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2.5hrs of Monday night given up to a young lad who was distinctly lacking in any social airs or graces, no please or thanks to the proffers of refreshments ...
His hearing was dodgy too as we were quite clear that we were going to speak to at least 3 companies before deciding and definitely were not signing anything tonight. Cue the usual phone calls to the boss and the offer of discounts if we agree to be a "feature home".
It's such a bullshit technique, ended telling him to give me a price now and then leave .
Does anyone know of any decent Double glazing firms in Central Scotland that don't stink of BS and don't try it on?
Sounds like ya typical bullshit hard sell.
Get 6 quotes not 3.
Really hate that kind of selling. Don’t think I would’ve lasted that long. Next time say you’ve only got 15mins and insist on the quick version.
Lifes too short to listen to that shit.
I live right behind the main street in town, local DG place is 2 doors away, guy who owns it lives 2 doors the other way, told him what I want, his price seemed fair, job done, I know if there was anything I wasn't happy with where to go.
Big DG firms employ/sub contract all sorts, from proper joiners to jumped up handy men, it's too much money to be spending on that risk.
Got a double glazing quote about 10 years ago from one of the big companies no longer in existence, can’t remember the name. Bloke organising the appointment insisted my wife had to be present for the quoting, I knew she wouldn’t be but didn’t tell him that, I took it to mean they’d try to pressure her to buy. As soon as the bloke turned up in his bedraggled pants that were 3 inch too long, shoes that had never seen polish, stinking of fags I think I’d made my mind up, he even asked where my wife was! Off he went with his awful pitch and smarmy attitude of someone trying to be a salesman but basing his tactics on every parody ever seen. He eventually left after we had a “discussion” about obscured glass and how I didn’t understand how much of a difference the different patterns made to the price. About 45 minutes after he left his angry boss was on the blower shouting all kinds of obscenities at me because my wife wasn’t home, I invited him over to talk in person since he knew where I lived. He never appeared and the company went bust about 2 months later. Wasn’t surprised.
My BiL had Anglian windows out to quote for a composite door, the salesman sits down then turns to the SiL and says 'any chance of a cuppa and some biccies hen?'. She's a Shettleston lass, with a sharp tongue, he didn't last long!.
on the other hand, I had no end of problems getting quotes for double glazing last year. As soon as you move away from UPVC even getting someone to turn up is a challenge.
a local joinery got the job as he was the only one to turn up, quote and reply to questions.
turned out pretty well and not that much more expensive than UPVC and looks/feels 1000% better.
Just had some windows done and apparently the glass is mostly produced by two very large vendors. Smaller Local contractors can get you surprising good deals.
You can measure gaps as well as they can so visiting them can get a ball park quote and you can always just leave when you want.
we went with someone a bit more expensive because they were people we wanted to deal with and we felt better about having to deal with any issues later.
Look for a local company and ask them to quote. We had one 'big' company that did all the sales crap, and two local ones. They local companies just came round, measured up, and popped a quote through the door a day or two later - no pestering for sales.
The local companies were less than half the 'big name' and did the whole house over 2 days. We still use them if we get a glazing unit that get's misty. This was about 15 years ago - see the same dodgy tactics are going on by the big companies.
Oh and don't believe one company has 'special glass', as said above it's all the same - BS standards etc. Most of the plastic extrusion is done by just a few companies, and the local ones just make to measure - as do the 'big lot' It's all the same basically.
You will now get the Kirby vacum cleaner guy dropping by now or you may waste a Sunday getting a lock in for timeshare
I took it to mean they’d try to pressure her to buy.
Nah, it’s to stop you from saying ‘well, I need to check with my wife/husband/cat etc’
They local companies just came round, measured up, and popped a quote through the door a day or two later – no pestering for sales.
This - we got prices from two local companies that have good reputations then went for the one we liked the best. Worked out very well as they cocked up and made the windows out of the wrong profile so we initially rejected them then eventually agreed on 50% discount as they would have ended up in landfill otherwise. Ended up getting 14 windows for about £2,500.
Where do you mean by Central Scotland? I know it should sound obvious, but some folk use that for Perthshire and others for the Central Belt.
We used McLeods in Perth last year for French doors and a back door, and were happy with the low pressure sell (they came out and measured then posted the quote to us and said call if/when you want it done), and the price. We're perfectly happy with the product too.
SBH - I have a chap opposite who fits on a weekend, works for a bigger company during week...want me to ask?
I've been through this three times. The national firms give you all the bulls**t you describe. The local firms turn up, measure up, provide a written quote and go away.
