Ok, I don't have time to sit here and laboriously respond to every random accusation you might want to make, so I'll have to just choose some. Part of this is your prerogative: If you want to hold on to a derogatory view of the sales profession, and it's important to you or gives you a false sense of moral superiority you're unwilling to let go of, I can't make you. It's a challenge I don't accept. So, if you're determined to sustain that attitude, great, you can go to lunch on it.
Just to clarify some points:
I haven't implied you must spend more than four hours doing anything. What I in fact wrote was:
"In a single sitting, lasting not longer than four hours, no one person can learn the answers to all there is to know about the purchase".
And that's a stright cut and paste so I'm happy to stand by it.
It's a fact.
However, I can't control your desire to misrepresent what I'm writing, you can do that all you like and we'll be here until the sun goes cold if you continue to do it. It would help if you just took what I wrote literally.
The statement means only what it actaully says: You could not know all there is to know about the purchse not even if you took four hours over it.
That's all it means. There is no firther implication.
It does NOT mean you SHOULD spend more than four hours. I didn't write that and it isn't what I meant. I only meant what I wrote.
Look at it this way:
If you take your car to a mechanic to have a cracked cylinder head replaced, you might spend a few minutes chatting about cylinder heads, head gaskets, piston crash, and all that.
But there are a thousand things that Might go wrong with your car. You can't talk about everything that you Might need done at some time or another, not even with a few hours to spare.
The mechanic cannot possibly confer all of his knowledge to you in four hours. He may then replace the cylinder head.
Now, maybe your partner has this done and you happen to know something about cars.
You might know something about cylinder heads and your knowledge may be way above average so you're able to tell something about the different types, strenths, efficiencies, and also something about how to fit them, logevity and the first thing you say to your partner is "What have you done? I wouldn't have let him fit one of those. It's under guarantee, I'll take it back and have him redo it".
This is why workers like to have both partners there so they know both partners are happy and know what they're doing.
It isn't always enough to hear it from their partner. Their partner isn't a motor mechanic, that's why they asked a professional.
Now, you don't need to spend four hours talking about anything and once again, I never wrote that you should.
When you get the oil changed though, you should know that you must get the rigth type for your engine or it won't even start.
You know that fuel isn't just fuel, they have an octane rating.
You might always buy standard unleaded, the travelling salesman might always put high octane fuel in his car, you aren't all clones who all want the same things.
Most people who buy a car don't even know much about cars even after they've bought it. They don't know much even after they've had their car for five years. All they've done is change the oil and put fuel in.
To say a window is just a frame with glass is as much to say a car is just four wheels and an engine. A football team is just eleven players and a ball.
When you purchase a computer an expert will have all kinds of demands the average user doesn't have. An expert may walk into the home of a novice and see straight away their computer shows they don't know much about computers. They might not even care about what they know. As you seem not to.
But, to repeat myself, a double glazing reinstall, which may become necessary when you have children to make them fire safe, or when you want to reduce energy bills for life, or when you need inusurance compliance because your front door isn't covered by your home contents policy, should take a little time to think about.
I don't really care if you made your decision after five minutes, biut if you did, you've left yourself open to exactly the kinds of information hiding practice you're complaining about.
With regards to "just leave a quote". I'm sorry but that's just ludicrous.
You can't walk into a taylor and say "Give me a quote on a made to measure suit!", he doesn't have a clue what you want.
You don't just walk into a hifi shop and say "How much for an ampolifier". You don't because you know a bit about it and you know there is more to it than that.
The reason people are cought out by unscrupulous sales tactics is that they think things like motor insurance are just third party or comprehensive and that's all there is to it.
It's literally allowing naivity to take over your life.
When it's something you know about, like shoes... do you ever make a decision in thirty minutes?
No.
You spend some time talking about styles, wear, soles, uppers, laces, colour, grip.
You do that for a pair of shoes..... a product with far less ramifications than home improvements.
Most people will spend more than ten minutes choosing a tie.
I don't see the point in labouring it further: If you're making snap decisions about a purchase which affects things such as the security of your home, its energy rating and its fire safety then that's your decision. I don't recommend it, but if you insist fine.
For some people a suit is a simple matter of is it navy or black? Fine. For most people there is a lot more to the decision than that. Especially if, like double glazing, you're having the whole thing made to measure.