new windows advice

chrisp · 02-02-2005, 18:25

if your thinking for buying new windows for your house read on.
I recently received a quote form SAFESTYLE UK
After stopping in my house 5 and a half hours and offering 58% discount on a sign now deal (£7700)
Which was only available at that moment, pressure sales tactics. I only agreed to sign on the dotted if they was a cancellation period.(7 days)
Thinking I did well to get 58%. I mentioned it to a work friend.
SHOCK HORROR was his reply. WHY!!!!!
So I cancelled promptly and arranged a local Accrington firm to quote.(15 mins only).
No discounts or special offers he quoted £2400 less than safestyle uk.So I booked them instead.
In the meantime safestyle rang me and offered to alter my original (lowest possible cannot be lowered any more) quote to £3200 less than first agreed.
Amazing . Why could they not have been honest in the first place.
Is it me or does the whole buying process of major items seem a lottery.
Moral is always support your local businesses

park381 · 02-02-2005, 18:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp

if your thinking for buying new windows for your house read on.
I recently received a quote form SAFESTYLE UK
After stopping in my house 5 and a half hours and offering 58% discount on a sign now deal (£7700)
Which was only available at that moment, pressure sales tactics. I only agreed to sign on the dotted if they was a cancellation period.(7 days)
Thinking I did well to get 58%. I mentioned it to a work friend.
SHOCK HORROR was his reply. WHY!!!!!
So I cancelled promptly and arranged a local Accrington firm to quote.(15 mins only).
No discounts or special offers he quoted £2400 less than safestyle uk.So I booked them instead.
In the meantime safestyle rang me and offered to alter my original (lowest possible cannot be lowered any more) quote to £3200 less than first agreed.
Amazing . Why could they not have been honest in the first place.
Is it me or does the whole buying process of major items seem a lottery.
Moral is always support your local businesses

That sounds about right, why not support your local businesses, they can't run away

MITZY · 02-02-2005, 20:00

I would NEVER recommend SAFESTYLE UK to anyone. took over 12 months to settle disagreement over the fitting of 4 windows........my advise LEAVE WELL ALONE.

park381 · 02-02-2005, 20:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by MITZY

I would NEVER recommend SAFESTYLE UK to anyone. took over 12 months to settle disagreement over the fitting of 4 windows........my advise LEAVE WELL ALONE.

Yep, that's true. Had two friends that used SAFESTYLE............loads of problems as MITZY says leave well alone

WillowTheWhisp · 02-02-2005, 21:29

I think they are supposed to quote astronomical prices at first because they know that people will shop around and then when they give the "extra special super dooper even better than before" offer you are supposed to be so thrilled that you buy.

What they fail to realise is that by that time it has dawned on people that they were almost conned and so they cancel altogether rather than go with that firm.

mthead · 02-02-2005, 22:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp

if your thinking for buying new windows for your house read on.
I recently received a quote form SAFESTYLE UK
After stopping in my house 5 and a half hours and offering 58% discount on a sign now deal (£7700)
Which was only available at that moment, pressure sales tactics. I only agreed to sign on the dotted if they was a cancellation period.(7 days)
Thinking I did well to get 58%. I mentioned it to a work friend.
SHOCK HORROR was his reply. WHY!!!!!
So I cancelled promptly and arranged a local Accrington firm to quote.(15 mins only).
No discounts or special offers he quoted £2400 less than safestyle uk.So I booked them instead.
In the meantime safestyle rang me and offered to alter my original (lowest possible cannot be lowered any more) quote to £3200 less than first agreed.
Amazing . Why could they not have been honest in the first place.
Is it me or does the whole buying process of major items seem a lottery.
Moral is always support your local businesses

Did they not do the usual"Ill have to ring my boss"routine"got to make sure I can drop the price "followed by a short false phone call

Busman747 · 02-02-2005, 23:56

Some years back, I worked for a kitchen fitting company called "Farouche Cuisine" and spent 5 days in Manchester learning how to "sell" kitchens.
PLEASE REMEMBER THIS!!
The "sell" was designed to last a minimum of 2 1/2 hours and started at the front door!!
As soon as the potential buyer answered the door, I would compliment them on their garden/door/views from the house, anything to get them to say "yes!" This was important and all other questions posed by me in the next 3 hours had to be replied in the same way. YES, YES, YES.!

If the T.V. was on, I would ask for it to be turned off and would casually guide them through the ins and outs of my companies products......I would be quoting almost word for word the manual that I had learnt but to them, I was just an enthusiastic rep!

3 Hours later, I would work out a good price for them! I would have included the price of fitting the kitchen plus a little extra.........

It is imperitive that they sign on the night, NEVER, NEVER DO THIS!!!

I give them the total cost and they are a little taken back..."Don't worry" I say, Finance can be arranged (I get a percentage of that from the finance company) but they are still unsure! I "rework" the figures and deduct the extra that I put on..........They are still daunted by the figure that is larger than they imagined it to be.

Now the crunch! I explain that last month, there was a promotion and kitchens were being fitted free of charge, this could be a saving of up to £1000-00 Can I use your phone??

I phone my manager and ask him if the order can possibly be backdated to get free installation? The manager is telling me jokes down the line as he knows that INSTALLATION IS ALREADY BUILT INTO THE PRICE! I go back to the customer and tell them that as a 1 off, the manager has agreed to waiver the installion costs.......... They go for it, especially as I have all the paperwork at hand and virtually shove it under their noses.

Every trick in the book is used plus a few more! When you have a rep call for double glazing, kitchens or anything else, state early on that you will NOT sign on the night, and that the first price you are given will be the ONLY one that you will consider and you will then be given a fair price to consider at your leisure!

