Got home from work hoping for a nice quiet evening but that was before…………the double glazing sales man turned up!
Sarah had been approached by a man at the door on Monday to ask if we were interested. he seemed to be from a reputable company Safestyle UK and gave us a leaflet offering buy one get one free on windows so it seemed like it was worth getting a quote. So they arranged for someone to come round tonight – said it would take about 45 minutes. So this man arrived at 7:30 and Lissi was under instructions to start dinner about 10 minutes later so it’d be ready when he’d gone.
He took us through the sales spiel and showed us some examples of windows – he was offering 3 types – a really expensive one which was obviously out of our league, one which was fitted with A type glass and another more basic model with c type glass. So he explained all the advantages and disadvanatges of each type and then went to measure up the windows. Basically we want the whole house doing except for the 2 doors we had put in just after we moved so that was 16 windows and a door.
So he gets out his calculator and adds it all up, carefully explaining how we would need to pay for a scaffold tower to do the one in the attic (although I thought that £600 was a bit steep given they probably own them and if not you could hire one from HSS for a fraction of that cost – but I digress). At this point he announced that the cost of the A rated windows would be around £13,000. My first instinct was that was a bit much but I went with it. I was starting to see an obvious sales patter starting but thought the way he was operating went out of fashion years ago. I then asked him how much the c rated windows would cost and he calculated and declared £11,000 – my first thought was if that includes the buy one get one free offer that would make them almost twice as expensive as the A rated ones but I let that go for now.
Then the sales patter really got going, when we didn’t agree he offered to go and sit in his car for 15 minutes while we talked about it. We said that we’d need longer than that so he then reduced the cost of the A rated windows down to the cost of the c rated ones so they were now £11,000. When we didn’t sign then he offered to do it on a deferred payment scheme which was possible because of the finance company paying commission which he would give to us as cashback equivalent to 10 months payments which at this point was £230 so effectively knocking the price down to £8,700. When we said we wanted to get alternative quotes he said he’d shown us the Which report (which was from 2009) which proved they were competitive so we didn’t need to bother (even though he’d said if we got a lower quote they’d match it!).
So then he says that if we’re not going to sign then he just has to phone it in to his office to register the quote. Mysteriously at this point he is told that if we have the work done on a fixed day (which just happens to fall exactly when we said we’d want them done) he be able to reduce the cost further to around £9,000 with the deferred payment/cashback offer now at £1,800 so that would mean that it would now cost £7,200. Now that was more like I wanted to pay but by this point alarm bells are ringing so loudly I can barely hear what he is saying anymore! I look up stuff on Google and start to think that although it sounds like quite a good price I’d still like to get other quotes. I also ask him what period do we have to cancel if we sign up today and this is where he looses the sale! He simply replies “why would you want to cancel”. At this point he also starts getting quite nasty – obviously he’s annoyed that we haven’t begged him to start doing the paperwork right there and then and his tone changes.
I think to myself sod it I want him out of here so I ask him to leave, which he does and I slam the door behind him – twat! At least I didn’t have to do what a colleague told me he had to do which was threaten to phone the police after the sales man had been there for 3 hours! He had, though, been there for 2 and our dinner was only fit for the cats at this point.
Which reminds me! While we were talking to him in the early stages Jubbly decided to come and sit on my knee. He then does what he usually does and starts licking my face! I have to keep him subdued so I can hear what the salesman is saying. Then the idiot asks us, as we are discussing, the back door, do we have any cats! Yes we do I say peering over the feline that is sitting on my knee!
Stupid thing is – if this company has the product it says it has why do they have to employ such awful and obvious sales techniques? If the guy had come in and been honest and said you want 16 windows and a door, that’ll be £7,000 in the A rated or X amount in the C rated, here’s a brochure and my card – take a bit of time and talk it over, I’ll call you in a week or so. Then they probably would be getting an order in the near future. Why sell as though you’re about to con some old granny out of here life savings – it’s hardly professional. I do wonder if there are any mugs out there who sign up before he calls the office!
deadheaduk 