Anglian Windows: Sales Tactics: Part One
Our house is mostly double glazed. Bizarrely, a previous owner decided not to bother with two of the windows. This immense heat hardly inspires one to replace old gazing (more likely makes you want to tear all the glazing out in order to create a breeze). But, we’ve got to think of the winter and the rapidly deteriorating rotten wood frame on one of the windows. So we called in Anglian windows to get a quote. We were of course prepared for all the usual ‘sign tonight’ routine. Sure enough, every single tactic I posted about here was employed. We didn’t sign, the sales man left empty handed and Helen said ‘I’d never buy windows from them based upon that forceful attitude’.
I enjoyed sparring with the salesman. He was very good at selling the windows as they truly were an excellent product. I asked him why in this day and age did window companies still employ bullying tactics to make people feel uncomfortable with buying. I said ‘I’ll only end up blogging about my bad experience on the net you know’. Basically, show me the windows, give me a realistic quote and bugger off and let me think about it. Yet evidently Anglian think that this is not how to make money. The initial quote for the two windows, with fitting was �1,500. Half an hour of bartering later and he’s trying to give them to me for �300 if I sign tonight. He then backtracks when I say “Does that include VAT and all the other hidden costs?” The offer goes up to �600 – 100% more and that’s the best he can do. I show him the door. He acts out some little thing with his manager by phone that is designed to imply that I’m crazy and leaves.
The thing is – the windows were very good (he brought a sample round). They were well sealed, secure and would undoubtedly last the 15 years guarantee. I could happily own those windows. But come on Anglian Windows, respect my wishes to see the quote, mull it over under no pressure and then buy. Simple really isn’t it? No – because your bullying tactics only made Helen non-too-keen to do business with you. So, no sale today.
We still need windows replaced. We’ve got a fair idea about what we should be paying. Can anybody recommend a decent glazing company?
Please note: the comments below reflect the views of the individuals expressing them and are often a matter of opinion. In the interest of a fair debate Anglian Windows are not the only company discussed. As you will see, there are many people who are satisifed with the product Anglian Windows supplies. What is for debate is the sales techniques employed by Anglian, and other glazing firms.
The comments on this artcile are now closed. The discussion continues on Anglian Windows: Sales Tactics: Part Two.
God i hate window sales men, we have safestyle uk round and they did exactly the same as Anglian did to you. Apart from we couldn’t get rid of this bloke and 3 hours later we finally got down to eating our dinner (3 hrs late) i started cooking when he arrived 7pm expecting him to be about 30 mins, 10pm he left. Of course with no sale cos i found him very pushy and also got on to the phone to his boss to try to make you feel guilty for not taking up there offer there and then. so don’t try safe styleuk there just as bad, if i was you i’d go for a nice local little firm as we did, we got a good deal and satisfaction :o)
August 15th, 2003 at 4:43 pm
My mother ordered facias and soffits and then seperatley placed an order for windows to be fitted at a later date, she paid 350 deposit and waited for the soffits to be done. The resulting work was done to such abysmal quality that she cancelled the windows. They tried to say that the windows were already made and the contract was legally binding. I say to Anglian.
TAKE US TO COURT, I WOULD LOVE TO BRING THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF YOUR SHODDY WORKMANSHIP INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN !!!!!
September 8th, 2003 at 1:56 pm
What a bunch of winging muppets you lot are!!
If you would rather spend your money with a ‘little local firm’ that may go bust within a year of worse. Have some body do structural work on YOUR home without the benefit of at least one kite mark that the company has legally earned (BBA for example). You actually expect to part with a considerable some of money in the space of a 30min presentation. HA just go do it as the professionals in the industry love you people, because when your windows fall out or the sealed units burst or you conservatory falls down, you will come back to us and ASK us to put in a quality product at a fair price that WILL stand the test of time, and you will have paid for it twice…HA HA HA
October 1st, 2003 at 4:28 pm
Interesting but explain the underhand sales tactics that your company employs. While you’re at it, please explain exactly why you absolutely must get the sale on the evening of the visit?
October 1st, 2003 at 6:51 pm
Have you tried window quoter? http://www.windowquoter.co.uk, they give you an online quote when you type in your measurements so you know that you’re not going to be ripped off. Then if you want to go further with them then they will arrange 3 non-pushy local companies to come over, check your measurements and leave a quote that lasts for 6 months. Not only that but because these companies know about each other then they try to give you the lowest quote they can offer. It’s not a bad service and it cuts out all the leg work for you.
October 1st, 2003 at 9:22 pm
I sell windows – at the moment for Weatherseal, but recently Anglian.
Don’t blame the messenger, that’s how we MUST work (or we don’t work!). If you want to ‘think about it, I KNOW I’ll never hear from you again, and all my presentation will only benefit the local ‘oik’, who’ll STILL go out of business in 18 months!
Be grown up about this – if you DON’T want a quote, SAY NO to a visit (don’t cave in to some idiot on the phone). If you DO want windows, then NEGOTIATE on my price – we can reach a reasonable deal.
Incidentally, if you say YES to a visit when you DON’T want windows, then the person you say YES to gets a £50 bonus – but I have to pay MY OWN petrol bill to get to you, because I’m self-employed!
Grow up – if you want windows, fine, I’ll show you, but don’t blame ME if you are just too cowardly to say NO!
October 6th, 2003 at 2:49 pm
Winman, who are you shouting at? I find it interesting that you still seem to be defending the companies who make you use your own petrol to sell windows.
anyway, this isn’t really the problem. The problem for me lies in the fact that the demo from Anglian was sufficient to make up my mind that yes, indeed I would like to purchase the units. The following half an hour of the rep forcefully trying to make me buy the units that night was the problem. As a consumer I’m entitled to sleep on the offer (expecially when it involves large amounts of cash). That’s what puts people off.
There is no need to grow up, immaturity isn’t the issue here. In fact, not blowing stupid amounts of money on impulse is probably the adult thing to do.
Also, you choose to do that job so don’t try to make me feel sorry for you using up all that petrol when I’m the customer here! I’m not buying windows to do you a favour.
October 6th, 2003 at 2:59 pm
Hi we tried window quotor and ended up with lots of contacts from more than 3 companys we ended up with a fair range quality and price of quotes and without being too rude told the reps thatwe were not ordering on the night whatever.
prices varied from £3500 – £11,000. I believe window quoter reccommends the companys that pay the highest fee per lead £50 to £100 just to get the appointment.
I must admit some of them were a bit like toffee paper but after a couple of presentations it was not to dificult to cut the time down to about 1 hour per go
By the way, eventually we ordered from Anglian who after negotiation gave a reasonable price with some free extras included Oak effect door and Stain glass effect window for one of the other windows.
Good idea for posting, if I have problems I will let you know, also if all goes well I will also let you know.
October 6th, 2003 at 7:00 pm
Cheers Terry. Any glazing stories – good or bad, failure or success, please let me know. There have got to be a few good companies with decent sales and customer services out there. Let’s see if we can find them!
October 6th, 2003 at 9:03 pm
i used to be a footcanvasser (door to door guy) for Anglian, i i understand about the high pressure techniques they employ.
Basically if you go back to the showroom wither wiht no leads, or a salesman come back without a sale your job is on the line.
90% of people who say ‘can we think about it’ or ‘we’ll call tomorrow’ even if sincerely said do. Even if they do it is likely it will go through to a different team, so your team won’t get the money, putting the managers job on the line.
not trying to defend high pressure techniques, just explain them.
the price is that you just go for the highest price you think the customer will go to, since very very few people know the actual costs of windows, conservatories etc.
October 17th, 2003 at 7:27 pm
sorry, i meant 90% of people DON’T call back.
October 17th, 2003 at 7:29 pm
windowquoter do sell the leads but not to the highest bidder, the companies pay £60 per lead handed over or £30 if paid within 30 days. This is beneficial for a window company because it cuts back on their advertising and other overheads. I cant understand why you had more than 3 calls from window companies through because the system can only literally pass you over to a maximum 3 companies? The only way i can think of is if the window company buys the lead, visits you then sells it to another company which is out of WQ’s hands. Glad you found a suitable company though terri!
October 18th, 2003 at 10:18 pm
Tom, I had the feeling that it might be the case that no sale not only reflects badly on the sales(wo)man but also on the team/line manager etc. Maybe this method of selling could do with a revamp? Seems like many people don’t like the forceful approach.
October 20th, 2003 at 9:51 am
People do not like the forcefull approach. But the fact is that many people are not strong enough to stand up for themselves. it would be reasonable to be allowed to think about it before making a decison like this. However rushing it through not only guarantees a sale, it ccan also let you make the cost a bit higher. a dirty business i am well out of!
October 21st, 2003 at 12:03 am
Interesting to read views on Anglian & the like. We had an Anglian rep at our house last night (at our request), after a good presentation the dreaded quoting time came! He started by quoting over £3000 for 1 window & 1 door,this eventually went down to £1600 and then went down to £1300. We said we wouldn’t decide tonight and we didn’t want to pay monthly installments at this his attitude changed and he said that he couldn’t leave us the quote for £1300. We said fine don’t then,so he left us with no quote at all! What a prat!! All we wanted was a fair quote for a good job, that we could consider & compare to other companies. We didn’t want to haggle like some dodgy street market!!
October 23rd, 2003 at 9:55 am
Phil, i think you’ve hit the nail on the head. The rep makes you feel violated by using underhand tactics that are more akin to dodgy market traders. The difference is the massive amounts of money involved. The whole process of selling the glazing really needs addressing. Unless, of course there are a whole load of gullible people out there who sign on the dotted line at the first quoted price. In which case Anglian are quids in.
The thing that disturbed me the most was that they obviously went to a lot of trouble to get their ISO and other standards. They obviously have a good product. Just shitty sales techniques that have no standards at all.
October 23rd, 2003 at 11:43 am
There ARE a lot of gullible people who sign immediatly, and anglian ARE quids in.
working in the showroom meant i could see the monthly slaes figures.
a LOT of money passed through that office.
something needs to be done to find out, and then make people aware of the true cost of these windows and doors, as it is lack of knowledge of the true cost that means companies like this get away with it.
October 23rd, 2003 at 2:52 pm
Indeed. Well maybe, to get an idea, somebody could post some average prices for a few items such as a front door, small window, large window and frosted window. Now that would be useful.
October 23rd, 2003 at 4:28 pm
It has been interesting reading through peoples varied stories, particularly from both sides of the fence. I have had windows installed in a couple of houses over the past 10 years and used the same company each time. They are local company who had been in business for over 10 years and came reccomended. They do an excellent job and don’t put the pressure on to sign on the night. I am a very picky person and they even came back months later to sort out a couple of bits that I weren’t quite right to the eye.
Whan a salesman overstays his welcome I suggest you simply put on the TV, pick up a magazine or get on with eating your dinner. I know it’s rude but they are being rude by not listening, so what the hell. I had a guy visit a while back who didn’t know when to leave and so I just made sure that I hadn’t left anything valuable in the room and left him there on his own. After 10 minutes he got the message and left.
