[theguild]

We are a small shop just starting out and we came across this web site called MFG.com they are asked a starting fee of 1600 to get going. We need to know if anyone out there has tried this and if it was worth the money. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again,
Keith

[doughtybrian]

stay far far away...
Brian
Brian's Machine & Powdercoat

[Dualkit]

Honestly have not heard an honest good thing about them. $1600? They must
have dropped their prices as the bad word spread, most cases I hear are of people wasting $5,000 for a year contract. The few positive postings are obvious plants and untrue as the day is long.

[bobk]

I tried it and it was the worst money that I ever spent. You can do a search on the web and find tons of people that have had a bad experience with these guy's.

[Arty 3000]

i agree with bobk. they call me all the time. i have heard nothing good about any on line service company's. MFG.COM, First index, RFQ.COM, Source Authority. with MFG? you are bidding with people all over the world. India, china etc. so, in order to get work you would have to bid really low. even though you spent the $6,000 to bid. the secrete is going out and talking to potential customers. this is the only way you will be successful. these guy's on these on line service are all salesman. just me 2 cent.

[Derek.C]

I also tried it and was not worth the money spent , better to spend it on a good website and advertising in the yellow pages .

[charger19690]

I used this site when I first started a shop some years ago. They are very bad.

On the one side you are competing with people that have a machine in their garage, stealing material from their work along with tooling and using hacked software.

One the companies that are looking for shops, the target prices I say were unrealistic. There were numerous companies that were looking for machined parts that were less than what I could buy material for, let alone try to machine it.

Not worth the $3000 we put at it. Could have purchased alot of marketing material and sent out mass mailers and probably would have had a better experience.

We did not get one job from the site!!

Say away.

[Med-Pac]

We've been an mfg member for about 5 years now. It has worked out for us. We've recieve about 10-15 new customers a year, and they are all repeat business. Given, we don't win every bid that we submit; it takes patience and fortitude to succeed in the internet bidding world. Just because you pay a monthly or yearly premium for this service doesn't guarantee you jobs. It gives you the opportunity, it's up to you to impress the customer.

On any given day, we have the opportunity to bid on hundreds of jobs. They involve everything from a simple plasma or bending job to a turn-key product. A few reasons this may work for us better than others: 1. we have a small shop (2 full-timers, 6 part-timers), the 2 fulltimers run everything in the shop, from bidding to fabrication. 2. we can turn most jobs in less than 2 weeks. 3. our customer service is bar none 4. we're stubborn norweigans; can't, won't, impossible doesn't exist in our vocab or in our shop. we figure out a way.......always. 4. Maybe we're just lucky.

Hope this helps,
Mike

[Arty 3000]

please be real careful of plants. you know these on line services are putting people up to say great things about their service on this site.

[Med-Pac]

I guess arty is referring to me. I was just trying to provide a second side to topic. I take the hint.....I won't post any more positives in this seemingly one-sided subject. You guys are all right this internet thing will never work.

I bought a lottery ticket last night and didn't win......I wonder if I can get my money back?

Mike

[Arty 3000]

Mike i was NOT referring to you. i have been on this website for a while now and we have seen plants from the on line services. NOT YOU. obviously these on line service are doing OK because they are still in business. the majority of the people that have posted here has nothing good to say about these services. but, on the other hand there are shops like yours Mike who may do well at the on line service. it might work for me too if i give them a shot. i just can't get to that point with all the negative i have heard. Mike, i apologize if you think this was directed to you. i guess my timing was bad. :rainfro:

[Med-Pac]

No prob arty, appreciate you clearing that up. I guess I misunderstood.

I should point out; when combined with walk in/word-of-mouth business, and air ambulance/aviation contracts, the internet sales are a nice addition. In short, we don't put all of our eggs in one basket. If you're pulling jobs from a variety of places; there's less of a chance of running out of work.

Mike

[Arty 3000]

I bought a lottery ticket last night and didn't win......I wonder if I can get my money back?

Mike, i'm going to have to use this phrase sometimes. i like that.