So he just put the phone down on me .... How not to get a sale

easy

I know everyone is desperate for business right now , but really ...

We need new soffits, facias & guttering.
I didn't have any idea how much it would cost, really, could be anything between 500 and 10,000 as far as I was concerned.

So when the company who put in new windows for us a couple of years ago rang up touting for business, we arranged for a guy to come and give us a quote....

So he appeared on Monday (bank holiday). Measured, told us list price would be £7500 (sharp breath in).
Then said he was authorised to give us discount, and he would go straight in at 40%, so price dropped to £4100.

We said we would look for other quotes too, and then would make a decision. We also said that we couldn't go ahead straight away (we are trying to bring in orders ourselves, don't want to commit to spending till we get those in).
Salesman said he understood, left us the quote & details.

On Tuesday, their commercial director rang me. Asked me what their lowest quote had been (shouldn't he know ?). I told him, he said he'd call back.

He called at 7 last night. I asked my other half to ask him to call me during office hours today.

He's just rung. Once again asked me what their lowest quote had been. Then said would we choose them to do the job if he quoted £2495 (big drop that, from 7.5K).

So I said yes, but can't give him the order right this minute. I was about to explain why, and tell him I'd ring back as soon as I could when he just said (very sharply), "right, then you'll just have to go thru our sales office at normal price" and put down the phone.

I recognise he may have had a difficult day ..... but ?????

I don't even think we have messed them about one bit ...

tomarola

Thats sales for you, move on to another company, his loss not yours.

maninthestreet

You haven't said what sort of house you have (detached, semi-detached, etc), but £7500 is an absolute rip-off. The fact that they were immediately prepared to offer a 40% 'discount' shows that they knew this price was absurd.

Errata

Look on the bright side - now you've got a price to measure other quotes against.

markie1980

I really don't know how these people have the cheek to start of at that sort of price - It makes me sick!

And then, after trying to screw you for 3 or 4 times what it should cost, they still think you'll trust and respect them enough to give them the work!!

When I'm pricing work up, i feel bad if i stick an extra £50 on top to cover unexpected problems!

Plasticman

easy wrote: »

So he appeared on Monday (bank holiday). Measured, told us list price would be £7500 ..............

Where do you live, Buckingham Palace???? :eek::eek::eek:

Even the £2495 seems a bit high to me......

Pssst

Youve had a lucky escape. Dont ring them back,those quotes are laughable and no legitimate and honest company would drop prices so much. They are con artists.

bigstevex

I wouldn't really pay more than £1000 or so for them, try roofing companies too I think they do them too

emmell

We had our roofline done last year and I think the best way to compare is how much per metre. Our house is 58.5metres all round the roof we paid £4100 which works out about £70 per metre, some of our quotes worked out at £120 per metre. It also included dry end caps on the gable. It was a very professional job and we are extremely pleased with the finish. A lot of the window and door companies wouldn't take the job on because it was too specialised (we have a conservatory to span).
ML.

Kiran

I think you'd be much better off going with a roofing company/local builder who will give you their best price which you can obviously play around with a little, maybe £1-200. I hated dealing with the double glazing sales people we had when ours was done.....That was until they found out that I worked in construction and I had a very real idea of what things cost plus labour rates.

The best quote we had was a kid who came round, did his sales pitch he'd had drilled in at boot camp (not like he was reading from a sheet of paper at all!!!!!), spent two and a half hours out of the three that he was there slagging off other window companies and when he found out that we were having a couple of other guys round that day he said he' have to go away and come back later with the price.

When he did come back he said that the original quote was £17.5k, but with discounts he could get it down to £7k rock bottom and he wouldn't be earning any commission on the sale. I think the phrase used was "jog on" at which point he phoned his boss who he put on speaker phone, more slagging off of other window companies and then a "if you sign today then we will do it for £4.5k". Now that is a hell of a discount, however the guy who had been in earlier (national company) had sat down and had a chat with me and I said that I wanted the best price straight off the bat and no discounts. He came in at £5k so I gave a call and said if he dropped his price to £4250 he could have the job. Settled on £4400 without any alterations to specification and the job was done nicely.

So for anyone who may be wondering who the cowboys were

STAYBRITE = STAY AWAY

Ukuser

pick up the screwfix catalogue or go online and just look at he prices of guttering - htis will give you some idea of cost of materials and wether a quote is good or bad.