SafeStyle Uk - Be your own Judge

Dynamax

SafeStyle Uk

We had a knock on the door by a Safestyle UK double glazing salesman offering a 12 month fixed price quote for windows and doors. With a New Available money off discount for a government disposal subsidy. I’m interested in replacing ours and was intrigued as to what the price would be. So I went for it.

An arranged visit 2hrs later another salesman turned and started giving the usual double glazed spiel and I quote…..
‘All your units are old and completely inefficient, you can tell as you have the rubber beading on the outside, a burglars dream!’……as he places this meter box on my windows and it yelps uncontrollably while flashing a red light! ‘Yes Sir, totally inefficient’.

‘What kind of budget are you looking at, forgive me I can see you are a young family and probably have a large mortgage, what is your budget’…..’I deflected this and said what is your price, I can’t reveal my budget if I don’t know your price. Have you got a price list I can look at?’ he deflected my request and carried on….

‘We are the best in the business, offering the fairest price and top quality profile, cheaper and fairer than Everest windows……. blah blah blah’

It was at this point I had to cut into the conversation and say ‘Stop the sales talk, go and get your product’ So off he went back to his car and came back with a window unit. I must admit it was a nice product, looked all shiny and the locks and mechanism appeared good quality. Both me and the wife were impressed with the product. So off he went around the house measuring the windows and doors.

On his return to the table we questioned the number of windows ‘Oh you have 2 Bay Windows, they are fitted in 3 units so are classed as 3 windows so 6 windows altogether just for the bays’ I couldn’t see the justification in this, well apart from the fact that the surveyor fee was £60 for 9 units and this now exceeds it so the fee has just doubled £120. Ok I thought, carry on.

He sat there fiddling with his calculator for literally 10 presses……’Right Sir, to replace all windows and doors with the top quality installation would be £14,865, does that interest you?’…….I nearly spat my coffee over him!

‘Right Sir, because we have teams in the area I can do a discount’…..again back to his calculator…..’Right, that brings it down to £8695.24p’ (the 24p being the all important figure that caused me to blow my top)

I ask him ‘Ok can you give me a breakdown on those prices, whats the price for just the 2 doors’…..back to his calculator and he comes back with £5876.24p for the 2 doors. So I said (taking his calculator) ‘that means I can have all my windows done for £2,819 does it?’. No sir it doesn’t work like that. Then he went back to pressuring for what my budget was, again I told him nothing.

He then told me he couldn’t go any lower and he would have to ring the office to get permission for further discount. He pressed for my budget again. I said, ‘Ok, I want all windows and doors replaced for £5k’……Ohhhh Fshhhhhh [large intake of breath, similar to the noise mechanics make before announcing the price of repairing your nackered car]…..he got on the phone.

Basically he came back and said the best price they could do was £5,670 and all would be fitted within the month. As I took his calculator again, I said ‘wow that’s a massive saving of £9195 from that price you gave me 10 minutes ago’. At this point I felt my blood boiling, I had an image of this salesman around a table but instead of me and my wife sitting here it was my Nan and Grandad or some innocent little old widow who would just say ‘Oh brilliant that’s fine, here is a cheque for £14k’

This type of sale is so wrong, its unfair and deceptive. I understand business is business but coming into someone’s own home and trying to deceive them of so much money in my eyes is a criminal offense.

I then asked him for a breakdown of costs and he said he just wanted to do business and the price is the best I can get, he wanted me to start filling in paperwork.

Me: Hang on a minute, you mentioned the government disposal scheme, can you remove that discount now?

Salesman: Sir the discount has already been applied

Me: it’s already been applied and you can’t provide me with the figure

Salesman: Sir this is a very good price do we have a deal’ ‘shoves paperwork for signature across table

Me: I take it this is the 12 month fixed price quote for my windows

Salesman: Yes but for £8695.24p, as the £5,670 price that the office has just given is the price to commit to NOW and be fitted in November

Me: I’d like you to get out of my house, I’m not interested, you have tried to deceive me into thinking that the £14k figure was a good deal and now you say the £5k deal is a good deal. I don’t want to do business with people like you, please leave

This sales approach is categorically immoral, inappropriate, deceptive, misleading and undertook only to prey on the vulnerable.

