How to Compare Two Quotations When the Brands Are Different

Normalise both quotes to landed cost per unit — net rate after discount, plus freight, plus GST, plus any minimum-order penalty — before you compare anything else. Then check technical equivalence on breaking capacity, duty rating and terminal capacity, not just current rating. Two breakers with the same ampere number are frequently not substitutes.

Most buyers compare the rate. The rate is the least reliable number on the page.

Step one: normalise to landed cost

Four components, and only the first is usually visible at a glance.

Net rate after discount. Indian switchgear is quoted as a list price with a discount structure, and the headline discount is not always applied to what you think it is. Work out the actual rupees per unit and write that down.

Freight. Ask for it as an amount, not as a term. “Freight extra at actuals” is not a number and it cannot be compared. If a supplier will not quote freight, estimate it and note that you have estimated it.

GST. Usually the same rate on both sides, so it rarely changes a comparison — but check, because a wrongly classified HSN on one quote will change both the tax and your credit position.

Pack size penalty. If one supplier’s better rate requires you to take 200 pieces when you need 140, the sixty spare pieces belong in the comparison. Value them at what you will realistically use, which for a slow-moving variant may be close to zero.

Add the four. That number is what the item costs you. Everything else is negotiation theatre.

Step two: check equivalence on four parameters

Current rating is the parameter everybody checks and the one that proves the least.

Breaking capacity. Icu and Ics, not just Icu. Two MCCBs with the same current rating and different breaking capacities are different devices for different boards, and the cheaper one may be wrong rather than cheap.

Duty rating. For contactors, AC-1 versus AC-3 versus AC-4 changes what the device will actually survive. A contactor quoted on its AC-1 rating against one quoted on AC-3 is not a comparison, it is a category error.

Terminal capacity. Can it accept the cable you are actually using. This one is invisible in a quotation and it is a very common source of site problems — the device is correct, it arrives, and the lug will not fit.

Physical envelope. Width on the rail, depth in the enclosure, mounting centres. Matters enormously in a retrofit and not at all in a new build, which is why it gets forgotten in both.

If the two quotes differ on any of these, you are not comparing prices. You are comparing two different purchases that happen to have similar labels.

Step three: warranty and replacement

Ask three questions and write down the answers.

How long is the warranty, and from what date — invoice, dispatch or commissioning? The gap between invoice and commissioning on a panel project can be months.

Who handles a claim — the dealer, or do you deal with the manufacturer directly? A dealer who handles it himself is worth a premium and most buyers never price that in.

Is it replacement or repair, and who pays the freight both ways? On a low-value item the freight on a warranty return can exceed the item’s value, which is worth knowing before you choose the supplier three states away.

Step four: delivery commitment, not delivery promise

A quote saying “ex-stock” and a quote saying “dispatch on or before the 14th” are not comparable on delivery, even if both suppliers believe they mean the same thing.

Convert both to the same form before comparing. Ask each for a committed dispatch date conditional on the PO being released on a specific day. If one will commit and the other will not, that is a real difference between the two quotes and it belongs in the decision, not in the footnotes.

A worked comparison

Two quotes for the same requirement: 40 units of a 100A MCCB for a distribution board, delivered to a site in Bengaluru.

Quote B looked worse on the headline discount and on the invoice total. It is marginally cheaper per usable unit, has a higher breaking capacity, a committed date and better warranty handling.

But notice what the comparison depends on: whether you will actually use those ten surplus units. If they sit in your godown for two years, Quote A wins and it is not close. That judgment is yours and it is the real decision hiding inside an apparently arithmetic question.

The line item that hides the most money

Freight, and it hides there because it looks small.

A quote four per cent cheaper that arrives freight-to-pay from another state is frequently not cheaper at all, and you find out at the transporter’s counter with the goods already in front of you. Ask for freight as an amount, every time, and put it in the landed-cost line.

The second place money hides is the minimum order quantity. A better net rate on a slab you have no use for is not a better price. It is inventory you have agreed to carry on the seller’s behalf, and the seller knows exactly what he is doing when he prices it that way.

The third, and the one that catches experienced buyers, is payment terms. Thirty days against advance payment on an order of any size is real money at any sensible cost of capital, and it almost never appears in a comparison because it is not a line on the quotation. If one supplier offers terms and the other does not, price it before you decide.

A short template

For each quote, fill in:

Net rate per unit (after discount)     ₹
Units you must buy (pack/MOQ)          
Net goods value                        ₹
Freight (amount, and to-pay or paid)   ₹
Taxable value                          ₹
GST                                    ₹
Invoice total                          ₹
Surplus units, and realistic value     ₹
Effective cost for units needed        ₹
LANDED COST PER USABLE UNIT            ₹

Icu / duty rating                      
Terminal capacity                      
Dispatch commitment (date, not phrase) 
Warranty: duration / who handles / freight
Payment terms

If both columns are filled in honestly, the decision usually makes itself. Where it does not, the thing you are actually weighing is risk — a firm date and a dealer who handles warranties against a lower number — and that is a judgment call, not an arithmetic one.

Related reading: How to write an RFQ that gets comparable quotes back · How to read a switchgear quotation · “Ex-stock” doesn’t mean in stock