Just get quotes from local firms only and when booking the appointment ask if the person coming is able to measure the windows. If they're not, don't book the meeting.
I think guardian in stirling just went bust so that rules them out, they were ok. We used Anglian. Sales guy was decent and second cheapest. I asked the everest guy to leave my house! Like others said try several.
I had one chap from a large national telling me that we both had to be in due to trespass laws and he couldn't come round to quote unless we were both going to be there.
I had another one quote an astronomical price and when we said we were going to get alternative quotes said that most people sign up with him and then get the alternative quotes during the cooling off period. Plus the usual manager special, doing himself an injury by quoting us so low, offer only available for the next hour due to full capacity at his factory etc.
Of course we ended up with a good local firm at a fraction of the price.
Double glazing? AKA White Gold, yeah?
Posssibly try Polyframe in livingston if you are happy doing your own measuring (it's not hard, the tolerances are huge), then get a local joiner to fit? Or talk to the joiner/fitter first and do it that way round
As above - plastic is plastic, glass is glass.
I’m not sure it’s still ‘the way’ but it used to be best to pop along to the local frame maker and ask them for a recommendation for a fitter. You’ll usually get a tired and dirty looking ‘builder’ arrive at the end of a long day, might say 4 words if they’re feeling a bit chatty and a quote pushed through your letterbox a few days later.
The best fitters are usually flat out 5 days a week and don’t need to advertise more than having the van sign written.
I think Pilkington make the best glass, or maybe my Uncle the window fitter just liked them, he’s a villain anyway ha ha.
About half the price of the shysters, even if they say “you buy one, you get one free” etc.
Bruce, we had Gavin Barclay, (ex road rider, bit sweary and general friend of SBC) install french doors for us a while back.
He got the doors manufactured in larbert I think.
I'll dm his number to you on twitter, if he's still working then I'd highly recommend him,
G
the bloke turned up in his bedraggled pants
How on on earth did you know about his pants?!?
How on on earth did you know about his pants?!?
well... because I saw his pants. I didn’t see his underpants because they were under his pants. You southern folk are so easily confused, we’ll be discussing dinner vs lunch and supper is a piece of toast before bed next!
If you are 'very handy' like my BIL (joiner by trade) he has just done his own footings for a conservatory, got the concrete delivered, he's doing the brickwork, and ordered from a 'supplier' for the rest of the PVC conservatory for about £3k (he will build it). He most likely has used his contacts and has ordered a standard size he specs on his new builds (site manager). That's why a local company is cheap - not the overheads.
The neighbour was quoted in excess of £15k, which isn't crazy with labour and various mark ups, but UPVC units with glass are quite cheap. We have a bay window done for about £1,600, that was dear, but the 7 foot arched window with leaded glazing was about £1200. The rest of the windows were bog standard size and were like £200 each. It was the big arch we were worried about - the local company aid 'no problem'. Total was about £4k some years back, but prices haven't changed. The big company that would not leave were at least double, even after managers specials.
We got the bloke that did our neighbours windows. He'd done a good job.
He was shit.
I’ll second McLeod glazing in Perth -the guy that owns it is a top bloke.
I remember my Dad dealing with a cold caller who was selling vacuum cleaners.
"but how good is it on rugs?"
"and how good is it on tiles?"
"and how does it cope with stairs?"
Pretty much got the house done. Then sent him on his way.
I like to deal with cold calls in a similar way. Try to keep them on the phone as long as possible. I can chat sh!t all day.
I remember my Dad dealing with a cold caller who was selling vacuum cleaners.
“but how good is it on rugs?”
“and how good is it on tiles?”
“and how does it cope with stairs?”
Pretty much got the house done. Then sent him on his way.
I like to deal with cold calls in a similar way. Try to keep them on the phone as long as possible. I can chat sh!t all day.
Kirby used to offer a holiday voucher worth a fair bit of money if you could get 10 of your friends to submit to a demo. It wasn't enough to give 10 names / addresses - those people had to go through with the demo and reccommend 10 more people for of you to get your voucher. My mum worked in a hospital so as part of a large workforce/social group people were constantly cross-referring backwards and forwards trying to get their voucher. And if your name got given you were under a bit of pressure to go through with the demo as it was worth money to other people.