John.
ps if anyone’s interested the company I used was Novaglass, Ahsford, Middlesex.
October 24th, 2003 at 12:14 pm
interesting reading some of the comments posted. we had an anglian sales rep round over the weekend who was polite to begin with but got a little pushy when it came to negotiation time. impressed iwth the windows but to tell the truth they weren’t all that better than a local firm that had quoted to us earlier in the week. I signed on the dotted line after making sure all the figures were correct and we understood each other clearly. surveyors coming round on friday and will let you know how it progresses. after reading this notice board it seems as thoough i’ve mad a mistake in going with anglian but i’ve seen some of the installed houses and work seems to be pretty good. what do u think, should i change my mind and go with the local firm ? i am still within my 7 day cancellation period.
October 29th, 2003 at 4:52 pm
Hi Jay, I don’t really know what to advise. Just make sure that the work is done to standard and don’t except any excuses if it isnt! Let me know how you get on. If you have a good or bad experience it’ll be good if you can record it here for others to read.
Wishing you luck!
October 29th, 2003 at 7:11 pm
Hi, my partner and I had a sales rep from Weatherseal round last night. He stayed for a staggering 4 hours!! (from 6-10pm) We were bullied into buying windows from him. This morning we are cancelling our £50 cheque and the windows.
We feel violated and a whole evening was wasted.
October 30th, 2003 at 11:09 am
Chez, that’s bad news. I’d heard weatherseal were not the best people to invite into your house. I’ve seen a revealing documentary on them on TV. I think what people should start doing is writing letters of complain about windows salesmen to the company involved and send a copy to trading standards for the record. The more letters of complaint the companies get the more likely they will be to look into their selling practises. The more letters about certain companies that trading standards get, the more likely they will be to act.
October 30th, 2003 at 11:12 am
These are very rough prices: A doors price will vary depending on if it’s front or back from around £400 to £750. A window you’re looking at around £250, larger windows around £400. A bay window around £1000. Patio/french doors £900 (all including fitting) Having frosted glass shouldn’t add to the price very much. Wood effect upvc is slightly dearer than white upvc which is the cheapest to have your windows in.
November 1st, 2003 at 11:39 pm
DON’T TOUCH ANGLIAN!!
My wife and i had the hard sell from the salesman and got an £19k quote down to 6K after haggling and speaking to the reguional manager.
The installation took a week over what was promised wrong glass was ordered, broken, misfitted etc workers shyed off mid afternoon. Smarmy office workers (Yes Dave in Stockport, i mean you!)who thought they were MD’s were encountered.
Now they tell us on further complaint that the k-glass has been fitted on the wrong side i.e. the windows are back to front!! Professionals? Yeah Right!!
I’m laughing as i still owe the shysters 6k!!!
November 6th, 2003 at 10:08 pm
I am in the process of buying a very large window and can relate to all the comments posted. I have invited Anglian back since they have reduced their quote from £3000 to £2300 to £1750 to … How low can I expect them to go??!!
November 7th, 2003 at 7:32 pm
Henry…
I guess Anglian will go lower than this after all if i could get more than 60% off i’m sure you’ll have no problem!! Especially as it seems that they are desperate to hold on to customers after one shambolic mess after another!
Good Luck!!
November 7th, 2003 at 11:08 pm
I could not get the Anglican guy off the phone! He babbled on for ages, poor fool. So dumb he didn`t even check out who he was talking to …
November 10th, 2003 at 5:57 am
i currently work for anglian as a sales rep id be interested to know how you think decideing on the night is presssure what other material thing do you have to think about over night !!!!!!
the problem is that people are scared of the image of double glazing salesmen !!!!
i tell you now a salesman will always agree to your price so what are you waiting for !!!!!
November 14th, 2003 at 10:12 am
I have recently bought a house and the windows need replacing. I have been given the “initial presentation” by a company called Weatherseal. Has anyone used them before? Are they any good?
It would appear they use similar selling tactics when all I am looking for is a quote, something to compare against others. I don’t really want 2 hours on who they are, where they came from and how they make the windows!
The rep is coming over later this week to discuss the price (should be interesting). Anyone have any feedback?
November 17th, 2003 at 11:16 am
Gavyn, I’ve no experience with Weatherseal so please let us know how you get on!
November 17th, 2003 at 11:24 am
ok i would like to clarify a few points in order that a few of you can understand the needs and wants scenario
1 a person living in the second farmhouse in john o groats wants to buy a back door
the nearest sales office is about 200 miles away
the rep will use his own petrol because its more cost effective for tax purposes to go to this lead(appointment)
he will spend aprox 45 mins witrh the customer to ensure they know everything about the company the product the manufacturing process the guarantees and the security etc
he will take a deposit and drive back to his sales office where his manager has to do internal costings ready to send the completed sales file to the installation depot
where it is passed to the survey dept
the installation depot will probably be about 450 miles away and a surveyor who is employed by the company and does have a fuel account will then travel 450 miles to accurately measure the door in order that the fitting team can give an excellent fit rather than john wayne chuck a payne style companies that just make them fit any old how saving money and not doing the job properly
the door is then manufactured in norwhich in the biggest and best manufacturing plant in europe under very stringent quality control and the door is then delivered to the installation depot for the fitters to take to the customer in the aforementioned farmhouse to install
the fitters then have a half day drive a period of time to fit the door and then travel back in which case you can see that it is totally justifiable for anglian to have a national fixed list price for each individual item
HOWEVER when you order more products the cost comes down and the discounts go up so you can see that it is totally not in the control of the rep you see to decide the price you pay
the company price list has detailed discount structure to enable the rep to offer you the best price for your chosen products and any further discounts are made between the rep and the manager depending on the location – speed of delivery – any current special offers – any bonus schemes on offer and the reps commission – which is usually the first to go which should answer your question as to why the rep wants you to sign there and then because he wont earn anything to come back to you but if he’s £2000 away from a quartely bonus he will gladly lose his commision to obtain his bonus as im sure anybody would.
anglian has been trading for nearly 40 years and is the only company that can honestly say we have outlived our guarantee threefold and each and every one of us can say we have full confidence in our products
there are two kinds of people in this world
those that want anglian windows and buy them
and those that cant afford them and try to put the blame on everyone else
i hope this clarifies things for you
regards andy rice
November 21st, 2003 at 4:09 pm
Anglian products are made of plastic so they are bound to last. The company itself, many of its employees and its whole ethos (charge as much as you can for doing as little as possible) are the problem.
I will tell you my horror story another day if you like – but I would definitely recommend you stay well clear of Anglian – unless you can afford to have someone else come and redo everything again.
As for the sales tactics – well I took it as read I was being ripped off and so on that score I have no one else to blame – my advice is when they ask what price you were thinking of always half it that way when they come up with a price that is obviously way too much you have a better starting point to haggle about – and that is all the pricing structure they have!
Must go and see how much rain has come thru the conservatory …. what fun!
dave
November 22nd, 2003 at 11:00 am
I do sympathise with all the comments from disgruntled people after quotes, not being allowed to think about it.
I am in sales and work for a company that does not resort to phone closes in the customers house. However with 15 years experience if people buy from me, they buy when I’m there. people only think about 2 things, 1 is the product (is it great and do I like it?) 2 Will I spend the money tonight. That’s it. In 20 years in sales (very succesfully), I can count on one hand the people who sleep on it, they don’t. What the customer is saying is “it is too much money” but they havn’t got the heart to tell the salesman so they put him off.
When the price lines up with the product quality – people buy! When people like the salesman people buy. It’s not rocket science. And I do agree pushy sales techniques are rubbish, a real pro does not need to resort to that.
December 3rd, 2003 at 12:12 pm
Anglian came, at our request to provide us with a quote. The salesman was doing reasonably well ntil he poitned out that Anglian had fitted sofits and facias to the house next door. At that point he lost the sale. THe so called workmen provided an installation that was cavalier to say the least.
SINCE then, we have been pestered with so-called ‘courtesy calls’. We have now referred the matter to the Data Protection Registrar. Interestingly we then had a stream of calls all asking for different people at our address yet, equally surprisingly ALL from the same number. Come on Anglian, just accept the fact that we are not going to deal with you and, if you must play childish pranks on the phone, at least remember to turn 1471 OFF first. What a shower of amateurs you are!
December 4th, 2003 at 8:03 pm
I phoned Weatherseal and asked them to come around, measure up and provide me with a simple quote. Instead, I got a 2 hour presentation on how the company was formed, the entire history, awards they had won etc. etc. I then had to have the salesman around for a second time as I ran out of time with my first appointment. He came around and quoted me £18,000 – a number I just laughed at. I was then told there were discounts that would bring down the price (so why show me that in the first place?). The price dropped to £9,400 – this was still too much and I proceeded to get other quotes from a number of local providers.
I eventually settled on another provider who quoted me £4,700. Weatherseal have since come back to me on numerous occasions saying they will match the price. One of their telesales reps even promised to throw in the front door for free (initially a £1,800 price).
We declined their generous offer and made it clear that any organisation that could drop the price by that amount couldn’t be taken seriously. My wife even received a call from a disgruntled member of their staff and he got quite verbal about the fact we had not used them and was clearly upset. Avoid them!!!
And I have now moved on to getting a new kitchen quote … and appear to be dealing with a company with a similar business model! How do I know? They ALWAYS ask that both the husband and wife be present at the initial meeting. These companies seem to be appearing everywhere and I have since cancelled the meeting for fear of the same hassles to get a simple price.
December 8th, 2003 at 3:37 pm
Just so you know, these window sales tactics are international. I live in the United States. Saturday night two window salesmen came to give an estimate.I can’t count the number of times I told them I wasn’t making a decision that night, just gathering information for a possible job in 2004. I thought they would never leave. Finally, they began to question my intelligence, at which point I bluntly said “leave. leave now, or I am going to call 911 (the police.)” It still took another five minutes to get them out the door (I was actually holding my front door open, motioning my arm at it, and even put my hand on one man’s shoulders to move him along.)
December 8th, 2003 at 3:59 pm
Yes Gavyn, you made a wise choice there. The business model is rubbish and only suceeds on the weak willed. Unfortunately there are many vunerable people who can be easily exploited by the criminal behaviour of these companies. There really ought to be some government regulation of these dodgy sales tactics.
December 8th, 2003 at 3:59 pm
Susan, it’s quite disheartening to hear that the UK isn’t the only place that suffers from these crazy sales-tactics. I wonder how they do it in somehwere like Sweden or Germany. Would be interesting to hear.
December 8th, 2003 at 4:01 pm
It is very simple. You need three things when buying a product. 1)- A good product, 2)- A good company and 3)- A price within your budget.
Now, if a company can offer you all of the above, why say no ?? I’ll tell you why, because BUYERS ARE LIARS. They will break your heart if you let them.It always comes down to MONEY. Quality = Price. There is a reason a Merceded is £20,000 and an Escort is £2000.
