That's the question you have to ask yourself, should you sacrifice reliability for a "less quality, less expensive" item? Depending on the situation at hand... probably not.  In most cases you have to compare apples to apples, that's why we have put together our ideas and thoughts for you to compare on your decision making, wether its irrigation, landscape lighting or in any buying decision you make.   ( In each scenario we will use Irrigation as an example. )

    We'll give two very good example's of were saving a few dollars and sacrificing quality in the initial price will cost you more than having saved. Lets say you are shopping at grocery store "A", you're picking out your groceries for the week and at store "A" they have your favorite item but its more expensive then the "lesser" priced item next to it, so you purchase the less priced item instead. When you arrive home you begin to eat/use that item at notice that its not at all the same as the quality item, so you toss it aside, don't use or throw it away... either way you have already lost money. Ok lets take another example, same situation

but a bit different version, you're at store "A" shopping and they have the item you want for $5.00, you just remembered store "B" has it for $4.00, so you head across town and purchase that item for $4.00, you just saved yourself $1.00 right? Wrong... you just lost $2.00 on gas to save a dollar!  OK, given the situation we know that may be a bit extreme but you get the point.

    In most cases everyone is looking for the best product and/or service at a very low cost, it's just a known fact! Just how much of a "low" cost is the question at hand. Keep in mind, 99.9% of the time the lower the cost usually means less quality! A general rule that we use for comparison is the 5% rule, what is the "5%" rule you ask?  Let take an irrigation system for example (... as we will throughout all of our examples), lets say you are pondering on having an irrigation system installed for your home/business and you get 3 to 5 estimate's/ quote's (...as we "highly" recommend, view our "About estimates" page) and you will notice the differences in prices. Now days most irrigation contractors will not include a list all the product information, a map of the layout design and other vital information as we do with all our estimates ( in which makes it hard to compare so as we say " buyer beware" and to avoid those type of estimates).

    

     Ok, lets get back on track here and say that its a perfect world and you have 3 estimates that do include those items, now the 5% rule come into play. Lets take for example company "A" estimates a system for $2,750.00, company "B" comes in at $2,625.00 and company "C" estimates it at $2,000.00. Company "A" and "B" fall into that 5% margin difference as company "C" comes in much cheaper than "A" or "B", around 24 to 27 percent lower. How can this be, its the same system for so much less? Not at all... "its cheaper for a reason"!  Now its time for you to decide why company "C" is much lower than either "A" or "B", as we had mentioned in an earlier statement "in a perfect world" you would have all the information such as layout/design, product information, warranty's and any very important that you may need to compare each estimate and if you don't have all of that..."buyer beware"!  

    In any major buying decision if you're not familiar with the type of situation (ex: irrigation, landscape lighting buying a specific car and so on...) we highly advise you to "ask " questions!  If you're situation is getting an irrigation system, some simple questions to ask are: how may zones/station are involved, how many heads and what type, what type of warranty do they have, does the system include plumbing ( if needed ), are they bonded, licensed and insured? These are just the basic questions that you should ask, in most cases you may have more questions that may need to  be answered... "as you should, ask as much as you can"!  Check out our "tricks of the trade" segment as that may help you as well with asking questions.

   The 5% margin plays a factor in "bigger" dollar amounts, typically as we tend to use $2,000.00 and above as a rule of thumb. If an item/service is say $20.00 then a $1 savings isn't a big issue unless you are buying mass quantities or "bulk" of that item/service. All in general, if its an item that you have to use on constant basis wether its irrigation, a service or anything that you have to rely on... "Quality" is actually less expensive the "less costly" item/situation!

      Let us first start out by saying when it comes to getting estimates we highly recommend getting at least 3 estimates, preferably 5 if you can. Yes that's right, even thou we are a very select few that do... "we recommend that to all our customers". The main reason we mention getting 3 to 5 estimates is that you can compare not only prices but warranties, product, layout and design and other situations that play at hand in any project wether its irrigation, landscape, lighting, remodeling and so on.

