1st: Called one of these national companies selling their wares in shopping centers wanting to get a quote for roller shutters. They said they do not give quotes over the phone, I said I already had 2 done over the phone. They said they could offer substantial discounts on retail prices if I placed one of their ads on my front lawn. I thought why the hell not. Alarm bells should have rang when they said :”Will you wife be at home?”
Well the appointed time arrives and I get a call from the salesperson saying they are not far but seem to be lost but won’t be long. Where the hell are they coming from?
They, yes they arrive. 2 of them. But lets not Focus upon that. After some introductions they look at the job, ummed and ahhed and talked about it to themselves. 10 minutes later they finish and ask if they could come inside and discuss the options. I said no lets sit outside.
What followed was a very slick presentation about how they were a national company and not just based in SA (huh?) and energy efficiency. I cut them short and said as you no doubt can see I have roller shutters installed (less than 12 months ago in-fact). Just give me the price for the basic model. Astoundingly, their price was substantially more than the two quotes. So I said what about this thing about advertisement. Well they said that if I was willing to advertise their company for 3 months and enter into a non disclosure agreement about their prices they could offer me a very good discount. This worked out to about $900 more than the phone quotes I had been given for each window or twice the price.
I got up and decided to show them the gate then and there. They then went in to a spiel about how ‘you get what you pay for’; the cheaper alternatives don’t have injected insulation in the slats, their product has better insulation; they have a patent yada yad yada. When I hinted that I might be selling the place soon, I think their hard sell tactics and reliance upon the guilt for the environment had all but evaporated and they bolted. My parting shot to them was, they could have saved themselves the trouble if they could have quoted me a price over the phone like the others.
2nd: went and bought 2 doors in Fyshwick. Since I did not have the ute that day, I asked Plus delivery. $100. I just about had an stroke then and there. That is more than getting a load of gravel delivered from Corkhills.