All a customer remebers of a good product is the price. They do not remember the quality, guarantee or industry standards. All they remember is the price and end up signing with John Wayne the joiners from down the street who will not be a member of the GGF (glass and glazing federation) and will no doubt go bust just as soon as you’re window falls out.
There were more than 425 replacement window companies in the UK last year, of which there are now only 227 and surprise surprise, another 87 ‘NEW’ companies have appeared ???!!!! Think about it…….
December 11th, 2003 at 3:57 pm
Interesting reading.
As a Window rep I have worked for a number of companies. Weatherseal, Perfect Panes and Zenith.
Just to underline what Nick and Graham have already stated – the right quality product + right price + professional company (including the rep) = sale on the night… providing that they are in the short-term market for windows.
The “want to think about it” is baloney. It means the equation above doesn’t add up in the mind of the potental customer.
In the 100’s of sales I’ve made, only two haven’t been made on the night. Buyers ARE liars – it’s a very old phrase. The couple in front of you are hardly ever completely honest with you. They will tell you they have had no quotes, and have three estimates sitting on the sideboard in full view. They can only possibly afford £3000 on windows, as it’s all they have, when you’ve quoted £6000. After completing the paperwork for £3000 that is devoid of any sales commission due to the low price, they grab their bank statement for you to copy the bank address onto the paperwork, and low-and-behold, there’s £20,000 sitting in the account for a rainy day.
So it works both ways. The window industry (by-and-large) tries their luck by bidding high and working lower. The consumer also tries their luck by holding back information, or by being outright deceitful in order to tear down the price.
Why do we like to sign people up on the night? To take then out of the window market! For those of you who collected numerous quotes; did you then play one company off against the other to get the price down further?
I bet you did, which is why window companies like to sign you up on the night.
Unfortunately potential customers rarely say, ‘I have 6 windows I want doing, and I want top quality and I only want to spend £3000.’
It doesn’t happen. If it did, then the salesman’s job wouldn’t exist, and you wouldn’t have to endure 2-3 hour demonstations.
BTW for those of you Weatherseal Featurehome customers. You have zero chance of featuring in the Featurehome magazine. If you look in it, the ‘latest edition’ winners in the magazine stand in front of their installations. The windows featured in the mag have black rubber seals (glazing gaskets). Weatherseal haven’t used black rubber gaskets in three years… The magazine is rehashed with the same ‘winners’ periodically with a new date slapped on the front of it.
December 15th, 2003 at 12:03 am
Thought I’d bring a new window company into the equation – Guardian Trade Direct Windows. We started discussions with 3 window companies back in Aug and agreed to go with Guardian in early Sept.despite somewhat sexist sales spiel and constant follow up phone calls from them. The job was split into two as we needed planning permission for the front window/porch work we wanted doing. 5 windows were fitted in October – every single window has a problem. wrong glass, broken glass, windows not matching, french windows opening the wrong way. It took a number of weeks to sort out (In fact a replacement bathroom window is still waited on). They promised to make amends with the second part of the job, but two weeks after they were due to start, my husband is off work today, still waiting for the builders to turn up to start on the porch. Oh joy!
December 15th, 2003 at 1:45 pm
I’ve just had Anglian install four windows, a patio done and three doors. From the sales rep to the fitters, all have been amazing. There product is most attractive. If I do encountr any problems, I will be sure to let you all know.
December 16th, 2003 at 1:39 pm
I’m in Dbl Glazing sales too.
I’d like to confirm what everyone else in the industry here has said.
If you actually want quality windows then provided the price = the quality you will buy there and then. Why would you not?
If you dont want to consider buying on the night then dont invite the salesperson to your house. It is that simple. I can assure you no salesman will complain about it. If you really want the benefit of learning all about the quality and price of the product, without having to even give the guy a chance to recoup his costs by making a sale, then say when he arrives ‘Here is £50 tell me everything you can in 30 mins and then leave’ He will almost certainly accept.
Several of you seem to think that we all earn £500 on a £5000 sale. This is simply not so. But I do have to earn a living. Rather than getting indignant because we have to try and earn our living try thinking about why I would want to bother giving you 1-2 hours of my time (pitch + travel) if you are not even going to let me try to make a sale which will benefit you and me.
As someone else implied, the day a client says ‘I want to do a fair deal at a fair price name the price that makes you a living’ and then does not automatically look for 50% off that price, no matter what it is, I’ll die of amazement.
December 17th, 2003 at 3:04 pm
Bit scary reading all these comments. My brother in law last year contacted Anglian to come and give a quote to the his fascias. They agreed a price, gave a deposit. Everyone was happy. Anyway time went on, contractors never showed and after a period of time they cancelled the contract. They knew they would not get their deposit back but hey. Anyway that was 18 months ago and they have heard nothing further… until this week that is. They received a call from a company called Europlas asking them if they were interested in d/g etc. He asked to come over to quote as they did need them done. Arranged an appointment, but then brother said that wife would not be there – well that was no good so said they would call back to arrange an appointment when she would be in. Anyway the same evening (about 10 mins later) who should call but Anglian touting for business. Brother said he had had dealings with them in the past (nothing on their records said the girl on the phone). Seems a bit coincidental eh?? Anyway phone rang the other day “hello its Ben from Anglian… ooh sorry i meant Europlace , why did i say that”
Is there a connection, are they the same company and can anyone recommend a good company in the Devon area??
December 18th, 2003 at 12:03 pm
I heard Wobbily Windows are very good. They will probably install a whole house for you at about the price you are looking for, i.e- £10. If they cant help, try John Wayne Joiners. They are meant to be excellent.
December 18th, 2003 at 6:11 pm
Looks like we’re getting a few regulars on here. I’d ban a few more IPs if the salespeople’s comments wern’t as transparent as they are.
December 18th, 2003 at 7:02 pm
I honestly cannot understand what your beef is with us.
The reality : –
You want your windows done to the highest spec at the lowest price possible. Understandable.
I want to make the maximum profit for my company. Understandable.
So it is a negotiation. Why do you think that I or anyone else should simply lay down the lowest price we can possibly manufacture for? Particularly if you are going to use this lowest price only to beat somebody elses price down.
The pressure selling you complain of is, in most cases, only that the saleperson wants to make sure that they have given you all the facts you might need to make a decision, and then later attempted to find out from you all the facts that he or she might need to make a decision too.
If yu genuinely wanted to cut this process short all you would have to do is say ‘I will buy your windows at £x’. The ‘pressure’ only comes because so few buyers are prepared to be open about what they would consider a fair deal. They wish to negotiate every bit as much as I do.
Pressure to sign ‘on the night’ exists only because, as someone else said, we know full well that 24 hours after a visit all the average buyer will retain is a recollection of the price. They wont really compare quality and price if they get a further quote. Just price. They might reject a lower price if the quality is below their minimum standard, but that is all.
I have to say, though, it is very interesting to see buyer perceptions on this site. How about somebody suggesting something which would genuinely make the experience more pleasant which did not involve me, the salesman, simply dropping his pants?
December 19th, 2003 at 10:39 am
Slip, you make a few very good points. Firstly I agree that it would be a good idea for us to suggest some things that would make the sales pitch a little more pleasant.
Secondly I think your point about the buyer knowing how much they want to spend and exactly what the want doing before agreeing to see a rep would solve many problems. So, on that advice we should follow these simple steps:
* Work out exactly what you need doing.
* Use Wickes (or an other DIY shop that sells windows) as a guide to how much the units would cost if you did the job yourself.
* Estimate how long the job would take if you knew what you were doing.
* Estimate how much your labour is worth and then multiply your estimate of time to do the job by your hourly rate.
* That should give you a decent ballpark figure. Now you’ve done the sums – work out if you can afford it. If you can’t afford it, take some money off until you can.
* Get the salesperson round and tell them how much you are willing to spend and what you need doing.
Hopefully your estimate will be reasonable enough…
Now prepare yourself for the rep’s spreech about why their windows are better than the ones you can get from Wickes and you should actually spend a little bit more. Since the company is bound to have a finance package, they’ll urge you to take it. Bingo – more profit.
Ok, so we’re a little closer to making a deal here but there’s still the dodgy area as to how much time the job will take and how much the labour of the installer is worth. But at least we have somewhere to start.
I’d certainly find out how much it would cost to buy windows direct from a wholesaler though so at least you can compare like for like.
December 19th, 2003 at 3:21 pm
Well, there are so many comments about Anglian, I haven’t read them all. Here’s mine. I asked Anglian around to give me and my husband a quote, he gave us a whopping quote and then said he’d call his manager to try to improve it, what a load of rubbish, we got rid of him. The quote was for £3,000, we did the work ourselves in the end for £600. And it was better quality materials and looks much nicer than the plastic we were shown. Ever since the sales man came we have had phonecalls from Anglian every two weeks for the last four months. I have told them every time that the work has been done and not to call us again. They just can’t seem to get their head around this! Are we going to say ‘oh yes ok, come and re do the work for five times the cost’? Crazy! The last call i received was tonight, would we like the work done for a special rate? I said ‘i can’t beleive you’ve phoned again!’ The man made a stupid noise at me and put the phone down as i tried to explain that THE WORK HAS BEEN DONE!
Take my advice….don’t ever let Anglian know your number or you’ll never get rid of them! Trying to phone them to complain isn’t easy either 1471 showed a number that didn’t connect and I can’t find a number for them in any of our telephone directories. I’ve ignored them for four months now but I am going to make a complaint now!
December 19th, 2003 at 6:31 pm
Joe, have you tried dialing: 0800 500 600 – apparently it’s Anglian’s contact number.
December 22nd, 2003 at 9:31 am
Guy:
Thanks for your ideas. But I have to say that I, for one, would cancel the appointment if I knew you were taking that approach.
Why? because I’d be competing with the DIY market/ odd job builder. Thats not what I’m selling.
No offence, but people are ill equipped to make proper estimates about the cost of quality in endeavours where they are not professionals.
And they are always way way too low.
This isnt just in Double Glazing. It applies everywhere. Anyone who has ever had the experience of talking to an ‘educated’ IT user knows exactly what I mean.
Joe :
Again no offence. But unless I very much misread you then you simply were not actually looking for UPVC windows at all.
It is absolutely no surpise to hear that you could buy reasonable quality materials for 1/5th of what Anglian would have charged for the entire job.
Go and get something fixed on your car at a reputable garage and then compare the cost of simply buying what seem to you perfectly good parts. I doubt very much you will find a significantly lower mark up (and remember their parts are mass produced, not custom built).
It seems that the materials you prefer were not UPVC. I’d assume from what you said that it was wood. Wood has significant disadvantages compared to UPVc for windows. And, of course, it also has some advantages. It simply seems that to you the UPVc benefits (which are very real) were not important. Fair enough, but that does not make your materials ‘better quality’.
I do agree that repeated phone calls can be a pain (I get them from two dbl glazing companies myself). But the simple fact is that people do respond to such calls and we do not earn our living by being shy of calling people.