     Lets focus on irrigation estimates for a moment, ok lets say you have 3 estimates at hand and you have viewed each one thorough. The estimate that you received from us (Dakotah Services) comes in at $2,650.00, the estimate from company "B" is around $1,900.00 and company "C" is right around the $2,450.00 range. What's your attention focus on... the $1,900.00 right? Of course, its just human nature the we tend to focus on the "cheaper" price. Here's where the comparing each estimate comes into play, the estimate you received from us has a full portfolio containing maps, product layout, volume & pressure reading's, plumbing & inspections, zones/stations ( lets say our est. has 7 zones) warranties and full detail of what's in involved. Company "C" that came in at $2,450.00 has some product literature, number of zones/station ( say 6 zones) but no map or layout design for you to view and no detail of what's involved. Then you look at company "B's"' estimate, no map, no product detail or what's involved, it's only 1 sheet of paper and the $1900.00 is written in pencil not to mention at the bottom of the estimate they have written its policy stating it's quote and warranty in such small fine print that its so hard to read unless you have access to a microscope. Ok by now you're thinking "big red flag" on company "B" right? That's what we would think as well, but we see so many people fallen victim to this type of scenario time and time again.  In fact, we will give you a true story about a situation just like we mentioned in "Tricks of the Trade" that happened in July of 2006 to a couple that later on became good customers of ours. 

   

    When comes to irrigation, landscape, remodeling or any situation that has to be installed/built, a "good" estimate that includes  more information is your best defence. Lets face it, when it comes to irrigation  you need to know what you are getting, its not like say "picking out a hot tub" where you can see and feel the product in person, so the more information and questions you ask the better off you will be!   

      Its a proven fact, in any industry there are "trick's of the trade", wether its irrigation, landscaping, cars, electronics and so on. As long as there is product to be sold, services to sell and money to to made they will always come up with new and better ways to get your hard earned dollar, its just sad that some have to resort in "cheating" or "scams" to do so. In the irrigation business ( as we tend to use this type industry through out the entire segment ) there are a few "individuals" that like to use certain tactics as well, they promise the moon at a very low price but what you get in the end in a lemon that's just painted white ( in a matter of speaking that is). 

    One of the most common tricks of the trade in the irrigation business tends to be a company will be much lower than the competition, were not talking just a by a few dollars such as $25 -$100.00 to where a minor difference as 1 extra product or a different brand of material could easily account for that. If you had three estimates and two were right around the same ballpark and one was $400.00 or more less expensive than the other two..."there's a reason for that, and 99% of the time its not a good one based upon your behalf". One reason the could be much lower is do to they are "skimping" out on product, meaning they are not giving you the right coverage for your lawn so when the hot summer arrives your lawn will have many dry brown spots throughout. Another very good reason is that they under estimate, lets say you accept their bid for $1950.00 and when the job is complete they send you a bill for $2,495.00, so by now your a little upset do to the price increase ( to put it nicely) and the best answer you will get from them would be somewhere in the lines of they had to add extra material or that they did not include an item (or two) in the original estimate and since its only a quote/estimate things can change during installation, in fact there could be many reasons they can give you but either way you look at it they "misled" you. One other good trick of the trade is that they use poor quality parts, so possibly in a few weeks, months or a year things start fallen apart or breaking down. There warranty does not cover that item,  the warranty ran out or they come to warranty the $15.00 part but send you a bill for $85.00 for the labor involved.  The list of tricks or "scams" as we tend to call them go on and on but we think you can get a very good idea of how some of the most popular ones work.  

    Back in June of 2006 we gave a couple an estimate for an underground irrigation system, the estimate included a parts list, maps, plumbing, 7 zones/stations, 47 sprinkler heads ( misters, rotors and such) and a estimated price of around $2689.00. We informed the couple that we do what very few companies do... we "over estimate". We informed them that we do that in case we happen to change the layout or come across something that was not quite expected during construction/installation that they will be covered, in most cases the final invoice will be a bit less than estimated and if the amount is more than estimated due to our change in design that we will "eat" the cost and honor the original estimate. The couple seemed to be very pleased, thanked us for the estimate and mentioned they were waiting on a few more estimates before there decision as we had mentioned that was a very wise choice.

