Help - double glazing, how do we get a good deal?!

Sideways

We had our windows done about a year ago, we went with a local company and have no complaints to date.

During the quote process we had one of the nationals too, I won’t name and shame. What a joke, either these guys think we are all stupid or there are, indeed, a lot of stupid people out there and the sales guys work on a ‘you sucker one, you loose one’ system.

After measuring up and going through the usual ‘blah’ he came out with a £9k figure, he watched us closely for a reaction and asked ‘how do you feel about that?’. He lost the sale at that point but I played along for a while. ‘That sounds awfully high’ I said. Guess what? He had an offer on! If we allow the company to put a small notice on the front of our house to advertise that we had had our windows fitted by his company we would qualify for a discount. Now, as mush as I love my house, Blenheim Palace it ‘aint, I cant see anyone wanting to stop and examine our windows to the point of running off and phoning up the company to place an order. So, the price came down to £5k, still too much I told him. I could see he was getting a little tense.

Next, he asked if he could use our telephone, don’t you have a mobile? I asked. He did, and went outside to speak to his ‘manager’. Guess what, it was our lucky day, his manager had given him permission to further drop the price providing we sign without delay. The cost was now £4k.

By now I had decided it was time for our friend to leave but he wanted to stick around and talk about finance and payment methods. We unleashed our secret weapon, our, at the time, 18month old daughter. She began by emptying his brief case and taking ownership of his calculator. Next it was banging the keys of his laptop and dribbling onto his paper work. All the time we watched on as his blood pressure rose whilst he used all his will to remain polite and ask our daughter to leave his things alone. Eventually he had had enough, packed up his things and !!!!!!ed off. My daughter had broken his calculator by bedtime.

Support your local companies, some of the money finds its way back into your community eventually.

rockie4

Ask your neighbours who they used. We had a biggish firm to do our windows - they were expensive and went bust 12 months later :mad: . My daughter had Safestyle and is very disappointed in the quality and the fit.
When we had our doors done we had a local independant firm who had done several in the area - excellent service, really good quality and they cleaned up after themselves even washed their cups! :rotfl:
Definitely get a local firm.

ormus

Duffers4768 wrote: »

Ormus,
I live in the Stockport area and would be interested to know who you used as I am looking for a quote for double glazing.

ps, i have no connection with this company. but i can recommend them.


Class-Plas Windows
37 Wilmslow Road
Cheadle
Cheshire
SK8 1DR


Telephone:
0161 4913916
Fax:
0161 4280470

ormus

ps.
to save even more money, they do supply only for the diyers out there.

Duffers4768

wrote:

Many thanks Ormus.

[Deleted User]

I am also getting quotes. First local company is coming round tomorrow, I won't even bother with national companies.

nickj_2

with the big nationals you are never sure you are getting their best price , always go local

sharon_currie

Don`t go to Anglian windows. When we signed up we were told that we could get a reduction but only if we took out PPI which was a con in the end. The financial company they use has very high APR rates too. The joiner who installed them cut the wood etc on my sanded floor and threw his tools about on it which resulted in the floor being badly damaged. We had a real fight to get them to repair it so in the end we has to go through Trading standards to get them to pay for the floor repair, they did pay up - 3 mths later. The man who came to inspect the damage had an arogant attitude on him

Also we wanted easy clean hinges on the windows, some of them did have them but the kitchen and 1 of the bedroom double windows didn`t (the other side of the window had an easy clean hinge) but we couldn`t get anything done about that because it didn`t say easy clean hinges in the contract although the sales man said that all of the windows would have them but it was his word against ours. The windows are fine apart from the hinges but I personally wouldn`t recommend them.

escroooge

Windows are often sold on a "drop close " basis, that means the 1st 2nd and sometimes the 3rd prices offered are not the minimum price the company will take (inclusive of the salesmans 10% commission).

If you want the salesmen out of the house, leave the following phrase to the very last minute once the price is out the bag..."well when we buy the house we'll certainly consider it." Tell the salesman your renting/it is a council house.

Check for quality, bs standard on sealed units and bs standard pvc frames. try and pay by credit card for protection.

Spicyhotone_2

If you're in Berkshire I can recommend "Design Systems". They're based in Camberley (just outside Berkshire).
www.design-systems.co.uk

We used them a few years ago to replace a door by a PVC double-glazed unit. We got a few quotes in, and I think they were lowest - but they were the nicest people to deal with - the salesman wasn't pushey, just matter of fact, knew his stuff, and gave us a price.

They did a good job. They made a small mistake - they didn't put the handle we wanted on the door. However, a phone call to tell them, and a chap came out the next day to put the right handle on.

I'd use them again.

Mr. Spicy