I can also categorically assure you that people do not ‘call when they are ready’. I used to believe they would; then I counted how many people who had promised to do so, and whom I had not contacted for six months, had in ther meantime bought from someone not so shy. Occasionally from someone from my company BTW; so it was not simply a case of my offering not being right.
On two occasions I have had the salutory experience of someone from my company calling people I had seen 2 months earlier, and concluding the deal I had laid out, on exactly the same terns, over the phone. On one of those occasions the successful salesman laughingly thanked me because ‘his’ customers had mentioned what a thorough and pleasant job I had originally done (but surprise, surpise they never called to place the order !!).
all da best
December 27th, 2003 at 10:28 am
We recently had a woman from Weatherseal in to give a quote. Worst night of my life! She was here for 6 hours and didnt leave til 1.15am after i stormed off very upset with all the pressure she was piling on us to sign. We had a quote for 8 windows, patio and front door. £15K was the quote then she wanted us to take out a finance deal at 20% apr over 10 years, which meant £288.00 per month, in total paying back nearly £30K. Totally ridiculous. I think that over £2k for just a front door is too much. I made a complaint to the managing director and it is ongoing at the moment. Will keep you posted.
December 27th, 2003 at 3:33 pm
Ruth:
You are correct that £15k sounds too high for what you are describing.
If you would like to conduct a negotiation for your windows by email then please contact me. I work for a large national company with a reputation second to none for quality and reliability.
December 30th, 2003 at 9:17 am
Slip. You offer some interesting comments. As a ‘Marxist-Socailist’ how do you justify your position as a windows salesman? Surely windows sales tactics are not very communist in approach?
December 31st, 2003 at 2:04 pm
Errrrr how do you know I’m a Marxist Socialist?
I am, But how did you know that?
This is the sort of question that gets asked a lot. The answer in a nutshell is that Socialism is a system not a religion. You cant practise it on your own.
I live in a liberal democracy. So I’m obliged to make my living in a liberal way.
Possibly I’m not a very good ‘natural socialist’ either.
January 1st, 2004 at 1:54 pm
what a bunch of nobs, BUYERS ARE LIARS, most of the creeps on this site are well worth a chuckle. As in any market place there are the haves and the have nots, if you have you buy a proper product, Anglian, Zenith, Everest all come to mind as companies who not only fit an excellent window system but like any quality company they will be around in years to come to service their warranties unlike most of the local one man bands, cowboys and gypsies. The reason most of you guys don’t want to buy on the night is that due to the fact that you have over stretched on the mortgage and there are the car payments for the ford and if the bank found out that you were even contemplating another major purchase of any kind they would probably fore close on you like they have been threatening. but don’t worry normally when a salesman hears the lies (sorry objections) he recognises them for what they are ‘I want to sleep on it’ means christ I did’t think it would be as much as that but this excuse should save some face CHUCKLE CHUCKLE. BUYERS ARE LIARS
January 2nd, 2004 at 3:14 am
Well said Joe. All buyers are liars. They will break your heart if you let them.
I read a book called ‘man watching’. It’s all about the small tale tale signs than people unknowingly make when telling porkies, which I have noticed that ALL fibbers make.
January 2nd, 2004 at 8:37 pm
I bought £6000 worth of windows and a front door from Anglian in October 2002. They provided an excellent product that we had shoped around for and we were more than happy with the quote. Unfortunately the fitting of the windows (large bay to the front) was mis-measured and the window sill in he lounge was badly fitted. It is now January 2004 and we are still waiting for the windows to be re-installed and the rectification work completed. I have had 4 lots of fitters wast my time troughout the year as they can never agree on the work that needs to be done, I have had two visitis from the original surveyor who will not except respeonsibility for the mis-measurement (he will loose money) and on each occasion when I ring the Northampton branch the Instalations manager has either left, is interviewing staff or is off sick. the promise to ring me back never happens so I am just about to wrtte to Laurie Conron the Director or Anglian. My advice to anyone wanting to use Anglian is the product is second to none but the after sales service is not worth the paper it is written on so if in the future I needed to call them out to cover the guarantee what chance would we have of them turning up. Don’t touch them.
January 4th, 2004 at 11:49 am
It is very disturbing to hear your tale Debbie.
It would be nice to pretend that such things never happen, but the reality is that very occasionally they do. But it is genuinely very very rare. I know of dozens of people who have had fantastic after sales service from Anglian (I’ve even had people who had a problem quite explictly recommend us because it was sorted out so effciently).
It does always amaze me that the Double Glazing industry in general (believe me its not just Anglian) will risk bad publicity rather than simply bite the bullet and sort out a serious problem sometimes. I can almost guarantee it is because a local profit centre manager does not want to see this impact on his figures in the short term.
The difference, however, is that with Anglian (unlike a small firm) this will get sorted in the end.
Write to Larry Condon and I’m sure his office will smack heads together to get you satisfaction.
BTW if you had used the finance option you could, of course, simply stop paying and let the Finance company exert its muscle.
Best wishes, I’m sure you will get it sorted in the end but I’m sorry you have already gone through so much grief.
January 4th, 2004 at 12:58 pm
I had used Weatherseal to get a quote and after being presented with a laughable amount, told them I wasn’t interested. The price came down nearly 800% over the next week or so and I must admit, as a salesman for an I.T. company, none of my customers would take me seriously if I slashed my prices by 800%.
I eventually went with a company called Four Seasons (Berkshire) and had a great quote with no strong-arm sales tactics. The windows were ordered, there were no problems and they were installed on the day I had requested and without ANY problems at all. Highly recommended.
If only these dodgy salesman would remember one thing – people like to buy, they don’t like to be sold to.
Remembering that would increase their sales with no aggravation on their potential customers!
January 5th, 2004 at 2:35 pm
Garth, you speak complete sense but I can’t help but feel we’re about to get yet another barrage of ‘all buyers are liars/nobs/twats (insert your own insult here)’ comments from sales(wo)men.
You see we have a few regular sales people frequenting this page now. With the exception of Slip most of them care very little for your opinions on the matter and think that the customer is always wrong. They’d probably love to live in the world of David Brent where staff are the most important thing and customers are liers.
You’ll also probably be getting something along the lines of ‘that company you used is a bunch of gypsies’ or something. It’s all becomming a little predictable now.
January 5th, 2004 at 4:01 pm
Thats nice of you to mention me favourably guy. Thx.
I can tell you that the phrase ‘buyers are liars’ was coined in order to get it through to rookie salesmen that the nice person sitting opposite you in the living room is always going to be torn between two desires :
1) They actually do care about the money, always, of course they do.
2) Being human they often wont want to say so directly especially if they risk looking stupid.
They also wont want to say anything which they feel may help you the saleman because they’ll fear you will somehow ‘trick’ them.
It really means ‘for gods sake probe, dont just accept a statement at face value’.
..
The reality with smaller companies is that you cant really be sure; not that you will never get a satisfactory job. Smaller firms can, and often do, run into all sorts of logistic problems (up to and including bankruptcy). Even one that has previously done great work can totally let you down without any real prospect of redress.
The other reality is that smaller firms absolutely love the big 4 (Anglian, Zenith, Coldseal, Ecerest). We get prospects interested in the first place; We price condition those prospects; We take flak for having done so; then along comes a local guy with 4/5ths of the selling job done and presto! he’s the good guy, because of course he does not have to do that hard 80%, it is already done.
Believe me faced with the choice between visiting a house before or after a local firm, I’ll take after every single time.
Having said all that, there are unpleasantly pushy and stupid salesmen out there; and lots of them do work for the big 4. In fact about the proportion you would expect given the size of those companies do. There are very rude and pushy locals too. You just dont tend to think of them as a group in the same way.
The difference between the IT sales BTW is that generally one will be dealing with a buyer who is relatively straightforward, knows his budget, and knows what quality means to him. The technicalities of how to communicate that quality are far far more intricate of course but few professional IT buyers will be fooled for a second into thinking that ‘the cheapest price is best’. If you leave them with a proposal they really will compare more than just price.
January 7th, 2004 at 7:24 am
Debbie,
I can totally relate to your story. We have had Anglian windows and doors installed. The salesman was pushy and wouldn’t leave on the night without having an order to go with (he stayed 3 and a half hours). Although the sales method has not been our real problem. The problem has been with completion of the installation. The windows weren’t fitted to standard and the front door lock had a different handle on the outside than the handle on the inside (one performed a snap shut function and the other was the standard lock). I eventually managed to get someone to come round to solve the problem in relation to the windows but the door handle situation was outstanding for 2 and a half months. After much shouting down the phone, both to the area office in Stockport and customer services, the problem has eventually been resolved. This was after over 2 months of promises that a fitter would call around, and having taken time off work to wait for him, being let down on at least a dozen occasions. The customer services are appalling and you are faced with nothing but rude and obnoxious people. (Dave, the installation manager in Stockport in particular). I was also told, having threatened to cancel my cheque within the first 2 days, that my cheque would not be cashed until the work was completed to my satisfaction. More fool me to believe the soothing and sympathetic voice on this occasion. This was not the case, and the next time I spoke to him the tone was completely dismissive, as they had my money by this stage. Also, the fitters are not Anglian employees but contractors, who told us that we could have had the work done in half the cost, and that the materials are not manufactured by Anglian. What a con!! They are now doing some work independantly for neighbours at our recommendation, using the same materials at a fraction of the cost!!
Don’t believe a word you hear about local fitters not being satisfactory. It turns out, that it is probably local fitters doing the jobs for the big companies aswell as having private clients of their own.
Steer clear of Anglian Guy. It is not worth the anguish!!
January 8th, 2004 at 6:28 pm
Hate to tell you this but some doors are specifically designed to work differently inside than out. Its an option. One that many people like.
I dont believe the story about fitters.
1) it shouild be obvious that any fitter who actually did say such things would never work for Angian again. Perhaps you might like to ask them just exactly how much integrity they have got if they do work for such a company?
Maybe I missed something, but are not the same buch you are so heartily recommending responsible for the actual problems you report?
2) It just flat untrue that Anglian dont manufacture their own product. They’ll happily give you a factory tour if you want one.
3) many fitters are self employed. So what?
January 9th, 2004 at 12:22 am
We are having fun and games with an anglian installation at present. More of that at a future date. On the issue of sales tactics however I would make the following comments. I used to be an insurance broker and sold door to door as well as cold telephone calls. I found that you had to apply sales tactics to get an appointment. However once I had the appointment I had a policy of-first fact find what the customer required. Go away and work out recomendations. Visit and present recomendations leave with customer and make a final appointment to review. On the last appointment I looked to close. This allowed the customer to be sure they were happy and to reflect. As they were happy they recommended me to others. For all those weak salespeople out there I produced way over the average sales for the largest mutual company in the Reading area at the time. As well as producing for other companies. Ethical sales pay
January 9th, 2004 at 7:23 am
depending on what you are selling the approach you can take varies.
If it is a very very unique product or (as you are doing) a customised service then one does not need a sig on first visit (dont tell me that you have not in effect made the sale at visit one?).
