Acknowledgment of Receipt of Amendment

An original bid to furnish aircraft tow bars to the Navy contained three stepladder quantities, but an amendment to the solicitation deleted two of the quantities and increased one quantity. The protesting bidder assumed that the price inserted in the original schedule would remain valid if no change was intended in price as a result of the changed quantity. When his bid was rejected as nonresponsive, the bidder objected because the amendment made no provision for bidders who intended to maintain their original bid prices to express such an intention when acknowledging the amendment. The protest was denied because doubt was created as to whether the bidder had bound himself to furnish the additional quantity. The protester also questioned whether the low bidder may be allowed to modify his price to an even lower amount after bid opening, and it was held acceptable for a low responsive bid to be reduced after bid opening.