So... she'd agree a time/ date for a demo when she was off-shift. On the day she'd light the BBQ- Invite friends around. When the vacuum guy arrived the meal would be in full swing in the garden. She'd explain that unfortunately its a bit inconvenient because she's got guests but it was fine to go ahead with the demo - however she might have to pop out from time to time to check on the food. He'd start the demo.. she'd immediately 'pop out the garden'... and not come back. He'd do the whole demo - hoover/shampoo the living room carpet, the sofa, the curtains etc giving the full sales pitch to an empty room.
I had to laugh at the quote for a new garage door from one of the big DG firms.
£8000 pressured sale to Mrs Seadog very quickly fell to £2500, she is not easily swayed.
Local builder did it all for under £800.
Will go to the one of the two local general glazing firms when we need the windows doing.
Cheers for the input BigG MOAB Smudger et al I will follow up on those.
I forgot to mention that the "initial" price was a shade under £25K! 7 windows and one set of double doors, it soon came down to £9K. I just don't understand how in 2018 this still works, clearly it must, enough for them and others to continue! The Sales guy said he had never seen windows as big as ours, my house is like probably a million other homes built across Scotland in the 60's and elsewhere, nowt special. I pointed out that at least 5 other houses we could see from ours had those same windows.
MrsSBH and I sat in the pub last night laughing about it, we still couldn't quite convey to others just how odd this young man had been with his mannerisms and interesting vocabulary.
I forgot to mention that the “initial” price was a shade under £25K! 7 windows and one set of double doors, it soon came down to £9K.
Depending on the doors (which can vary wildly in price depending on the quality) that still sounds stupidly expensive. Even if you went top-end at £2k for the door, that's still £1k per window!!!!!!
Speak to a local building/joinery contractor as most will be happy to supply and fit windows for you.
The cost of the actual window/door is usually very low unless you're looking at the modern Aluclad units. A standard white uPVC 1.4 w/m2k u-value French door 1800 x 2100mm is around £600.00 inc VAT with a triple glazed 0.90 w/m2k u-value version, anthracite on white retailing around £900.00 inc VAT.
Unfortunately D'glazing companies like to operate on a huge profit margin whereas a contractor will be happy with around 20% uplift on the materials plus their time for fitting.
Have thrown them out before now. As they come in I give them simple rules, max 30 minutes, no contacting the boss for a better number and we are not signing anything now. A couple have walked away at that point!
My ex's new fella is a window fitter. Don't think he covers Scotland from down here in the deep south but I could ask him.
We once had a snotty 12 year old in an ill fitting suit come round do the hard sell. The (then) wife had to make me leave the room, I was getting so wound up I was close to picking him up and throwing him through our easy-for-burglars front window. You know when you see a transit van outside someones house? They're usually removing the whole window and robbing the place you know.
We got a quote from a national first, think it was Safestyle. No real intention of going with them but it was to get the ball rolling with an idea of price. The guy turns up looking like he was about to keel over and had a moan about the steepness of our drive (and not jokingly like most).
Poor manners, gave us the whole spiel despite making it fairly obvious we didn't have an hour to spare, coughed his guts up, boasted about how they were so big they could under-quote the local firms and put them out of business, the price kept changing, piles of scrappy paperwork with examples and customer reviews. Pretty much had to shove him out of the door in the end. All this over a single set of french doors. I still wonder if he was an imposter trying to divert trade to a local firm!
We went with a local firm, salesman much better but he cocked up the paperwork and they installed the doors wrong so they wouldn't swing back, bit of a stalemate where I declined to pay and then refused to chase until they contacted me. They did come back and pull the doors out and re-install correctly but only after a heap load of bad attitude and accusations on the phone, claiming I should know the finer points of UPVC installation techniques (I'd asked for cabin hooks to hold the doors back and told them I was going to adjust a downpipe to allow this, but they left the doors only able to open about 110 degrees before the brick reveal started to gouge the door)
Once it was over with I left a fairly level headed but frank review on checkatrade regarding their telephone manner (and stating I was happy with the installer and final end result) which resulted in another phone call claiming defamation and pressurising me to remove the review. Ended up having a second argument over the phone with them (Only time I've ever had calls like that from a firm!)
Wanted another door recently, went supply only and it was a much better experience! 5 minute convo in their workshop, a quote by phone call followed and then a door turned up a couple of weeks later 🙂
My next door neighbour worked as a salesman for a factory that produced upvc doors and he also knew a window frame manufacturer. The mark up from factory to fitting was quite incredible. He measured us up for a pvc porch. 4 windows,2 of them openers,plus an outside door. £350 from the factory. £150 fitting with some pvc cladding. He told me doors that left the factory to indy fitters at £250 were £1000 plus fitting to the customer.