With double Glazing I can give everything (and I do mean everything) that anybody would ever need to make their minds up on visit one. I dont need to research anything, and they will never discover anything new by ‘thinking about it’.
here is a simple offer to this board – Anyone who wants double glazing or rooftrim to top standards can have it at the bottom price ever possible provided they pay me personally £100 to give that price. You have a 7 day ‘cooling off’ period by law, if you decide or discover that it is not after all great value simply cancel.
BTW I do, of course mean only pay me if you decide to have it and dont cancel.
It can be done by Email if you like.
Brazen aren’t I ? 🙂
January 9th, 2004 at 9:37 pm
very true you are told you have 7 days in which to cancel if you want to think about it what could be easier !
anglian salesmen like myself are paid per sale we dont have a basic wage so creating several appointments with the customer would prove pointless !
anglian are the only company who you can trust to be around in the next five years so good luck if you go with another company !!!
January 10th, 2004 at 5:32 pm
I needed some double glazing quotes and thought that I would call Anglian as they constantly advertise through my letter box. The first time I made an appointment, I actually went into our local branch and specifically asked for a particular date. Guess what, no one turned up on the day or even bothered to ring to cancel or re-arrange.
The next time I phoned the number on the advert and made the appoint for this Friday Evening. I was not provided a name of salesman as they would phone an hour beforehand. Lo and Behold, no one turned up again. This was despite me specifically telling the chap on the phone that was he absolutely sure someone would turn as I then would not make an appointment with another company.
If this is the way the company treats potential customers, then I would gladly like to see it go bust and my recommendation to Friends will be avoid them at all costs.
January 16th, 2004 at 11:38 pm
Anglian will always ring an hour or so before the appointment time to confirm that somebody is going to be in. If for any reason they get no answer they wont usually waste a salemans time (and time is money to a saleman) on the off chance.
Far too may ‘customers’ seem to think they are doing me a favour by thinking about doing business with them. They are not, the exchange is two way. They get at least as much out of it as I do. The two way nature of a business deal far too often gets ignored. You are not ‘giving me your hard earned money’ You are ‘exchanging your hard earned money for my hard earned expertise and product’.
We do this primarily because of the number of customers who treat an appointment with total disregard. On Thursday I drove 50 miles to meet someone at 8pm because he had faithfully promised to meet us and ‘did not want to be disturbed’ before that time. Reluctantly I agreed to this. Guess what? at 8p.m he happily told me that ‘tonight was inconvenient after all..blah blah’.
January 17th, 2004 at 1:09 am
steve ,, what planet are you on “the only company to be around in 5 years” havnt you ever heard of Everest, BAC, or the bigest in europe Bowaters(zenith & staybrite)goodness the propaganda your trainers teach you guys is daft, any one of these companys will be around 5 years from now, and STILL be doing a better job than tired old anglian
January 17th, 2004 at 11:22 pm
I’m pretty sure he was referring to the number of smaller local companies that go bust, not the big 4.
Anglian is bigger than any of the others you mentioned except Bowater. And Bowater’s double Glazing operation is smaller. Its simply that they do lots of other things; its a holding company.
AND! in a thread about pressure sales to unfavourably contrast Anglian with the likes of Everest and Zenith is unbelievable. You guys all have the net, take a look for yourselves. Compared to Zenith, Anglian are saints.
January 18th, 2004 at 1:05 pm
is that bac holdings , bac windows and doors or bac windows doors and roofline because they have gone belly up and changed name twice in the last ten years. brainwashed eh ! i would do your homework if i were you !
oh and everest got sold to bowater so they are now the same as zenith an owned company so they can be dissolved at any time at the owners pleasure + who the hell are staybright !!!
January 20th, 2004 at 10:04 am
Hi, I had a Weatherseal salesman round last night and was so shocked at the sales tactics employed I came on the internet looking to see if others had experienced the same, and ended up here!
The reps who are saying that if price and quality match up, what is there to think about have a point. HOWEVER they’re forgetting a few things…
a. What if the customer’s never priced glazing before? How are they to know if the price is alright without checking elsewhere?
b. What if the customer had been given the impression that all they were in for was a quote to be used as a comparison? You don’t tell us about your petrol bills and how you’ll get in trouble if you don’t close the sale before you arrive!
The answer is simple – all you sales guys, force your companies to be more honest with the customer. Tell us in advance that we will be expected to buy your windows on the night. And for god’s sake quote us your best deal in the first instance; last night I was offered windows for £6k which somehow got down to £4k but only if I signed on the night. So what were the windows really worth? I haven’t a clue. I will never, never buy from a company that pressurises me, no matter how good the deal.
January 20th, 2004 at 1:38 pm
Having had double glazed units fitted by Anglian, around a year ago (More on the basis of “Quality”, rather than caving in to sales tactics), I was pretty impressed with the overall standard of the job. Less than impressed with Anglian’s approach to customer complaints now that condensation is showing at various locations on the inner surface of the units. One visit from a youth who didn’t have the experience to comment on the specific problem, and didn’t have the authority to make any decision. Less focus on the bottom line, and a bit more focus on after sales service would help with these guys.
January 21st, 2004 at 11:37 am
I recently had quotes from both Anglian and Weatherseal and it is a bit of an epic tale.
Originally Anglian phoned us up and asked if we would like a quote on some double glazing. We advised that we would but it would not be for some time. Anyway thier sales rep turned up and gave us a quote. Because of where we lived he offered us a deal if we were prepared to be a show home. If we did, this would entail before and after pics and a sign in the garden advertising who had installed the windows. He left us with two quotes one if we took the show home deal and another that was valid for twelve months. He did advise that the show home deal would only last as long as no-one else took up the offer as they would only have one show home in an area.
My husband and i discussed this and agreed to the show home offer and called back first thing in the morning. The lad came back and we signed the forms. (see Slip some of us do actually call back)
We thought everything was fine but it turned out the sales rep was new and had made a pigs ear of the finance quote. Instead of £72 per month (he hadn’t added any interest!) it should have been £200 per month which we just couldn’t have afforded and that would have been that. However i must admit that the chap at Anglian did try and find a lower deal for us but they were unable to go lower that £150 per month and we had to pull out.
We subsequently had a Weatherseal rep out and i hated her by the time she left fours hours later. I have a very young baby who typically picked that night to play up and she just wouldn’t entertain him. That started getting my back up. We had had the surveyor round from Anglian so had all the measuremetns from them which i wanted her to use to keep the time down – she refused to and insisted on measuring everything again! Back now well and truly up. She then quoted £23000, which in the next breath dropped to approx £13000. We then told her about Anglian and she made some dramatic phone calls to her office (on my phone i must add!) and they agreed to match what Anglian had quoted. I said i wanted to discuss this with my husband and the look on her face was a picture as i dragged him out to the kitchen for some privacy. We agreed that we didn’t like the sales pitch and that we would not buy on the night. This resulted in a whole round of comments from the saleswoman that were bordering on being very offensive. We waved her off and finally collapsed on the sofa relieved to see the back of her.
The next day we had her manager on the phone offering to cut the price further. Could he pop in to see us – guarenteeing only to take up half an hour of our time – we should have known better! We said we would want to think about any offer he made overnight and if he wanted a decision on the day not to bother coming. This was apparently OK and he duly arrived the next day. After explaining how their window was better than Anglians he did give us a quote and left (one hour later). In the mean time we phoned Anglian and discussed thier window and Weatherseals did appear to be better. We then got another call from the second salesman’s manager who made a further offer – which was actually very good. We refused again as he wanted a decision on the day as well. They knew this was what we wanted yet they kept on calling.
Anyway we took our 24 hours, decided it was a good offer and called them back. They agreed to honour the quote from the previous day. The finance package was also very good as they were able to keep the monthly payments under £100. So we have a much cheaper monthly deal and overall price, and better windows to boot.
The windows are currently being fitted but i have a query for you. They look great but i’m a bit worried about how they finish the windos off inside. They have filled the gaps with expandable foam and then covered it with plastic strips. Does anyone know if this is OK or if we should insist on the gaps being plastered first. Does the foam affect drafts or soundproofing, or is the foam just as good as plaster?
Provided this is resolved i am certainly very happy with Weatherseal. We liked the product and finally agreed on a price. And they do look great.
January 22nd, 2004 at 5:38 am
Why are buyers creeps if they don’t sign up on the night? Nobody in their right mind would, unless they’ve already had quotes but feel that the last one they’ve received that night is the best and they’re happy to go with it.
Why are we not allowed to shop around for the best quote? If I want a job doing, I will get 3 quotes, compare them for price and quality and then make my decision.
The attitude of people on this site beggars belief. I am NOT overstretched with my mortgage, I don’t have other debts and I am perfectly capable of making up my own mind when given the facts. Any other approach assumes we’re all idiots. I have Anglian coming round tonight, lets see how they treat us – I will tell them that we will nto sign anything, we want an indicative and realistic quote, we will get others and we will go back to the company we want to use. Lets see what happens – I will post back here afterwards.
January 22nd, 2004 at 10:50 am
Hang on I dont recall any of the reps saying you are not allowed to shop around for the best quote. How could we prevent it anyway.
What we are saying is something else – that it is naive of you to complain of pressure if you actually want the best price.
Generally speaking you’ll only get the best quote if you are actually ready to buy. What the ‘pressure’ consists of is the rep trying to find out if you are ready.
January 23rd, 2004 at 7:21 am
P.S. Helen
You will be told tonight (yesterday?) that you have the opportunity to have a full quality door for £99 or Free guttering and downpipes. You’ll be told this is a massive offer that ends this week.
From the sounds of it you may write this off as ‘pressure’. It is not, it is quite genuine. Please do not complain if in 10 days time you decide you’d like to accept that offer price, and find it is no longer available.
January 24th, 2004 at 12:02 am
I’ll just back up Slip there. On Tuesday the 29th Anglians door, fascia, soffits and guttering promotion ends. And for those of you who want to know, ‘How low can they go?’
… Take Anglian’s ‘showhome’ price (not the retail price)and deduct 45%. i.e. it’s almost a quarter of the retail price.
But do as Slip says and give the rep something for their time and travel expenses… otherwise they get nothing from Anglian.
For those of you that would prefer not to pay the salesman directly, then take the ‘showhome’ price and deduct 35% – and the rep at least gets something (only 1% or £25 I believe).
As you can see, on a large installation it would be worthwhile to get the rep on your side by paying him directly. He will immediately give you the best price possible (unless he’d stupid), that the company will still entertain, because there is a point beyond which companies won’t do business. For Anglian it’s 45% of the ‘showhome’ price.
For Weatherseal it’s 35% (or 45% if you say no on the first appointment and are approached by their ‘trade’ company WS windows). The reps don’t get paid if the contract price is in excess 29% of the Featurehome price.
For Zenith or Staybrite (i.e. Bowater windows) it’s 42% less than the Showhome price. Again, the reps don’t get paid past 35%.
