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>IMO, yes it is uncool to have multiple numbers on a fixed price bid.
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>On the other hand, I have a few clients who have no problem with this. Basically, in those cases, I estimate from X to Y (they usually differ by about 20%) with a promise of a status report halfway through the X hours.
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>In other words, I think it depends on client. I usually ask the client point-blank, "how do you want to handle this? Here's what I have done before....."

It's probably just semantics but to me, that's not a "fixed price bid". It's time and materials mascarading as fixed price.

Fixed price is bottom dollar, I give you this "thing" and you give me "XXX" dollars. The work is scoped (I hope) so you know what it will take to do the job and you come up with an appropriate price tag. If the job is worth that to the client, they say okay and you go from there.

In a perfectly fair world, the price tag should be half way between the cost to develop it and the value they give it. If there is a discrepancy, as a developer, I would like the discrepancy to be in my favor. In other words, they pay less than they think its worth but more than half the difference. If it goes the other way, you can live with it as long as the cost doesn't exceed the price. If you do that too many times, you don't stay in business.