4 years ago
Their salesman was extremely unprofessional and pu...
Their salesman was extremely unprofessional and pushy. We wanted a price for roofing, siding, and windows. The price was absurd IMHO, but the nonsense was far worse.
Long story short, after dealing with the most cliche and used-car type of sales tactics and props (seriously, do these guys really think saying "we're the best" repeatedly helps a customer? Does asking a customer to tear a plastic tarp prove anything? Does offering a 50 year warranty with no outside company underwriting that mean anything?) I had to get quite forceful with the rep to get to costs after two hours of nonsense.
All of this hoopla was after we explained to the sales rep that we know roofing, windows and siding and don't need the bag of tricks. After he sees our sick 8 month baby that we put to sleep at 6:30 and we're still listening to amateur sales nonsense at 8:30.
Costs? Well over the price of highly reviewed roofers. What makes it worse is we were very upfront that we had good quotes from good roofers, so we were looking for X price range for the roof and a good deal on windows, otherwise lets not even bother with the sales presentation and show.
So I say "You've wasted my time because you know your price is nearly DOUBLE what other better reviewed, longer-in-business, more local companies have offered me" to which the rep replied "Yeah, but I was hoping we could make up for the roof price with our window price". I asked for a quick price on the windows and I got essentially "Well, we won't be cheap but you'll get great windows". I reminded him that I did not ask for great windows, but rather that I had told him within 2 minutes of entering my home that I wanted decent windows at a fair price.
At that point, I asked him to leave. The nonsense continued. Did he shut up and just leave? Nope, he was muttering, saying some words out loud every now and then, fumbling with his bags and props. I asked if he could stop talking and just leave, and he responds "You are being rude". Hmm, you're in my house, my kid is sick, its past 9pm, and I'd like you to leave because you wasted 3 hours of my time when you knew within the first 5 minutes your price would be far over what reputable companies offered me in formal, printed contract form ... but I'm being rude?
Clearly, his hope was somehow we'd forget about the lower prices from reputable companies and be ... tricked? persuaded? talked-into a far more expensive company based on ... his charm? his "Polish window" story, his apologizing for reeking of cigarettes?
Still, I needed this guy to leave. We have 1 kid and didn't want to add a new household member. He was still muttering and packing bags. I say "You need to leave my house" and I get "You said you didn't have a budget, but the price bothers you?". Well bud, slight correction - I had said upfront "We know pricing rather well for these items, we of course want to spend as little as possible but enough for a quality outcome, so if you're going to be above the range of quotes I am being honest enough to share with you, no need to waste anyone's time".
It did not end there. He noted "I could maybe get the skylights knocked down to X", where X was a nearly 50% price reduction. I say rather annoyed "So you can magically take 50% off now?" to which he replied "No, I'd have to make a phone call, don't you understand this?". So, even after being told to leave, he still could not stop the antics. I would never do business with a company that has that sort of flexibility in their pricing - there's a definite line between make a good profit margin with fair and consistent pricing, vs aiming to make absurd profit and hoping you'll find enough people to take advantage of.
Yet, he wasted his time, and mind, and my wife. Have some respect for people. Be honest. Don't try to persuade people through gimmicks. And leave someone's home quickly and politely the first time they ask you to.
What nonsense.