So.. bottom line? Offer to pay the rep a nominal fee (£50 to £100 depending upon the size of the order. £10 per item is a good rule of thumb), and you will acheive the prices I’ve stated.
‘Why pay the rep?’ Because he will walk out rather than do the paperwork and get nothing for it!
January 26th, 2004 at 1:27 pm
Just to clarify… the bottom price for Anglian.. ‘Showhome’ price less 45%.
Zenith… ‘Showhome’ price less 42%
Weatherseal… ‘Featurehome’ price less 35% (45% if through their ‘trade’ company WS windows).
These figures indicate the lowest prices the companies will (normally) entertain.
NOTE: I am not refering to the Retail prices less the percentages. I am refering to the FIRST discounted price the companies will offer you, THEN take off the percentages.
In some cases it can be as low as a quarter of the full retail price.
January 26th, 2004 at 1:35 pm
(… and now for a shameless plug) If you want to do business on the terms I’ve mentioned above, contact me and I’ll provide quotes for the range of companies above (and others) by email.
You get the best of both all worlds… best price… no pressure… and a choice of windows to choose from!
January 26th, 2004 at 1:40 pm
I’ve recently had a couple of quotes and am trying to make a decision. (price vs percieved quality)
One of the sales people above made a comment about people forgetting what they’ve been told then buying something different elsewhere.
This is the problem I’ve hit. None of the sales guys left any documentation except the price. No details of the product, no details of the options in case I change my mind and want a revised quote, no details of the finance terms. Why not?
January 26th, 2004 at 9:05 pm
I suggest people that leave messages on here watch what they’re saying. I work for Anglian and they have a legal department and don’t take kindly to people who bad mouth the company. If you don’t like the price offered just say no!
I have worked in all aspects of the window trade apart from the sales and fitting. At the end of the day its my job and that what it boils down to. As with any kind of business you’re always going to get some unhappy customers.
I bet at least 1 of you have spent £1000’s buying a car for example and after having for a few days found that you’re not happy with it. I have never heard of anyone taking their car back to the dealership and blaming the salesman. I used to canvass gas and electric door to door and always used to get people moan at me while I was doing that as well. People would say to me when canvassing for whatever product “if I wanted I go and get it” The truth of it is 95% of people are lazy and if there weren’t marketing and sales departments half of you would of never got round to getting anything done! As for leaving numbers with people and them getting back to you that never happens and like the rest of you we have to make a living. One more final note on prices if you don’t like the price try and haggle, would you put in a bid of the full asking price of a house when trying to buy it? I don’t think so. And as for name dropping companies I don’t believe in that but there is another window firm on here which I won’t mention. But when they’ve bottomed the price out they still make 150% profit which I can assure you Anglian don’t which is why it is the leading and largest home improvements company in europe with millions of satisfied customers. And I suggest some of you learn how to spell!
January 26th, 2004 at 10:51 pm
[Racist comment removed]
January 26th, 2004 at 10:55 pm
While you’re all having a dig at us and we’re on the subject how about you set up a message board for bad plumbers, dodgy gas men and cowboy builders and what about some of the crimes commited by the changing rooms team on TV. I could think of an endless list of people and orginisations you could moan about but unlike you I have a life!
January 26th, 2004 at 11:02 pm
Paul : Becuase its a waste of their time to do so. They know that if you were going to make your mind up you would do so. You are already talking about a ‘revised quote’.
My advice is to decide what you want. Tell the sales guy, and then make a decision how much its worth to you. What you seem to be trying to do is to squeeze every last drop of blood out of the deal. If you do that then there is nothing left in it, and no-one really cares to help you further.
However if you are prepared to pay for advice it can be arranged.
BTW Peters statements are not true. He’s citing the lowest prices you could ever get under any circumstances. Most people wont find those circumstances apply. If you are replacing all the windows and doors in a very large house, right smack on a main road, in an area which has absolutely loads of sales potential, and you do business when times are slack you might get those discounts; otherwise you wont.
January 27th, 2004 at 9:29 am
Slip,
I disagree. When I was talking about a revised quote it wasn’t about getting the cost down, it was about having more time to make a decision about the details of my requirement based on having the information as to what the company can offer.
e.g. I don’t know until the salesmen turns up what options I have for style of front door. The guy sticks a brochure in front of me and asks me to choose. That’s the kind of thing I like to spend some time thinking about. Especially if none of the doors was that much like what I had in mind to start with.
Finance details are important. One of the offers I’ve had was a fair price, the finance terms (which I don’t have to take) did seem on very limited information poor. But since I don’t have the details I can’t make a fair assesment as to the pro’s and cons compared to other deals out there.
January 27th, 2004 at 10:03 am
Au contraire, Slip. Who’s misleading who?
The location is irrelevant as well you know. The ‘showhome’ advertising promotion is simply a psychological sales gimmick set up to invoke a fear of loss (of a good deal) in the customer. Regardless of the location, an Anglian manager could bottom the deal out at 50% under the showhome price if he/she really wanted to bring the deal in.
As I’m sure you know Slip, the manager would receive no commission for doing this, but it would count toward his periodic ‘volume’ bonus.
[For everyone else’s benefit, if Anglian reps and managers bring in a certain amount of business (£80,000 per six weeks in the case of their reps) they get a ‘volume’ bonus – £1000 for an £80,000 target for Anglian’s salespeople.]
Please let me know if I’m misleading anyone Slip…
January 27th, 2004 at 12:47 pm
BTW, the ‘50% under the showhome price’ doesn’t contradict my previous statement. 45% still leaves a 5% margin of error should the surveyor pick up something the salesman missed. At 50% undercost, if the surveyor finds that there are additional costs not included in the signed contract, one of two things can happen:
1) The customer is asked for more money.
2) The company won’t proceed with the order.
Either scenarios are in black and white in the Terms and Conditions of the contract.
January 27th, 2004 at 12:55 pm
Try working out a few figures for the fantastic discounts offered by the big companies involved in selling.
To give 50% off the company has to put 100% on the base price
January 28th, 2004 at 9:05 am
Try working out a few figures for the fantastic discounts offered by the big companies involved in selling.
To give 50% off the company has to put 100% on the base price
January 28th, 2004 at 9:06 am
I told the company I only wanted a quote, but they tried to get us to sign up there and then. It was like watching a case history from Watchdog. The company is Coldseal, don’t touch them.
January 29th, 2004 at 11:44 am
I invited Coldseal round as I was considering getting windows and wanted quotes to compare. I explained this to the salesman, so how, as a buyer, am I a liar?
What sales reps have to realise is that sales training can give you a broad generalisation of what people are like.
People are individuals and some actually mean it when they say ‘I’ll sleep on it’. I don’t know of any couple who would make a financial commitment which runs into thousands of pounds on the same evening as listening to a sales pitch.
While it is sad that salesmen lose any bonus which might be gained, when customers do ring back, that is the fault of the company structure, not the salesman.
I could never trust anyone who offers you a product at one price and then immediately slashes it by half.
We didn’t want to haggle, we wanted to know how much the flippin’ windows were and then get a few more quotes to see which company was the best all round (price and product) value for money.
January 29th, 2004 at 12:23 pm
A brief message to Winman….with reference to your really shitty comment about “caving in to some IDIOT on the ‘phone”. We so-called ‘IDIOTS’ also have to earn a living and as most people who have commented on this site have already said,if you don’t want an appointment ..just say “no thankyou”. Also it would be a good thing for everyone to remember that a little politeness goes a long way..after all-we are human beings too even though SOME people don’t think so.
January 29th, 2004 at 11:59 pm
I do have a suggestion for anyone like Lynn who really wants to compare products.
Simply dont ask for a price at all. Tell the salesman you dont want to even hear ANY price.
Then form your own opinion of what they are worth and invite the one whose product you like best back and offer him that price.
You dont want to do that ? What a surprise. ‘Pressure’ is created because most buyers want something for nothing. They want to hear the lowest price available today, but they themselves do not want to give away anything about their own position. Its a two way transaction people – If you treat the salesman as an opponent chances are he is going to behave like one.
January 30th, 2004 at 8:36 am
Amen to Slip.
February 1st, 2004 at 11:04 pm
If you are seriously looking to buy windows etc, dont waste 2/3+ hrs every quote you try to obtain, get it done in one evening.The best way you can do this is arrange an appointment with 2-3 companies for exactly the same time and date, obviously not letting each of them know of this !! Lets see who arrives on time if at all, lets see who brings a sample window etc to show you( if they dont have anything to show you its because they dont want you to see it, think about it !!). Invite them in , introduce them to each other , see which one runs away, then you know who has the superior quality as most reps have the knowledge of the opposition. Let the reps put the samples next to each other, you decide which is best, you have the direct comparison in front of you. Your decision will be based on Style , Quality and Price/affordability. Do away with the “well it should be £5m but as a special deal I’ll do it for you for £3.50p” , get them to give you the lowest price their company will fit the windows etc for. They can write it down and hand it to you.All Major companies prefer the decision on the night and now you are in a position to give one. Less stress ,Time saved but more importantly a decision made with a direct comparison. BTW my advice is do not do business with a non GGF registered company. Dont know what the GGF is ??, well look it up on the net , Breifly it is the Glass and Glazing Federation , the equivalent of what ABTA is to the travel industry….. Would you book a holiday abroad with a non ABTA Travel Agent??
February 3rd, 2004 at 10:59 am
I have been reading these comments for a while now as i am looking to replace the windows at the front of my house. Having read the comment above from rep-utation i have to say thank you to you …….. i had Coldseal come and give a quote a few weeks back which i did not accept however he left me a quote on a peice of Coldseal letterheaded paper which also displayed various kitemarks etc and the GGF logo which i was told they were members of ……… i looked on the GGF website and couldnt find them listed ??? So i phoned the GGF and enquired why this was only to be told that Coldseal do not meet the requirements needed for registration to the GGF. Upon further investigation it turns out that Coldseal were taken over by a company called Brico approx six months ago but are still trading under the Coldseal name and stating GGF membership, and the quality is substantially below standard.BE WARNED, BEWARE OF COLDSEAL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 3rd, 2004 at 11:24 am
Its a good idea rep-utation : but it wont work.
It will, probably, result in you suffering a major piss take and in you getting dicked off about 2 weeks down the line. Ther are companies that specialise in this tactic (I’m not gonna name them).
If you are as desperate as you seem to extract every last pound from the deal then you run the risk of being sold a lemon.
If the price is fair and the product is what you want then accept it. Dont try to behave as if you were a corporation with future business dangling as a carrot to keep the bids ‘honest’. You are not. Any future business you may have is far too insignificant to influence a salesman who may not even be around when that business materialises on the market.
February 3rd, 2004 at 2:07 pm
To put all this another way :
Double Glazing is not a commodity. If you treat it as though it were then you will, naturally, run into difficulties.
It has more in common with buting a house to live in than buying a house for investment purposes. You dont adopt the same approach to these things.
