Double Glazing Salesmen!

[Kendodd]

I want three windows replacing. I already have one quote and wanted one more.

The first company came measured the windows, I told them what I want (how many opening etc) and they went away and sent me a quote in the post.

Second company, knocked on the door and as it happened I did need some windows replacing so when they offered to send a salesman round I agreed. They later phoned to make an appointment. During the phone call they asked a couple of times if DH would be there, I told them no and that I wouldn't be signing any contracts that day, I just wanted them to measure the windows and give me a quote that I would then compare with the other quote and discuss with DH.

Salesman came round at the agreed time (well ten minutes late- but no problem). After the usual pleasantries he asked if DH was there as well, as he would really like to see both of us. I said no and asked if he could just measure the windows and give me a quote and started showing him which ones. Salesman said no and that it is against company policy to measure windows and leave a quote (really he said this!) and that he would have to come back when DH is in so that he could show us both the windows. Explained that I just want a written quote so that we can compare and decide in our own time. Again told it is against company policy. I said that we already have one quote and told him who it was from. I was then told that "window companies are going under up and down the country" and the he happened to know that company one is "in trouble" he then began rubbishing their product.

It this point, as I wouldn't make a new appointment including DH and the salesman wouldn't measure the windows (against company policy) salesman left.

So, AIBU to just want the windows measured and a quote sent (as I stated on the phone) or should I have made another appointment including DH?

Regardless of MN opinion I won't be using company two and wanted to have a rant about it.

[Onesleeptillwembley]

Don't give dodgy safe style your number! They pass it on to other companies, including, but not limited to; Virgo, who will then also pester you.

[horsetowater]

My house was built when building construction was at its peak. The windows are beautiful, crafted to perfection out of finer wood than you would ever find now. They want us to rip them out and skip them out because they say plastic is better. And pay them 30k for the privilege. He only went on to discuss secondary glazing when we baulked at the price and ugliness of the plastic.

[horsetowater]

Oh, and then he printed out a statement - which included one casement and 7 secondaries, but without itemising each window.

Gah. No joiner would do that. I think I remember hearing £3k for one pvc casement at one point. DH can do it himself with a cheapo from B&Q and a mate from work. Done it before. For 1/10th of the price. It's like getting someone into your house to sit in your kitchen and laugh at you for 2 hours.

[horsetowater]

I think we will get a joiner to refurbish them, get secondary DIY magnetic glazing and a new wood window for the one that's really shot at the back of the house.

[yoshipoppet]

OP we used AGS when we had ours done. They weren't the cheapest but they did a very good job, and hardly made any mess at all. We didn't get a hard sell and the measuring up/quote man was professional and polite (and he spoke to both of us).

[BMW6]

I can totally recommend Riverside Windows in Southampton (Radcliffe Rd) - FENSA registered, manufactured on their premises. Excellent quality and workmanship. Just had new back door and large window installed, total cost £800.

[Hoppinggreen]

I know there are horror stories and some of these salesmen are total arses. It does annoy me because I've worked in sales for years and this kind of people give sales a bad name, although I've never worked in a self employed commission only role.
What you need to remember is that a lot of these guys can't get a " proper" job and are on commission only. It will have cost them money in terms of time and petrol to get to your house, if they have to come back another time it will cost them more money. If they leave a quote they will often get ripped a new arsehole by their manager and then if you end up accepting the quote they won't be allowed the commission because you didn't sign up on the night.
It's not a great way to do business or offer customer service but unfortunately most home improvement companies are set up this way so it hardly encourages their sales people to behave in a decent manner.

[2madboys]

My DH foolishly arranged for Anglian to come and quote for fascias one Friday evening as the salesman at the door told him it would only take half an hour . I got him to call them to check as I didn't believe it would take that long and it was our first evening both at home that week and I didn't really want to spend it with the Anglian salesman. He called the guy who then put him through to his area manager as it became clear that we were going to cancel the appointment. It was a very proud moment when the area manager actually hung up on DH when he pointed out that their salesman was lying to get appointments . All our windows and doors have been done by a local firm who we've also recommended to numerous family and friends. The MD himself came round and sealed our leaky conservatory which wasn't even fitted by them!

