mfgquote.com

[mmurning]

i guess my mind is made up...............

[stang5197]

Just wanted to say this about MFG quote. From a buyers stand point they are excellent. We send out a decent amount of work (we only have manual machines)and I have been using them (MFG) for about 1-1/2 years to find suppliers.

We have projects ranging from 6pcs up to 500 pcs. all fairly easy parts (nothing that would require 5 axis machining or anything like that). Just mainly late and mill type stuff.

The most quotes that we have gotten on one part is 20 (we only allow US companies to bid on our projects, no offense but our parts are only sold in the US so we feel they need to be made in the US). I posted that same part on RFQ.com and only got two quotes.

My point is we have found several companies that do repeative work for us. For example one part we posted on MFG turned into 9 different pieces for that one company. We now spend about $1200 a month with just them. The company that I am referring to has a $60/hr. shop rate, so they are not doing it a extremely low rate.

On the point about them calling all the time, I do agree with that, even as a buyer they still call us quite frequently to make sure everything is ok. Yeah, I really could do without all the phone calls.

As a buyer the cost is totally free, but from what I have heard the fees for the suppliers are enourmous.

From the tab that shows "RFQs Awarded Online" it seems like there is alot of business being done from there site.

Just a thought from a buyers stand point.

[MrMold]

I'd love the opportunity to quote some of your work. I have tried MFG.com, FirstIndex, RFQwork.com. I'm not too far from you in this day and age. I have landed work on all but never enough to justify their fees. I've been in business 10 years and in machining for over 25. My shop is completely paid for and I have extremely low overhead. That dosen't mean I work for free but I am usually very competitive. Spending hundreds of hours quoting jobs to land a few and then pay a fee on top of that wasn't working for me. After contacting many of these suppliers they were doing a wide variety of things. First alot of the jobs were just being quoted for cost anaysis and engineering reports and were never awarded online. They were also using the quotes online to put pressure on their current suppliers to lower prices and again were not awarded to online bidders. Then there's those that quote jobs for material cost or less in hopes of keeping there doors open for another month or getting their foot in the door of a new supplier.
Second if these services charged a nominal fee to place a quote, say $1, that would eliminate most of the tire kickers and if the services was saving them the amounts they claimed should easily recoup that cost.

[fastolds]

I am like the rest of the small shops. Who can afford to pay $7000 for something that has no guaranteed return. I am a one man shop with one machining center. I do just fine by myself. My customers like it that I will talk to them 7 days a week. Customer service is important.
I get the emails from them all the time telling me how many jobs were awarded. I keep forgetting to cancel any and all ties with them.
I did sign up for source authority years ago when it was free. Now it's around $700 or so to join plus 5% commision. I got grandfathered in so it's still free to me. I almost landed a $30,000 job but the shipping cost killed it. Good luck!!
www.hobbymachine.net

[Ninhil]

Let me just give you my perspective as a buyer on the site.

I have about a total of 8 RFQ's posted online.

I get all sorts of quotes ranging the whole gammit.
Just for example, on a quantity 50 order, I have gotten as little as $5 per part all the way up to $795

Also, I have discovered only one man locally (within 60mi) who had the helpful advice I need on a few of the parts. I feel that if you put in the time and effort, and have a reasonable price, than I would be more inclined to use their service. However, he hasn't followed up recently on e-mail or the phone. I sent him updated drawings to no avail.. (I think he landed a better job off of the MFG site)

I am sorry there are people who have lost their money. I myself after reviewing the extra high costs have begun to look into purchasing a CNC Mill for myself, learn to use the Mill, and produce parts that pay for the machine rather than putting out RFQ's.

I am a college student who is using my loan money to produce a small introductory line of products, and must squeeze out every bit of margin I can.