February 3rd, 2004 at 2:12 pm
We are currently looking for a replacement front door for a house that we bought as an investment property.
When we finally extend the back of the property, we will then replace all the old double-glazed windows with the hope of using the same company to do the same on the house that we live in.
We haven’t approached any companies just yet because we’re undecided as to whether to go with a local company or one of the major companies.
Having read through every post on this site I have to admit, it makes pretty unnerving reading.
We run a small company in the North of England and take a great deal of pride in our work. It would mortify us to learn if any of our clients were dissatisfied with the job we’d done.
It doesn’t take a lot to turn up to an appointment or job on time, do the work you say you’re going to do and at a high standard. Why is it that some of these DG companies just don’t care how they treat people? I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
Anyway, when it comes to double glazing – we haven’t a clue, so therefore will potentially be easy prey. Nobody we know is able to recommend anyone because they’ve all had bad experiences (so we know who to avoid).
How do you get 3 quotes from different companies if the first salesman that calls insists that you buy from his company there and then?
February 3rd, 2004 at 5:06 pm
slip ,i was half expecting the ” it wont work comment” so , sorry mate but it was a good idea and it does work , well it did for me. Anglian – resonable product , crap sales technique , was put off as soon as i met him. Safestyle – he just ran away.
St Helens Glass – very profesional and a superb product at the same price as Anglian too. I am delighted with the windows and am considering a conservatory too. I have recommended them to several friends one of whom have already bought from them and just as i ,they are totally delighted. If you need any double glazing work doing , i would not hesitate to recommend St Helens Glass. If you really want to find out for yourself try the technique i used in the above comment.
February 3rd, 2004 at 11:02 pm
LOL.
In what sense has this ‘worked’? All you’ve done is select a local company rather than a national one because the national said in effect ‘our service, against their price? bugger off’.
If I know someone is going to make a decision based on comparing my price to ‘st helens’ I’d ‘run off’ too. In other words I’d say ‘I cannot be arsed with you’.
Every small dbl glazing company I know has dozens of ‘delighted’ customers. The trouble is that they also have dozens of undelighted ones. And those ones get short thrift.
When yourt recommendation eventually craps on someone are you going to make it up to them? I doubt it. And trust me they will.
February 3rd, 2004 at 11:53 pm
I agree with DAN,You are such sad complaining gits.Anglian is a multinational company if you don’t want something just say NO but you could be more polite to the canvassers.They are just doing their job after all!
February 4th, 2004 at 8:59 am
I own a conservatory by Anglian its Fantastic.If you listen to the reps then you might think differently about anglian.
I’m getting pissed off with rude people on the phone,think about how horrible its for you when this happens at you’re at your boring 9-5 jobs.
February 4th, 2004 at 9:06 am
slip , it worked in the sense that i didnt have to make numerous appointments and sit through hours of twaddle. As others have said on here , and i think its true, the customer only remembers the price, the way i did it i had direct comparisons with quality,price,and could make my mind up on the night which is what most companies seem to want. St Helens Glass BTW is not a local company.
February 4th, 2004 at 9:10 am
Smart Alec , Glad it helped you. Just goes to show how underhanded some companies are!
February 4th, 2004 at 9:17 am
If any of you people want to go with other small firms by all means go!Of course if you want a bag of shit attached to your homes.If you want a quality product that will last with no maintenance required go with anglian.SO DECIDE WHICH YOU PREFER!!!
February 4th, 2004 at 1:25 pm
this took me 30 secs to find
http://www.ciao.co.uk/St_Helen_s_Glazing__Review_5142188
Note the bit about having being sold and guarantees now not honoured?
I dont know st helens glass. I know of dozens of similar set ups though. I class them as locals and the story is always exactly the same.
February 5th, 2004 at 12:06 am
I had a conservatory put up by Anglian last year. Well it started to be put up 2 years ago, but due to Anglian muck ups it took almost a year from the signing of the contract to the finished product. (they said it would be done in 9 weeks!!)
I got to know the manager by name and phoned everyday for 6 months asking where the workers were. He started to ignore my phone number so I started to call on a different number and got past his minions by using an alias.
We were given 20% of the cost back (probably the phonebill!!), and he was sacked for the whole mess. I have to say the conservatory is great it stands in all weather. It doesnt leak and looks to be made by real pros. I still however can not forget the problems in getting the product though.
I am now purchasing 8 windows and 2 doors from Anglian again. Its the cheepist quote that I could barter from any company (I tryed 10) by almost 5000. They said 2 months, I am now on 5 weeks and the windows are ready to be installed. I am still phoning everyday as I miss the excuses that they can come up with.
February 6th, 2004 at 9:38 am
slip , i am just stating my experience with them and it has been excellent !!! I imagine even Rolls Royce make a bad one once in a while !! But i do take your point.
February 8th, 2004 at 5:34 am
We ordered 3 windows with lead diamonds and 2 doors (front and back) in October. The salesman was actually very helpful – my husband told him that we were serious about buying, and that if he gave his best price first (no bartering!), and my husband thought it was fair, we would place the order. The price did seem reasonable (slightly more than Coldseal, considerably cheaper than Everest), so the order was placed.
However – after the installation is where we’ve had the issues. 3 panes were damaged, and night vents weren’t fitted to one of the windows (despite being ordered – hence making the windows not meet building regulations for our style of house).
Since then, we’ve made 4 appointments to get the faults rectified, none of which have been kept. My husband and I have taken 3 days off work, only to find that on the day itself Anglian call to say “sorry, can’t find the windows”, or not to call at all. On the last appointment that was missed, the fitter called my husband to say the windows couldn’t be found. When my husband asked him to still keep the appointment and fit the night vents and replace the sealing around the door, he was told “Sorry, I’ve gone home early now!”.Our last conversation with Anglian was 4 weeks ago – we were told our windows would be a “few more days” – we’ve heard nothing.
The full amount was paid to Anglian in November.
We’ve written a mail to Trevor Conway (MD of Anglian) over a week ago (sent registered post) – and heard nothing. My husband will wait one more week before taking matters further via Trade and Standards.
So to summarize our experiences – Great salesman (in our experience), great product (the faults weren’t due to product defects – rather due to the oaf that installed them who scratched 3 while installing!) – However, the after sales customer support has unfortunately been appalling.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how I could progress this, I’d really appreciate it!
February 19th, 2004 at 7:36 am
We had the Anglian salesman round last night and signed up – but now I am wondering if we did the right thing.
We have a big house with something like 21 separte window panes to be replaced (if you include the 2 bays as 3 windowpanes and the 3 dormers as 3 panes). We agreed to get everything done for £7k.
That seemed like a reasonable negotiation. The showhouse price was £9,100 but we fixed at £7k and he included two additional large windows in the hallway that we were originally thinking of leaving out of the equation. Does it sound like a good deal? I guess we got about 35% of the ahowhouse deal – but reading this could I have got more (45% – see posting no.81) if I had hung out for a better deal?
or have we just given too much away in the negotiation. Please reassure me otherwise I might use the 14 day cool off period!
Does anyone know if cancelling a deal using the 14 day cool off ever results in the company phoning the potential customer back and dropping the price? Is this a worthwhile tactic?
We had one other quote from weatherseal that was pretty much the same price but the salesman was a complete numpty. At one point he was wildly hitting the keys on his calculator trying to work out what kind of discount he was giving us….and then happily proclaimed that the figure it randomly produced was an even bigger discount than he had imagined possible! He went through a variety of emotions from world weary to angry efore I went off to do some DIY in the bathroom leaving him alone with his calculator.
The Anglian salesman won us over and I hope the product turns out to be as good as what he sold us!
February 19th, 2004 at 10:37 pm
We’ve just ordered 6 Box Sash windows windows through Staybrite. Having had two further quotes at 5K and 6.2K we felt the offer of 5K was a fairly good deal as the product on offer was closer comparable to the higher price from Masterframe.
Having tolerated the pressure sales from a quote of 16K down to 5K I felt we had a fairly good price. Then the surveyor visits telling us that we shall require an extra wide spacer all the way around the window from the outside, making the windows look like a big white picture frame against our cream painted Georgian house. Next call was from the area manager telling me that the salesman had used the wrong APR!!! could we re-sign the paperwork.
Consequently I cancelled the order, just within our 48 hour cooling off period from final discussion with the surveyor.
I’ve just met with the local Masterframe re-seller and negotiated a 10% discount on his original offer and agreed to go with that.
It’ll be fitted without the extra white spacer, appears to be a slightly better product, and no pressure, just a hand shake…….
We’re much happier and would advise anyone to go with the local company that has been trading for a few years, get three quotes, and then negotiate with those that you felt more comfortable dealing with.
February 19th, 2004 at 10:57 pm
My last comment on all of this.
You have sorted yourselves out a stupidly low price for an expensive high quality product.
And are expressing amazement that nobody seems to care overmuch about you.
Think on it.
February 20th, 2004 at 11:32 pm
Fascinating reading this site. I went on to google to find out about Anglian because I was considering getting them round to do my windows and found this site instead. Some really counter-productive statements on here from salespeople (with some honourable exceptions -slip). It would have been enough to say that in any business there are aggrieved customers, and sometimes it’s not always the fault of the sellers. Customers can be a nightmare to deal with (hey what’s new). But some of the stories are unacceptable,a dnt eh pushy sales stories would put anyone off (altho how exactly is it possible for a sales person to stay in your house for 4 hours ..can’t you just throw them out?).
What I don’t see is any recognition of the role the quotation plays for the potential buyer. It is a quotation! A buyer in this case gets people round partly to get a sense of prices. Obviously. You can research in other ways, and I’ve done some already, but until people come round and size up the scale of the job you can’t as a buyer be sure exactly how much the job is going to cost. And it’s a hardly s suprise that most people don’t know how much the job is going to cost till they hear it from the horse’s mouth. Clearly the salesperson has a completely different outlook on the quotation process, but that doesn’t mean either party is fundamentally a bigger liar than anyone else. They just have different expectations. But what so many of the salesguys on here find so hard to accept is that one of the other things the buyer is assessing in the quotation process is what the company will behave like. What would it be like to have to deal with these people if something wen’t wrong, would the salesguy feel duty bound to help out, can you trust them in other words. It isn’t just the price you are assessing- or the product- although they are clearly crucial. If you get the vibe in subtle and not so subtle ways that the person in front of you would be a nightmare to deal with, is lying and constantly changing their argument then inevitably you will think twice about buying from them. Behaviour like that sows doubts in the buyer’s mind that everything else the saleperson has said might be open to question. Maybe this then explains why so few potential buyers then call back after they’ve had a think overnight. They work it out that they wouldn’t want to deal with the sellers after their pushy behaviour…and they might even do something silly and buy a lesser product from a smaller company with all the risks that carries.
And anyway, when did it ever become a crime to be careful with money? If that was something to be contemptuous of, then why do so many window companies advertise discounts and special offers? A budget offer probably attracts exactly the people so many of you sales guys seem to hate so much.
