those 2600 pages, how many actually describe the work to be done? Maybe 10? The two services we provide to this gov't. agency take up less than 1/4 page in our brochure and one page on our website. Yet, the client's RFP started out at 26 pages and became 40 by the time it was all done. The part I actually had to fill in was less than one page. 40 pages for one page of services. WTF?!?!?!

[Noah930]

Did someone just write "Mickey Mouse" 79K times in a row?

[chocolatelab]

I have a 41 page rfq on my desk.

3 pages describe the scope of work.

19 pages provide guidelines for protesting the bid result.........

Holy cow

[Wilhelm]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

And of those 2600 pages, how many actually describe the work to be done? Maybe 10? The two services we provide to this gov't. agency take up less than 1/4 page in our brochure and one page on our website. Yet, the client's RFP started out at 26 pages and became 40 by the time it was all done. The part I actually had to fill in was less than one page. 40 pages for one page of services. WTF?!?!?!

What sort of business are you in Rick?

[HardDrive]

Trying to train Washington state employees was just about one of the most depressing things I have ever done. It drove me out of the IT business. A classroom full of eye rolling, UN inspired washouts who had NO business touching a computer, let alone the MFing network infrastructure for the state! It was insane.

I would take 1 private sector employees over 10 of those losers.

I come from a solid Union, UAW, Michigan family. Witnessing state employees changed me forever. Sickening waste of tax payer dollars.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Wilhelm

What sort of business are you in Rick?

News dist. and PR.

[red-beard]

The most complicated government RFQ I worked on was replacement of some large motors and supply of motor drives. They were not replacing the pumps, so you have to have the motor match the pump.

The bid package was huge. They supplied all sorts of stuff, but no drawings for the pump, the input shaft, coupling, etc. They ended up killing the bid 3 times to find the information I requested. I don't know how anyone could have properly bid the job without the drawings, unless it was "inside".

Again, I think I was the most techincally savvy on this, but was kicked out in the second round because they didn't like the form of my bid package.