What are your double-glazing sales stories?

[Lilyofthefields]

I have booked a double-glazing salesperson to come tomorrow, mentioned it to a couple of friends and heard some horror stories. One neighbour said not to be alone as she had one who wouldn't leave for four hours.

I didn't take this too seriously at first, thinking it's just a bit of a cliche. However, the company have just confirmed the booking and asked questions such as, "what's your title?" (I don't use one) and "are you the sole owner?". I think they're trying to prevent me closing the appointment with, "I'll have to check with my husband".

Surely they don't still try these techniques, do they??

They definitely will good luck getting rid!

We've had a recent quotation from a local, well-established installer that recently did the neighbours and that all went pleasantly and to the point.

A few years back we had a bigger local/ regional company that had a salesman come round with more bullshit than a pastoral pasture. The quote was astronomical anyway and DH decided to do the essential windows himself. I then had 18m of cold calls from them. Umpteen times I pleasantly asked them to remove us from their database to no avail. The last time, I was more testy (in teacher at end of long day type tones) and said that the work was done 18m ago, we weren't interested and remove us from the database THANK YOU. I got called a fucking bitch and hung up on. But at least they never called back!

I stupidly asked Dunraven Windows to measure a few windows. The woman on the phone asked me "will your husband be there?" . I said I don't have a husband. Two men turned up to measure and left. They couldn't be less interested if they tried.

After not hearing from them I then phoned the company to say I wasn't interested either and to remove my details off their records. Cue, continued phone calls from them. I gave them both barrels about how dare they ask if my husband would be there as I could have been widowed, divorced (which I am) and it's my house and my money to spend any way I see fit. It was only by threatening to contact Trading Standards about abuse of information and continued phone calls they stopped. I found a local window fitter who was an absolute gem.

I had someone visit from a well know company - their final price was half their original quote. I didn’t buy from them, but they phoned constantly for quite a few months following the initial visit.

We had Anglian a number of years ago. They would only come out when my husband was home - and the guy wouldn’t leave! Came out with an astronomical quote, then said he’d have to call his manager to see if there was any room for negotiation. He asked to use our phone (this is going back some time when not many people had mobiles), our landline phone had one number that didn’t work, which was a number recorded a few times in the number he was trying to ring. We didn’t know that at the time of his dialling. So he pretended to have a conversation with his manager and did drop the price (not significantly). We finally got rid of him after at least four hours. DH was NOT happy. We didn’t end up getting new windows anyway. We had years of phone calls, even after we moved (retained the same landline number).

Yes, the husband thing is odd. They keep asking about that. It gets my back up to be honest. It’s my house and I’ve paid for it myself.

Ok, I’ll have to be steely tomorrow.

Replacing a large glazed panel on insurance:

Regional firm - not much in the way of actual measuring and costs, then the (eternally irritating that I answered before realising) "will Mr Buzz be joining us?". Got a quote a while later.

Local firm - arrived, measured up, have me a ballpark and followed up with a written quote which was about half the cost of regional guy.

Wouldn't even go near any of the big names, I don't have that kind of time to waste

I used to work for a grounder glazing company.

One of the directors when making appointments always did the husband home thing. Gave me the rage.

We had a roofing company in for a quote (cold called and day agreed to an appointment the boy tried every trick in the book, calling his boss to see if he could offer me the big discount, blah blah and he wouldn't leave, ended up with his boss having to speak to me to make me see sense.

Left him in no uncertain terms of what he could do with his quote.

I work in DP double glazing company. Check the company you have coming are with GGF there is a code of conduct regarding selling they have to adhere too (it is checked). If possible use smaller FENSA and GGF registered business as you will have a far better experience. You really are not getting a better product going with the bigger companies, your paying fr salesman, marketing and fancy showrooms.

Years ago we had a double glazing salesman round one evening to quote. I had to get DD to a dance class so left DH and salesman to it. Took my time while out; chatted to other mums at the class etc. When I got home he hadn't even started his pitch as he wanted me there too (hadn't realised at the time but obviously to avoid the "I'll have to check with my wife" line). It was ridiculous. We made it clear that they were one of three quotes we would be getting, but he kept going on about signing there and then to qualify for the discount. It was laughable really. More recently, in a different house, we got a local firm in (Diamond Windows - Droitwich) and they were fantastic; no hard sell, very professional and straight forward.

@Tara336 they seem to be with Fensa but no mention of GGF, is that acceptable?

FENSA ensure that it is fitted to a recognised standard, you may get a letter after fitting requesting they check the installation. FENSA don’t get involved in how the products are sold. It’s not compulsory to be a member of GGF. Have a look and see if they are on any of the review sites that will give you a good idea what sort of company they are, also double check on FENSA website they are still registered as it has to be updated annually.

Ask around friends and neighbours for recommendations most of our work is from referrals

I got a firm round to give me a quote for a porch window. The rest of the house had had double glazing installed about 2 years previously.

The salesman spent ages trying to get me say that I regretted going with the company that did the house windows and that I wished I had come to them for that work.

I refused to say that. I was perfectly happy with the house windows. This refusal made the salesman inexplicably cross.

I eventually kicked him out, pointing out that it was not just the quality of the windows - it was also the quality of interaction with the company. And his company had failed miserably on the latter point.

I never even got the quote for the porch window.