Safestyle UK I despise you and will NEVER use your company.

savemoney

I wouldn't even bother with them companies like that give the trade a bad name

daveyjp

"We had a knock on the door by a Safestyle UK double glazing salesman"

Your mistake was opening the door.

martinsurrey

Compare that to my experience with a local company recommended by word of mouth.

He comes in, asks what style windows we want (double, triple, style), shows me a sample panel, measures up, fills in a quote sheet, and says,

“Here is the price, it’s as good as we can do, we don’t do discounts on an inflated opening price. I’ll leave you to talk about it (with my other half) and ring you in a few day to talk about it.”

In and out in 20 mins.

2 days later he rang to ask if we had considered it or gone with another company (without being pushy), we booked our install on the phone.

Price was good, installed 6 weeks later, no fuss, no deposit, all paid on installation.

ilikewatch

Alongside granny farmers, "cash 4 gold" buyers and chuggers, double glazing salesmen are amongst the most immoral people you will ever meet - they make some second hand car salesmen seem genuine and honest.

(Many) years ago I got a job as a salesman for a (probably long defunct) double glazing firm called Weatherseal - I couldn't beleive their operating practices - I could discount the "book" price by 60% at my own discretion, and a phone call to my manager would normally increase the discount to 75-80%. I got paid 10% commision for cash sales and 17% for finance sales. I ended up quitting the day I quoted a lovely retired couple £25K to replace the (perfectly sound) windows in their medium sized detached house and the chap wrote a cheque for the full amount on the spot - I told him it was a rip off, refused his payment and never worked for them again.

I was recently in the market for a new window myself and got a quote from a local specialist. I was over the moon when the "salesman" was an old geezer wearing overalls covered in silicone who turned up, measured the window, discussed the type of replacement I wanted and then went away and posted out a written quote detailing the exact spec and cost - the bottom line was about half what I had expected and the quality of the finished job far better than I had hoped.

greatgimpo

I watched them fitting next door's windows and doors - cutting the sills to length with one foot on a dustbin, rain deflectors at the top fitted with double sided tape, colossal amount of sealant to fill the oversized gaps. Laugh, it was hilarious. Didn't like the neighbour anyway.

If you have Safestyle to do the job, you deserve to have your head read.

Don't the style of adverts tell you enough? And what's with that massive feathered coat - what does that represent?

Jo_F

I had them come round years ago when I was looking to change my rotten windows.

Salesman comes, they were doing the 'do the downstairs get the upstairs free' at the time, he started the price at just over 10k, then with applying the above discount (surely the cost of the upstairs should never have come into it as they were free!), some other discount and a phone call the office, he got his final figure to £3230.

I took the figures, thanked him and asked him to leave.

Next day we got a local company to give us a price, straight from his price sheet, no discounts, juggling or anything else and he came up with £3270 all in.

Guess which one we went with?

LEJC

18 months later and we were still receiving sales calls from safe style..so dont expect that to be the end of it.

missprice

LEJC wrote: »

18 months later and we were still receiving sales calls from safe style..so dont expect that to be the end of it.

Next time they call just tell them your sorted for windows now, and mention that your gutters facias any everything else just been done. Maybe even say that garden wall been built and a rockery put in and the shed is all fixed up too.
They generally leave you alone after a few calls to ask about stuff that may not have been fixed yet.
I had my last call from Virgo summat summat to ask about my gutters etc as my windows already been done and I told them everything in and on and outside the house is new and they have left me alone for ages now.

Dynamax

7 replies and not one positive comment about SafeStyle UK. Thanks for the input guys.

My original intention in letting this company into my property was to obtain the advertised 12 month fixed price quote. Then use this to compare to other companies. After this experience I didn't even accept the quote off him, disgusted with his/their approach.

If they dare call me again I'll point them to this thread :rotfl:

LEJC

missprice wrote: »

Next time they call just tell them your sorted for windows now, and mention that your gutters facias any everything else just been done. Maybe even say that garden wall been built and a rockery put in and the shed is all fixed up too.
They generally leave you alone after a few calls to ask about stuff that may not have been fixed yet.
I had my last call from Virgo summat summat to ask about my gutters etc as my windows already been done and I told them everything in and on and outside the house is new and they have left me alone for ages now.

How I wish this would be the end of it...I have followed your approach every time they have phoned...last time I even invited them round to see the improvements for themselves...
Its been 6 weeks since my last call from them and my windows were redone in April 2012 by a different company....but I have received calls from safe style ever since!!!!