[torinwalker]

Gentlemen,

The other day, I was creating profiles on a couple of free business listing sites to increase my page ranking on Google in the hopes that typing "machine shop Oakville" might bring up my tiny little business. Along with Manta, 411, ProfileCanada, etc., I also happened upon MFG.com and create a profile there.

A day or two later, I get a ping from one of their sales people who ring me up and start demoing their site. The basic premise is understood; Two markets - one, open with RFQs where people can bid for jobs. I've heard complaints of people who quoted so cheaply and so frequently and they were still undercut by bids lower than their own material costs. Market two, a "private" market where one becomes a registered supplier and big-tier manufacturers trust you and contact you directly to quote. The best of both worlds, so it seems.

So I ask how much and the sales guy starts telling, "well, the yearly fees can go up to eight thousand, nine thousand per year, but I've got you at the low end for a small business - $3000 per year." I responded, that's nice (smirking), but that's 20% of my entire revenue from last year. I'd hate to lay that down and find out it doesn't work for me."

He reduced it further, to 6-months for $1500, and still I said, don't you offer a free trial? You know, let me in, if I get a taste and like it, I continue with a full subscription? He started to get annoyed, telling me how no one offers a free trial, and that MFG guarantees you'll get work.

I said, no, you don't guarantee work - you guarantee contacts with potential for work. If you guaranteed the work, I'd just subtract the $1500 or $3000 fee from the profit I'm guaranteed to get from the first contracts. In this case, I could sign up, find it difficult to compete, and be no better off than I started. I asked about buying, say, one month, and continuing if it works out. No go.

So, I said I'll go onto CNCZone and see what people have to say about MFG. He snorted, "I'll tell you what they'll say ... you'll see a bunch of people back in 2009 bad-mouthing us." I said, "NO, I'm already familiar with those respondents... I'll see what people have to say about MFG today."

Well, without boring you with any further detail, the phone call ended abruptly because I wanted a smaller (monthly0 taste and for him, it was matter-of-factly his way or the highway.

Aside from the rude, hard-sell, I'm still keeping an open mind.

If you are a SMALL machine shop of one, maybe two or three employees, and you're looking for work and have tried MFG, can you report your findings?

I'd be interested to hear general commentary on MFG, how hard you compete to get those jobs, whether you get a lot of good jobs, or just crappy ones the bigger shops don't want to touch, and, if relationships come any more easily from MFG than they do from, say, shopping around by other means or by word of mouth.


Torin...
www.walker-tech.com

[jaythefisherman]

mfg.com are fraudulent....the post fake contracts, what few real ones on there are underbid from overseas, you were right about calling them out on the ''guarantee'', if it were legitimate they would offer a free trial. they will eventually be prosecuted for fraud.

[CPInc]

We tried the service, I would have been better off throwing the $5400.00 out the window. It would have saved me a great deal of time that I spent quoting jobs. The entire time (9 months) on the service, We won three jobs. The last job shipped out for twenty pcs, customer claimed I only sent 17 pcs. Since I had wrapped up the parts in bundles of two, it seemed odd that there was three parts short instead of two. I asked if the packaging was damaged, no was the reply. Needless to say WE never received the payment in full. Expensive lesson learned, they prey on desperation. Total sales for 9 month period $1200.00 I'm sure it may work for some companies, but being a small (2 man shop) We simply couldn't make it work.

[jm82792]

Here is my somewhat unrelated suggestion.
Why not take some of that money, get your website brought up a bit
(not that I am a web designer or so forth, but people are innately drawn to things with more elements and so forth. Maybe buy a wordpress theme and deck it out some?),
maybe pay yourself to work some keywords (search engine optimizing), get more traffic in through various means, and sort of "get a piece of the internet".
I know it's a bit off topic, but for part of what these mfg.com guys want you could get a website designed by somebody (not me! I barely survived my website!), have him help you improve your keyword/text/relevancy wise, and say that you've covered that basis.
To add a shred of creditably to myself, I did a lot of reading about it for myself, and applied it.
So far I'm getting sales (essentially my work primed everything for the holidays and I netted a few K in sales), more traffic, and my site surfaces near the top when you search for things related to what I sell. What I make and sell is totally unrelated to machine shops, but you're selling a service, and you wish to be seen to get more business;
so perhaps placing a concerted effort into having an online presence would help you.

[cncadmin]

You could try out RFQWork.com- Online Quotes from Machine Shops, Fabricators, Molders, Stampers, Casters Forgers and more! I myself have gotten and given jobs out and it's FREE!

[erikamaeB]

Nice thing to shop for! Thanks for the idea.

[mocmachining]

My experience seems to have been better than most of the reviews I have read. I did the MFG.com thing for a year (did not renew it in December though) and it was ok. I got in at $750 quarterly (seems like they ask and get a lot more than what I was paying out of bigger shops) and made it back on a couple jobs I got. The work I did get was from local people who were not interested in work that was shipped to them (from overseas, as that's where most of the part awards go to) and just wanted to pick up finished parts. In the end I made a little bit, but I do think its a COMPLETE waste of ones time if you have ANYTHING to do instead of sitting behind a computer and quote on 100+ jobs and get 2-3 (hopefully you make enough to cover MFG.com's cost on those few you get, if you do get them). If I were to do it again I would just take that money and use it for a down payment (and for the bigger shops that they charge $6K+, that would be a couple of months payments too) on a good machine (cnc or manual, whichever supports your business and the work you specialize in) and let the word get out that you can do good work for a good price. If you are on a tight budget, just go talk to other shops and businesses and let them know you have some available time and space on your machine(s) and that your prices aren't outrageous, and you will get more work than you ever would with MFG.com.

[ranchak]

I have tried rfqwork.com, I can't reply or bid on any of the jobs. I get a message saying that I do not have permission. I can not contact the admin through the site either. Can you please help? Thanks, Ron

[cncadmin]

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