[horsetowater]

It's good to hear these positive stories.

Hoppingreen - Although I sympathise for those who are in a bad job with a bad employer, they don't have to use the lowest tactics of the low themselves, to do business.

We had one sales woman (Anglian) who was great, she knew and accepted what I wanted, didn't make up stories, didn't badmouth the other companies, skimmed over the 'real' prices and gave us 'discounted' prices immediately because she knew she would come out as a complete con artist if she made those claims.

She didn't spend hours wasting my time in some kind of theatrical performance of building up to the big moment and turning the audience into grateful subservience. It was a fairly straightforward negotiation.

[Hoppinggreen]

Perhaps she wasn't in the position of not being able to pay her rent if she walked out without a signature?
As a sales person myself I know these pressure tactics are unprofessional and don't work but I've been lucky not to have to do that kind of job myself.
I'm not excusing bad behaviour - as I said it gives us all a bad name, but I'm explaining why it happens. You can practically smell the desperation coming off some of these people!!!

[thriftymrs]

I really advise against using Anglian Windows. I fell for their heavy sales pitch and had UPVC windows fitted but bitterly regretted it. The windows looked awful and were really awkward to lock. My mum then went against my advice and had them do her bungalow. Within weeks one of the handles broke off and one window would never close properly. The windows they fitted in the conservatory were too heavy for the building, they sagged and then most would never open and others, once opened, wouldn't close tight shut. Eventually they agreed to come out and fix the problem but not without months of wrangling. I recommend trying to find a reputable local firm. After having UPVC I would never choose it again. In our new house, we are putting up with lovely but draughty original windows and saving for new wooden sashes.

[horsetowater]

The more I learn about buildings the more I want to keep our windows. They really are beautifully made and crafted, over 100 years old and really solid. No bits of plastic will ever make up for them.

To lose them and have someone put in a bodged plastic effort would be horrible.

[Plumpcious]

For anyone considering buying double glazing I HIGHLY recommend reading the advice on this website:

www.thewindowman.co.uk/sales-person.htm

He describes the tactics used by the salesmen, eg overpricing the initial quote then offering fake discounts such as phoning their manager to ask if they can give you a better deal.

Fortunately I had read his advice before we invited any salesmen round and in fact one of them did the phoning-his-manager routine. I just sat watching him and thinking "I know exactly what you're doing and there's no way you're going to get our custom".

And the initial prices offered by the big companies are VASTLY overpriced, literally by thousands of pounds. In our case the prices started at £12+k and gradually came down to about £7k. A local firm's initial quote for the same work was £5k.

[MrsDandBaby]

We had the hard sell from a national company and very quick friendly service from two local companies. Round here av cost for our double glazed windows was around £300 each

[DisgraceToTheYChromosome]

Waveney Windows are good; they did the DPs conservatory.

ALL national home improvement companies are shit. The revenue stream is built around the lies the sales force are expected to tell, the product is no better than DIY and frequently far worse, the fitters are EXPECTED to bodge and if it goes wrong you're going to have to sue.

Our personal best was Kitchens Direct: we sat there with the Web open noting down his lies, (43 in an hour) and when he dropped from from 8k to 5.5k DW asked him why the product had dropped in value in 2 minutes. He became abusive, so I got a kitchen utensil and used the line from Hellboy: "You should be running".

IKEA did the whole thing for £2.500, appliance and all.

[nagromac]

Thewindowman.co.uk

I am sorry to break this to you but that site is the biggest pile of rubbish I have ever read.
Firstly they waffle on about ensuring that the company is registered with Fensa.
The truth is that Every firm has to be registered to trade. No exception. See the Fensa website.

Secondly, thewindowman.co.uk is run by a firm in Norwich called Quotatis. They get money from small local traders for passing quotes to them. So it is in their interests to slab off big companies.

I would also like to ask you a couple of questions.
Can you name a bad market leader?