I stayed in that job for three months but eventually, my conscience got the better of me and I left!

"short story"
One day, my manager told all reps that they MUST make a sale even if it means giving a kitcken away! I was given an address in Milton Keynes and confidently drove there with the intention of "selling a kitchen"
The door was opened by a mild mannered lady who explained that she had recently seperated from her husband and could not afford a new kitchen but had agreed under pressure from our telephone people to make an appointment!!

Asking what she would ideally want, she told me that if that wall could be knocked down and several cudboards and things like intergrated dish washers were fitted, it would be ideal......I came up with a price of around £5000-00......no way!

Using my taught procedures, I reduced my price several times...but still no joy! In desperation, I eventually came to the price of just £500-00!!!!!!! for taking out a load bearing wall and fitting a brand new kitchen with dish washer. She freaked out completely and chucked me out! This is what made me leave the job, but I often wonder, IF she had signed on the dotted line, Would she have got her kitchen for £500-00? I think she would have.!

The moral of this story is that you should consider in your own mind before a rep arrives what you are willing to pay, ALWAYS get a second quote, and NEVER sign on the night!!

(IF you are invited to the "office" to sign, you give away your right to cancel as from the time you sign!)

Hope this helps those who "invite" reps to their home

chav1 · 03-02-2005, 05:58

chrisp

which accrington form did you use i am looking to buy soem windows soon

thanx

lettie · 03-02-2005, 06:05

I never invite reps into my home. I made the mistake of doing so just once and couldn't get rid of the fella. I swear he's still here and has got lost in all the rubbish under my stairs. This fella was trying to sell me a carpet cleaner/hoover type thing for about £900. My exact words were
"£900 for a HOOVER!!!!!! You must think I'm simple, get the hell out of my house..."

I have the good fortune to be a naturally skeptical person and I'm not easily taken in by sales techniques. I feel sorry for some of these gullible people who are literally robbed by these so-called companies who try to appear that they're doing you a favour.
A good pointer to remember is that these companies never do anything for nothing.

WillowTheWhisp · 03-02-2005, 07:30

I once made the mistake of inviting someone into the house because he had "a letter of authority from the police" and even said we could phone the police station to check up on this. He was selling burglar alarms but his explanantion for visiting was to check how secure our property was and offer advice. This opening line accompanied by a piece of paper with a police logo at the top was what got him into the house.

Once inside we just couldn't get rid of him so I know exactly what you mean Lettie. It wasn't long before he was telling us that we needed a burglar alarm, which we didn't have in those days, and how the one they recommended (that translates to "the one we sell") was the best on the market and he could do a special deal for us if we let him order it.

At the time we had a rather large and loud dog so we even suggested that we had our own canine burglar alarm and had no need of any other and he came out with tales of how the burglars aim ear splitting devices at dogs through windows and how these burst the dogs brains. According to him we obviously didn't care about the welfare of our pet if we were prepared to let that happen.

It got so ridiculous in the end that it was turned midnight and he had morphed into some sort of Billy Graham clone insisting that we get down on our knees on the hearth rug and pray for guidance to purchase his blessed burglar alarm!

When we finally managed to chuck him out we did follow up the "police approval" and found that the firm had indeed consulted the local constabulary and had been given the go-ahead to visit people door to door in a bid to cut down on burglaries in the area but the police had no idea the lengths to which they were going to get people to buy their products. They promised to "have words" but I don't know if anything was done.

We subsequently had an alarm installed which was much cheaper and did exactly the same job but the daft dog used to set it off himself by jumping up at it! (We no longer have the dog but still have the alarm)

Margaret Pilkington · 03-02-2005, 09:38

Safestyle are robbers......I have not heard one person who thinks they have had good service from this company. My husband once made tha mistake of asking them for a quote, but asked them to come back when I was at home too......when I heard what he had done I went absolutely ballistic. When the salesman called I answered the door and told him that I would not deal with his company as I had only heard bad things about it. The salesman then started effing and jeffing at me, at that point I closed the door and phoned the company to let them know of this abusive salesman.
I never heard anything more about it........but about a week after there was a story in the telegraph along similar lines.

Darby · 03-02-2005, 09:43

Never let any sales person into your house. Never buy from off-the-street, Never buy on a special offer (they may have increase the price the night before the offer is made i.e. was oringinaly £300, increased to £450 and now a whopping 50% discount...price £300!!

KiTChener · 03-02-2005, 12:49

Hmmmm..... interesting to see that, at least some members, of Joe Public are becoming more aware of some of these 'cowboys'. As some of you may deduce, I am in the kitchen business (30-odd years now), but based in a static showroom location; I can, however vouch for the authenticity of Busman's story... for Farouche, also read Moben, Kitchens Direct, Swish, to name but a few... they all 'sell' from the same script.
Wish I had time, ( & the typing speed!), & I'd tell you a lot more stories... will have to save them for my book!
I would back up the advice from, I think, Darby, IE, whether it's a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, windows or whatever, stay local, & give your hard-earned cash to someone who has a reputation to uphold, & won't run away at the slightest problem.

chrisp · 03-02-2005, 16:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by chav1

chrisp

which accrington form did you use i am looking to buy soem windows soon

thanx

Sureframe opposite asda

Bagpuss · 11-02-2005, 21:17

I took great pleasure in telling the safestyle rep who knocked on my door tonight to go forth and multiply and take his crap overpriced windows with him as I would only deal with a reputable local company, and didn't I feel good doing it.