   Later that summer around the end of September we received a call from that same couple and wanted to know if we did repairs, we told them that yes we do and we would be more than happy to help them out. Later the next day we arrived at there home to meet with the couple so they could point out the problems there were having. They had pointed out that there were two leaks, a few heads that were not working and that they thought maybe they were not getting the right coverage since the center of the back lawn seemed to be brown/dry. We mentioned to them since its still a new system that maybe they should call the company  that installed the system and it still should be covered by warranty. They informed us that they have had tried calling them several times to check the system out, a gentleman came out a week later after calling them the first time and said he would send out a repairman the next day to replace the head that was not working, the couple mentioned to him that there were a few heads not working, a couple of leaks/wet spots and could be possibly lacking a head or two in the back yard. The gentleman told them that he went trough the system and seen nothing wrong other than the one head that was not working. A week goes by and no one had came out to repair the so called "only" one problem.. the non rotating head. So after a few weeks have gone by and not a word from that company they had called us.

  After going through the entire system, we found 4 non rotating heads, two leaks ( due to no clamps on the fittings ), the system only had 4 zones and 36 heads ( remember we estimated 7 zones/station and 47 heads ). The back yard was lacking coverage "bad" due to they had too many large heads on a zone ( cutting down the distance of spray) and needed to add at least two more heads to that zone for the center coverage, in fact it should of been 3 zones instead of 1. Oh yes... we had found one more problem, on the West side of there property the company had installed heads & pipe/material on the neighbors property ( about 2 ft if I remember). To make a short story out of this, after repairing & reworking the system to where it was a decent system ( in fact we should of started over it was that bad ) the couple had spent an extra $1100.00. They had told us they went with the "other company" since they were $450.00 cheaper than our estimate and had figured that it was the same system/set up as we had presented. So in essence they had spent $650.00 more than our estimate that we proposed and had a lot lesser quality system than what we would have installed. Today they have became very good customers of ours as we are lucky to have them as our friends as well.

  So know you know why we always stress "buyer beware", saving a few dollars in the initial tends to be more costly  then quality, as they say " you get what you pay for"!

     Warranties come in all types of forums, so you have to valuate each one when your comparing your estimates/ quotes as well. A good question to ask yourself is " how good of a warranty do I need"? Are you the type of person to where a warranty has little or no value to you or is a warranty a major concern when it come's to making a decision even to the extent to where you would purchase an extend warranty if offered? There are many types of warranties offered in each industry, in the irrigation business the standard seems to be one year ( parts and labor ) as we offer a 3 year parts and labor warranty for our customers with irrigation.

  When comparing warranties make sure to read the entire segment, look out for any "fine print" in which a few companies seem to incorporate or otherwise "hide" into there version. Does the warranty give a list of what the warranty all covers such as heads, controller(s), labor etc.? Does the warranty list any items that it does not cover and/or is the warranty transferable to the next owner in case you sell your home within the warranty period? Does the warranty cover parts and labor throughout the warranty period or does the labor end at a certain time say "1 year" to where parts are covered for two? These are just a few situations where you have to decide what works for you and what protects you. One good example of a warranty "misleading" you would be: say company "B" states they have a 5 year warranty, they may even include in bold type "5 year warranty, including parts and labor" at the top but in fine print at the bottom, the 5 year warranty only covers a certain head/product for that item for 5 years and labor is 1 year. We like to use that example due to the fact that the situation is true as a well known company uses that type of "misleading" warranty to their advantage.

  When it comes to warranties there can be many misleading situation's or "scams" as we tend to call them. One "scam" still used widely today is a "lifetime warranty", people always tend to fall prey to this type of situation, we can state our reputation that a "lifetime" warranty always has a fine print! A lifetime warranty is one of the biggest scams out there, a "lifetime" to you and us means our lifetime right? Wrong... in fact it usually means the lifetime expectancy of that item, it could be 6 months, a year or what ever that product may have a "shelf life" of. We encountered that type of situation about 5 years ago, a good friend of ours owns Combined Pool & Spa here is Sioux Falls ( check out there website by clicking the link, there a great company that has very good quality product and staff... and no, they did not pay us for the "plug", we just have total respect for them). A competitor of theirs were promoting that they had a better warranty on their spa than Combined Pool & Spa, Combined only had a 7yr warranty to which they had a "lifetime" warranty. Well it turn's out that the "competitors" spa had a "fine print" at the bottom in which the life expectancy was only 5 years, not to mention the warranty only covered "half" of what Combines 7yr warranty was offering.

  So you see, warranties come in all shapes and sizes, hidden aspects and misleading quotations. When it comes down to a "great" warranty, the warranty is only as good as the product and the company that's willing to back it up! An honest approach is the best approach we say, we value your trust more than your hard earned dollar.