Here’s a recent request I found interesting:
This gentleman needs a problem fixed on his WordPress site. His budget is $50. Some Pros might think “Why would I bid on a request with such as small budget?”. True, the budget for this request is set at $50 but there may be opportunities for ongoing support and/or cross-selling opportunities with this customer.
Here’s a good article that can help you put my point in perspective:
Happy Bidding! 
I responded to his request prior to you posting this. Yes, they may not accurately represent their budgets or needs, but it’s our job as professionals to lead that conversation… including when they place a limit on the amount of the job when the developer doesn’t know what they are dealing with. The time it takes is just the time it takes and who knows what we’ll find when we go into the back end of a site , the MySQL database, or the html files. His budget simply isn’t realistic given the time it would take for even a straightforward case. However, they are never that straightforward. IU’ve worked theme support and development for a long while. I’ve already booked business from quotations on this site, and the clients are amazed at what they didn’t know until we went through a brief discovery.
The requests are very vague and missing information we need as developers to even provide proper quotations such as website URL (local development cannot be supported since it’s on their local machine), web host and plan, if there are error(s) the exact error(s), and then some. Screenshots don’t help. We can’t inspect the code.
It’s part of our job to know when someone’s budget isn’t reasonable. That’s one aspect of the value we bring to the table. We have to set reasonable expectations and not just discount the value of services because someone’s budget isn’t reasonable. People are into the DIY mode of website development, download free WordPress, use a free theme or buy a commercial one for not too much, subscrbie to cheap dotcom hosting that horrendous and places a premium on quantity of accounts they can drop into a server vs quality of the product(s) and customer service they offer. It’s already been set up to for low expectations in terms of what a developer is even worth. Hereto, we have to be realistic with what we can do given the constraints, and know when to push back.
Hey @elesliemeehan!
Thanks for your thoughts! As a Pro, you can help us decide what Pro features we implement next. Please share your thoughts or vote for ones already posted here! We’d love to hear everyone’s feedback!
Hi @elesliemeehan! Welcome to the community!
You make some really great points in your post. As a developer myself, I understand the challenges of having the necessary information to provide accurate estimates. We have a number WordPress Pros that have been able to succeed with the information we collect today. I believe the key is to let your customer know that the estimate you are providing may change once you connect and get more information.
It comes down to cost/benefit when we require information on the WordPress Request form. The more information we require, the lower our conversion rate is, the higher our cost per acquisition (CPA) is, and the more we have to charge our Pros to compensate. With that being said, I believe we may be able to add a question or two to the request form without greatly affecting our conversion rate.
As @Erica pointed out, we do have an official Feedback Forum but if you were to add just 1 or 2 multiple choice questions the form, what would you like to see? I cannot guarantee we will add them, but I promise I will consider your ideas. 
Hi Matthew, thank you to you and Erica for such thoughtful responses.
If I could add a couple multiple choice questions to the form here’s my thoughts on it:
Is there a website URL? Yes No --> Please provide in Quote details
(This would be extremely helpful for us)
Are you using the most current version of WordPress, Plugins, and your theme? Yes No–> Please provide any many details as you can in Quote details
That’s it.
I completely understand the barrier that is created by asking for too much information. Users simply won’t take the time initially to provide such information. Hopefully, a couple yes/no questions which may cue them to included info in the Quote details would really help.
What do you think?
I also posted in the Feedback Forum some info, if that is of help, too.
@elesliemeehan, thanks for your feedback.
Perhaps other WordPress Pros have some different thoughts on this, but I’m wondering if our average requestor will know what plugins they are using and/or if they are running the latest version of WordPress. I’ll split out your original idea into two, so others can vote/comment on it:
We won’t be able to ask for the URL in the request. Not only will that break our business model (no contact until a requester chooses to connect) but when a requestor fills out the request form, that information is sent to hundreds (eventually thousands) of WordPress Pros. If just a small percentage contact the requestor via their website, the requestor would get dozens or more Pros trying to make contact all at once. Our requesters trust us to only share their contact information with Pros they choose to connect with. Hope that makes sense.
Thanks,