I'm reminded of one of the first fire alarm submittals I did. I stopped
by a local architectural and engineering company to get copies of the
blue prints. They handed me a black line blank floor plan and told me I
could use their big drafting table in the main floor. I drew in a fire
alarm, drew a riser diagram, and pulled calculations from my notes.
Then they ran blue print copies for me for a buck a sheet.
As opposed to another architect I worked with once. JUST ONCE. I
called to ask for a copy of their floor plan. They said 3 bucks a
sheet. When I arrived I asked for three blank floor plans and they
proceed to charge me $20 bucks a sheet. I went from zero to furious in
about a tenth of a second. The architect came out and seemed surprised.
He tried to back pedal and say, "Well if we told you three then we'll
do three."
I refused. "If 20 is your price I don't want to owe you anything," as I
threw cash money on the counter, scooped up the prints, and walked out.
A few week later he mailed me a check for the difference. I sent it
back voided out. One of my buddies did a lot of work for that
architect, and had nothing but good things to say about him so who know.
I know whenever I bid a job drawn by that architect I made sure in my
terms it said customer to provide prints to my office by mail or courier
at their expense. I had two generals ask me why that term only appeared
on some of my contracts. I may or may not have included profanity in my
explanation.