Anglian are the market leader in double glazing for a reason. They make and install their own products and they are the only BIG company rant does!

Another question.
Would you seriously risk the biggest home improvement spend you are likely to make on a local company that may not be trading in a couple of years? Your guarantee isn't worth much if the local firm goes out of business is it?

I would seriously consider what you want from the company and what reassurances a big company can guarantee over the smaller ones. No disrespect to them but if I am going to spend 10k on my windows I want the best.
I don't care that the guy is on commission. I don't care that the price is halved on the day of the quote, that is all smoke and mirrors. I care that the product is good and that the guarantee is honoured of I need it.
I care that the company has developed the best product and that I have it. You really do get what you pay for, in my humble opinion.

[nagromac]

Auto correct interfered there, sorry

[whatsthatcomingoverthehill]

nagromac, read the thread for people's experience of using Anglian. They are not alone.

[Scrounger]

We had similar only it was a national bathroom company. Appointment made and we had several calls to check that we would both be in. Went through the whole palaver but we didn't want to sign up on the night as we wanted other quotes. Price quoted was only for that night.

Salesman was also lacking in the tact area, rubbished a couple of ideas i.e. having two radiators as 'the walls are so thick' the room will be warm anyway, saying that no other firm could do what we wanted (just a shower similar to those in like a wet room) and that we were stupid not to accept the deal on the day as it was the best we would get. He printed off the quote and was very disconcerted when DH actually read it in detail (DH is a solicitor which is really handy at times) and then started to amend it as he didn't like the cancellation terms. Quite funny in the end. However I will never use a firm that has these sales techniques again, if the produce and service are good a firm doesn't need to do it.

[rumbleinthrjungle]

Urgh, try being a single woman getting a quote? I chucked out one salesman who was determined I had to have a partner somewhere that I just wasn't telling him about and wouldn't accept I could make a decision legally all by myself.

THEN there was the Anglian guy who kept on doing the 'ringing the office' bit and saying loudly to his phone "yes I've explained all the benefits and there's a limit on the time and how much it would help them but they're not listening" - he eventually gave up on that since I couldn't stop laughing, and when he came back he gave me a look and said, "yes, you're the one who doesn't like mucking about." I bet that isn't what he called it in the office.

Anglian did a good job on the windows in the end but I'd never use them again, partly because I had (no exaggeration) over 20 repeats of the exact same follow up call on customer satisfaction, despite promises every time of taking us off the computer list to call. And they won't stop banging on the front door asking when they're going to get to do the facia boards, despite being assured every 2 weeks the answer is No, Never.

On the last visit I had a bad back and getting up was agony, the guy could see me clearly through the window and I shook my head, indicated no and then ignored him when he knocked. And when he knocked again. And when he knocked again. (Answering the door IS optional?) Finally he banged on the window while looking at me, and the dog went berserk, and I got up and opened the door and said "For pete's sake you could SEE I didn't want to answer the door?". His reply was a highly bolshy "Well I'm not a mind reader!"

[WildThong]

We bought a doer upper in the early 90s. It was needing everything done as some poor old soul had live there for donkey years. Anyway the CR Smith salesmen took one look at the interior of the house and one look at us ( dressed like hobos cos we had been stripping walls all day) and actually told us "you won't be able to afford our doors, they're very upmarket". Arsehole was promptly shown the way out via our very lower class door and we took our cash to a local firm instead.

[HauntedNoddyCar]

You should be going for insurance backed guarantees anyway nagro so that's a specious argument. The Anglian stuff isn't great quality ime. We're about to rip it out of the house we've moved into because it is shoddily made and shoddily fitted. We'll give less money to our local guy to do a better job.

[Pendeen]

"General builders and carpenters can often do a good deal on windows and do a really good job fitting them"

But, unless they are members of a registered scheme such as FENSA you will need to apply for building regulation approval from your local council unless you are just repairing or upgrading existing windows.

[NoOneLlikesafatpopStar]

www.windowadvicecentre.co.uk/#

I would recommend using these people.