A well known mountain double glazing firm .

[postman]

Well we have to start somewhere .We would like a new bay window .This one is rubbish .I was cleaning it last week when the phone rings .I am waiting for a call about a bike ,so i picks it up .Said glazing company .So i agrees to see their rep on thursday afternoon .Tell them straight ,i just want it measured and a quote .

Nice young man does that .Then informs me he has to go and will come back at 7-30 with quote and a window panel to look at .He does come back .Then the patter begins .I won't bore you with that detail .Just please tell me how much .£6,368.Yeah right .Ok any type of discount .Well if we take on 96 months of payments at the end of term we get the window price for £4.300. Sorry too much .We can do another window if you sign inside five days .£4,100 .The complete job bay window and little bedroom window .Sorry still too much .And thank you for calling .
As i show him down the drive .£3,500 both windows but i must sign tonight .Goodnight youngman .We will get more quotes .
So from £6,368 to £3,500 in one hour and a half .What is a real price ? Where do they come from .And boy do they ask questions with their patter .All trying to work out how much disposable income you have .

 

[Angelfishsolo]

I used to live on the 7th floor of a block of flats. We had a call from a DG firm. We agreed to a visit saying we would like a conservetory built. Amazingly he turned up and seemed rather cross that we didn't have another property

Well we have to start somewhere .We would like a new bay window .This one is rubbish .I was cleaning it last week when the phone rings .I am waiting for a call about a bike ,so i picks it up .Said glazing company .So i agrees to see their rep on thursday afternoon .Tell them straight ,i just want it measured and a quote .

Nice young man does that .Then informs me he has to go and will come back at 7-30 with quote and a window panel to look at .He does come back .Then the patter begins .I won't bore you with that detail .Just please tell me how much .£6,368.Yeah right .Ok any type of discount .Well if we take on 96 months of payments at the end of term we get the window price for £4.300. Sorry too much .We can do another window if you sign inside five days .£4,100 .The complete job bay window and little bedroom window .Sorry still too much .And thank you for calling .
As i show him down the drive .£3,500 both windows but i must sign tonight .Goodnight youngman .We will get more quotes .
So from £6,368 to £3,500 in one hour and a half .What is a real price ? Where do they come from .And boy do they ask questions with their patter .All trying to work out how much disposable income you have .

 

[TVC]

I had a guy from that place round a couple of years ago. Fortunately I'd already been through the routine with a clown from Staybrite a couple of days before. So he rings the doorbell, I step out of the house to meet him on the doorstep. We exchange pleasantries and I tell him I want a quote for all the windows, best price, in writing with his Terms and conditions attached so I could consider it. "Er.. no sir that's not how we do it". I explain again. "I can't do that for you sir". So I explained that if he couldn't give me a written quotation then I couldn't do business with him. He left without even getting in the house.

These people have no morals and will use every trick and hard selling technique to get you to sign. The local window company gave a full quotation with schedule of works and no pressure, their rep told me that basically they land plenty of work just by being honest decent people after customers have been through the rubbish with the nationals.

 

[Broadside]

We had a quote from them for a conservatory £35k, discounted to £24k within 15 mins. We went with a local firm in the end £11k job done. The pricing from the big guys seems to come from a random number generator. They lack integrity and are out to rip people off, I would tell anyone to avoid them and go with a local company instead.

 

[vernon]

Postman,

Rainbow Windows do a decent job at decent prices. They're a local company and deliver a no nonsense service.

 

[fossyant]

Use a local company. We had 3 quotes for new windows - one big company who sat with us over an hour, and two local companies.

The local ones came round, measured, asked what we wanted (K glass was standard BTW - not what the 'big' company said) and just dropped the quote off. Local business was less than half the cost of the big one, and had everything fitted pronto. One panel cracked on installation, and the owner came round and fitted a new panel at 8pm on a Friday! Sorted.

 

[ufkacbln]

We had one company where we actually ended up picking up his samples and brochures and placing them beside his car as a subtle hint!

We have always used the excellent method above and simply asked for a cheapest quote in writing, made it clear we are NOT goingto decide as we have others to see and refused to discuss discounts.

 

[summerdays]

I took pity on a door knocker and said yes his boss could come and give us a quote for DG .... thus the big sell started ... he was here for over 2 hours but got really stropy that we wouldn't sign up there and then despite telling him we were getting some other quotes too. Got two local firms and decided to go with one of them even though it was fractionally more expensive. Both companies were only in the house for 10-30 mins and no hard sell or slashing their quotes. And we were happy with the work.

The original national company (not the mountain one), still ring up at regular intervals trying to sell us DG, and I point out we had the work done by a much nicer compay and that we wouldn't touch them with a barge pole as their staff were rude and can they not contact me again (so far that hasn't worked).

 

[XmisterIS]

You could get make-to-measure windows off 'tinternet and fit them yourself for a fraction of the cost. Just make sure you get pole jacks in case the bay is load-bearing.

Do a search on Google for "dunster house" - I just ran a large bay through their calculator - 180mm sill, window board, multipoint locking, pole jacks, etc, all the trimmings, four openers - £900 including delivery.

I got my back door from them - £350 including delivery. Lowest quote I got from a double glazing rip-off merchant was £1500.

It will take a Saturday morning to fit the bay, then you can insulate (I'd use 1:20 foam) and bead at your leisure.

CGW

(can't go wrong!)

 

[ufkacbln]

Slightly OT, but we were plagued by Bowater Zenith for months. several calls a week and occasional unsolicited visits.

Then one night my wife spent some 40 minutes on the phone discussing a "plastic" window for the kitchen. She kept deliberately being obtuse aboutthe window and asking if they were lightand eventually they tried t arrange to come round.................. my wife then said he would bring the tent down to them

A silence and then the phone went down.


They didn't call us for a week after that

 

[Brains]

All be it a few years back, my Dad was involved in the double glazing business.
Their rule of thumb was the cost to the company was a grand a hole and anything they could get over that was a bonus.
I doubt much has changed

 

[TVC]

Forgot to mention in my previous post about the phone calls. As others have said, they plague you with them, and they clearly sold my number to other companies too because I started getting lots of cold calls despite being with TPS and usually not getting anything of note.

No matter how many times I told the window company 'No', including words such as; never, no way, clown, rip-off etc, they still kept at it until I found the solution which worked immediately and has worked with other businesses since:

"If your company ever contacts me again I will start to post very negative reviews of your business on the internet"

Works brilliantly.

 

[byegad]

My mum got an old bay window replaced by her builder. Very neat job double glazed and at around 10% the price I got for her from another well known firm from the Flatlands of England.

I make it a general policy to never by anything from a salesman who approaches me. If I want something I look for them.

 

[Piemaster]

The local ones came round, measured, asked what we wanted (K glass was standard BTW - not what the 'big' company said) and just dropped the quote off. Local business was less than half the cost of the big one, and had everything fitted pronto. One panel cracked on installation, and the owner came round and fitted a new panel at 8pm on a Friday! Sorted.

Not sure but I thought K glass was a requirement for new windows now?

 

[XmisterIS]

Not sure but I thought K glass was a requirement for new windows now?

K is standard now and it needs to be toughened if the window is less than 800mm from the floor or 300 from a door (i think those values are right, couldn't be bothered to check!)