I would only use local independent companies rather than the big names. We had two quote fit s window- they both turned up on time, were polite, measured the window and showed me the price in their books (done by size), followed up with one email to confirm the price.

The company we used to fit our door said that quality can be variable with any of the national fitters as they tend to subcontract the fitting rather than use their own fitters. So you might get an amazing fitter or they might be awful.

Polite, professional & tidy - no complaints

@Earslaps a lot of the larger companies sub contract their work but the fitters must still hold an MTC card which is administered by FENSA, however, some (I wouldn’t like to say all) larger companies will pay the fitters per window rather then a daily rate, this means the more Windows they fit per day the more they earn. Smaller independent companies will generally employ direct and pay a daily rate, therefore, there is less inclination to rush the job.

The quality of Windows between larger and independent companies is negligible as they all actually tend to source the products from the same manufacturers.

With doors especially composite the quality difference is noticeable and should be chosen very carefully

I lay it straight with all salespeople.

Don't try to sell me X, I already want them. Keep the patter and tell me about the product.

I'm autistic though and find it difficult to filter through their shite

We had one here for absolutely ages - he measured up and then sat with a pencil and a calculator for about 45 minutes working out the price while we awkwardly tried to get on with things around him. He then gave us a quote that was more than double the other two we'd received so we said thanks but no thanks, at which point he phoned his boss to 'check the address of his next call', had the most ridiculously fake conversation, and lo and behold, offered us a discount if we signed there and then because there was a special offer that ended that day. It was actually quite comical but we did think we might have to set a place for him at the dinner table because he was here so long. The firm we ended up using were in and out in a jiffy, and phoned with a quote later that day.

We had one and before I let him in I told him he had 1 hour, I didn’t want his crazy chat or his bullshit about prices which he’d phone his manager about and keep dropping the price. Just measure and give me a price. He was still here after 55 minutes measuring and dh openly talked about he’s doing well but only has 5 minutes left. It got to 1hr and 5 minutes and it transpired he was petrified of cats. Luckily we have a huge moggy , we let her in the room and she sat next to him staring. Quote by 1hr 10 minutes and he was out the door 5 minutes later! Result.

We didn’t use him for windows as he was quite smarmy and cocky....... till the cat arrived! 🦁🦁🦁

We had one of the big ones call at the door a week or so back. "Your windows look quite new" they said. I said "yes, they are new this summer". They still persisted, did you have the whole house done, are you happy with them, what about doors.

I asked on my local facebook page for recommendations. Invited the 3 most recommended out to quote. No one asked where my husband was all were fair quotes within £200 of each other. I went with the larger company as they could fit quicker but they didnt chase me. The other 2 companies havent chased either as they said they leave it to the customer to make contact (one just called to check I had received the email quote).

Company I chose have a display in their works yard so I could see the windows and finalise fittings etc. They havent asked for a deposit and windows are currently being fitted.

But since I did all the hard work organising it I have come on holiday with DD and left DH to make the teas and move furniture

All very easy if you use local recommended companies.

We had one years ago in our first home when we were very young and naive. After about an hour - where he'd convinced us (2 fairly intelligent people!) that the windows had a 'special coating on' so they would NEVER get dirty 🤣 then offered us a price of £10,000 before supposedly ringing his boss to plead with him to bring the price down (we said we'd got a budget of £5000 and surprisingly they could do it for that) but his parting shot was "I can't leave here until I get a sale. I need to put shoes on my childrens feet and food on the table!" AND WE FELL FOR IT!!! 😂 Think it was Safestyle. They were lovely windows btw but I did end up cleaning them....most weeks..... 😐

I needed some windows in my kitchen replaced. For 3 windows I was quoted between 2.5k and 3k!! Was absolutely hilarious when I had the Everest guy here trying to talk me into spending 2.5k when the local guy I’d spoken to popped by as he was on his way home. He took one look and said he’d do them for £750. Everest guys face was a picture. I actually felt a little bit sorry for him!

"his parting shot was "I can't leave here until I get a sale. I need to put shoes on my childrens feet and food on the table!"

couldn't you send him to the local church?!

years ago my parents had a guy in their house for about 4 hours to quote for double glazing. I thought it was just them being too soft to tell him to sling his hook, but looking at these stories, maybe not...

My SIL booked with a national company and paid the most ridiculous amount of money to replace the windows. She did fall for the whole hang on I'll ring my manager as I really like you and want to get you a good deal. I could see my FIL trying to hide the look of how stupid are you? She truly believed she had saved herself money.

We went with a long standing local company (different area to SIL) who make their own product and have a great reputation. Viewed their showroom which is next to their factory and booked for them to come out and measure up.

Chap arrived, measured windows, asked how many openers we wanted, sat at my dining table, opened his catalogue which had a chart in of widths and lengths, ran his finger across to get the right dimensions and told me the cost for each window.

Madly I had been online and there is a company who quote you for providing a double glazed window, yes you need to provide an email but they email you the cost, no follow up, no sales, nothing. The local company was about £30 more per window but their quote included fitting.

We told them we would like to think about it, he said sure, packed his stuff up, left us his business card and left.

Reader, we went with them. Whole house, 14 windows and 1 french door set. But then we use local companies, we have a booklet delivered every few months called On Your Doorstep where local companies advertise and the local FB group people give opinions on companies.