Anyway, on a lighter note…I’m doing a house up right now and need some horrible double-glazing units replaced and the casements in the old front bays replaced and double-glazing put into them. I’m just about to go onto the Anglian site…..
February 21st, 2004 at 1:28 pm
I had a guy around from Staybrite last night. I thought he was going to completely flip when we said that we wanted time to think about the quote he had just given us. We have a Victorian house in Bath all with box sash windows and I was really interested in seeing how much it would be to have sash replacement windows. The quote started at £44,000 for the 19 windows. After the standard phone call to the boss to ‘see what was the best he could do for us’ it came down to £26,000. But because I still wanted time to think about it the guy said it was tough and if I wasn’t serious about the windows then why did I make him phone up his boss. We are serious. He ended up after two hours being very agressive and I just wanted him out of my house.
Miricles upon miricles, this morning I get a phone call from the manager of the South West and he’s very sorry for his representatives behaviour (aparently he had a bout of remorse about his behaviour and confessed all to his boss). I now am asked if I would like to have the whole house done for £17,000. I’m really not sure if I want to deal with a company who use these high pressure techniques and feel it is OK to get stressy when I won’t sign over £26,000 straight away.
Are Staybrite any better than a local company?
February 21st, 2004 at 6:28 pm
Mary,
I would strongly recommend contacting Masterframe windows at http://www.masterframe.co.uk and looking at the bygone collection. Our ‘small local company’ that will fit ours has been trading since 1977, is family run, and is the kind of company used by Masterframe to fit their units.
The quality IS better, with no pressure, they use their own fitters and not sub-contractors (read some earlier postings on sub’ies)
From my experience you can expect to pay about 10% extra, but you get a far better product, treated as a customer/ real person and still backed by an organisation that is not fly by night.
If you can get a sample of both products at the same time and compare, we have, and found to be very advantageous. Note methods for fitting Georgian bars(non slip), water regress, finish of brass fittings, draft excluders, slider mechanisms, etc
SLIP, I sincerely hope this isn’t your last comment as you have shown yourself to be both collective and reflective throughout this forum, a valuable input from within the trade, and I for one hold respect for that.
February 21st, 2004 at 11:43 pm
A major warning to anyone inviting the Anglian Salesman round. He will advise you of a finance deal with First National Bank that will save you 15% of the cost.
We agreed to go with this as it seemed as though there were ways to minimise your payments. It wasn’t until a day or two later when I re-read the paperwork that I had signed that I saw that the salesman had included an optional Payment Protection Plan in the deal – at a cost of £991.00!! I was of course straight on the phone to cancel the agreement. So beware of what you sign. I was well and truly hoodwinked. The salesman had barely mentioned the PPP – and had certainly not mentioned the £991.00 it was going to cost! but sure enough I hadn’t checked what I had put my name to – and I hadn’t spotted this ‘extra’. Thank god for this site and all the advice on the internet – without it I may not have gone back to read through the carbon copies of the agreement.
The regional manager has asked if I will allow him the privilege of explaining the agreement in person – he is coming back in three hours….
February 22nd, 2004 at 1:33 pm
Read comments, highly interesting. Have Anglian doors and windows from few years ago and went throught he various processes posted by you all. Everything went fine and products OK.
Now! How does one approach the purchase of supply/install a conservatory including brickwork, electrics, etc. Require choice around a basic size & style of conservatory and trying to fathom what is a reasonable quote from someone who is going to get miffed at not closing the deal ‘on the night. Coldseal & Staybright do not stand a chance through reputation. Anglian might, but dealt with their methods already. What is left is the local guy who can do all jobs involved and still has to survive in the local community.
Interested in your thoughts.
February 22nd, 2004 at 10:21 pm
Blimey – looked at this site as I am looking for new windows for a whole house and really not looking forward to it now. I did have anglian round for a conservatory (albeit quite a big one) they quoted £70K , yes £70K. No we didn’t buy even though the guy called us from the hospital while his wife was in labour! The whole tactics are stupid, we don’t want to sleep on a quote, we all want to compare it with a couple of others to make sure we are not being ripped off and that there is not something better around the corner – just like you would for every other major purchase. You don’t buy the first car you see because it has 4 seats, and engine and a gearbox – i.e it meets your basic requirements. You see quite a few, learn about their differences etc, compare all info and then make a decision. Having read this I think my approach will be….
1 – Come in, show me you product and tell me about your company.
2 – If I like what I see I will let you measure up subject to 3 below.
3 – Don’t tell me your price. I will tell you that I am getting 3 prices from companies that I believe offer a comparable quality product. You will all only be given one chance to quote for this work – take it or leave it.
Will this work?
February 22nd, 2004 at 11:30 pm
After advising the regional manager that we were about to cancel (see post 120)- he came round to see us in person and saved the deal by reducing the total cost by a further £500 (from £7k to £6.5k) as a gesture of goodwill – and removing the Payment Protection Plan we had been ‘tricked’ into signing.
I feel we’ve done okay now on the price…let’s hope the installation goes well.
February 23rd, 2004 at 1:58 pm
I have just signed up with Anglian and am within the 7 day cooling off peiod. I was aksed to sign a finance agreement even though I will pay cash on the basis that this will reduce the initial deposit and remove the need for stage payments. On looking at it I see that it includes payment protection – why? when I made it clear I would not use it. I am now very suspicious about this and feel that they would implement it instead of ripping it up as promised if I held back final payment due to unsatisfactory work.
February 24th, 2004 at 7:43 pm
I can assure you that on installation day you will indeed have th choice of paying cash if this is what you want to do. And that if you do that the Finance agreement in total (including any PPP element) will be completely voided.
It is equally true that the finance agreement will not come into effect until you sighn the sat form saying you are completely happy with the work.
At the point you sign the sat form you have the choice – Pay cash or implement the finance agreement.
The PPP is optional. But if you exclude it then you dont get the associated price discount.
February 26th, 2004 at 8:31 am
I am a sales rep. I deal fairly and honestly. I do not like dodgy tactics and do not implement them. I tell you everything straight up front. i give the best price i can. There is no price drop from my first price. If you are looking for a consevatory or replacement windows and doors that really are top quality at the best price go to http://qualityconservatory.mysite.freeserve.com/
February 26th, 2004 at 12:10 pm
I am a sales rep. I deal fairly and honestly. I do not like dodgy tactics and do not implement them. I tell you everything straight up front. i give the best price i can. There is no price drop from my first price. If you are looking for a consevatory or replacement windows and doors that really are top quality at the best price go to http://qualityconservatory.mysite.freeserve.com/
February 26th, 2004 at 12:11 pm
Steer well clear of ZENITH for windows and/or conservatories. Excellent product, I’ll admit, but just one big stressful nightmare of a headache getting them installed!!!
February 26th, 2004 at 6:00 pm
A few tips on buying windows: argon filled sealed units, the process of filling the units with argon gas is not guaranteed to give a 100% fill, the norm is 75% the increase in heat retention is negligable, Pilkington web site will give you all the U values.
A good way to pre cost your property based on white windows is to count the number of frames and ignoring the size of each frame multiply by £400 each for woodgrain add 25%, this figure will give you a good guidline as to what to expect from a reputable company.
Doors can vary in price from £500 up to £1500 the difference being cheap and cheerful panels through to high security doors, look at the specification for the doors offered to you
Taking a basic window the base price between a cheaper window and and expensive window is not a lot, what makes the difference is the overheads of the company selling the product, just make sure the locking system has shoot bolts, claw locks and cams which retain the hinges, glass is glass the price is mostly the same in.
Pay deposits by credit card, this will make it safe if the firm you are dealing with goes bust before your job is done.
February 28th, 2004 at 5:25 am
Most finance packages allow for a nil or a percentage deposit, you enter in to a tripartite agreement, this means the finance company is equally liable for the guarantees offered by the selling company, pay deposits by credit card, this gives another level of sucurity for your deposit.
If you do decide to use the finance facility, there is a final tip which will save you money if you wish to settle early, phone the finance company and ask for the balance outstanding on the loan, DO NOT ASK FOR A SETTLEMENT FIGURE, this how to proceed send in a payment for the outstanding balance less say £50.00. The next month you will owe £50.00 plus the interest on £50.00. Asking for a settlement figure will incur interest on the full amount outstanding, you use this at any time during the life of the loan
February 28th, 2004 at 5:39 am
Look for companies who have a showroom, spend a little time looking round,It is more relaxed in a showroom looking at all the features and benefits, ask the company for a specification of the product, you will probably be able to see frames without glass and sealed units, all this helps, have your own checklist, dont buy out of the salesmans bag or from any one else who does not have a base where you can see the product, check the FENSA registration of your supplier
February 28th, 2004 at 5:49 am
Wise buyers visit a showroom and select a product before inviting anyone to the home, then they have all the windows and doors measured up and arrange to go back to the showroom to discuss the price
February 28th, 2004 at 8:22 am
Wise buyers visit a showroom and select a product before inviting anyone to the home, then they have all the windows and doors measured up and arrange to go back to the showroom to discuss the price
February 28th, 2004 at 8:22 am
i sympathise with both sides
i began working for anglian as a sales rep last june,having never done anything in sales before.
I enjoyed my job but did not like the tactics we were told to use even though i understood why they were used!!! I believed in the company and product so much that we bought windows/doors/rooftrim/conservatory and had our roofcleaned. all at the bottom prices ((of course)) this was in early july. we got a remortgage with anglian financial services ( which were very helpfull they did everything for us and got us the best deal).
biggest problems were that we had to wait until november before any work began ( with three kids and our whole house looking like a derelict building NOT THE BEST TIME) roof was cleaned first,we were pleased with result.then rooftrim,windows and doors were fitted. nice but there were a few problems due to the workmanship of fitters. These wre later remedied.
The conservatory is another issue altogether.
Builders turned up ten days before X-mas, 2 days into job i noticed things werent looking good,my husband examined their work and was appalled (my 5 year old couldve done better).
He discussed the problems with the builders the next day, they hadnt even brought the correct bricks,never mind the fact that the work was shocking. the builder then tried to fob him off with excuses so we rang anglian head office and they were sent off site.
We were then told we would have to wait until mid january as they would have to order the bricks ( they had had the plans scince july why hadnt they ordered the materials for the job???)
We eventually got the bricks and a new team turned up a week after they were supposed to.
The new builders took down the original work and rebuilt dwarf wall (marginally better).
The unit fitters then arrived they seemed very pleasant and hard working, we noted a few things and mentioned them to the guys who remedied them or so we thought!!!.
it is now complete but here is a list of problems we have just emailed to one of anglians conservatory managers.
strong cold draughts in conny and lounge
coseyfloor has large gaps and is too high ( we cannot lay our laminate as we would not be able to open french doors!
dwarf wall(internall and house wall: we payed for it to be plastered it was only boarded & taped. it has a poor finish,boards were fitted wrongly and have uneven corners and they had used decorators filler to make good above sockets.
dwarf wall (external) built to wrong measurements so door opening is uneven.gap next to house wall,loose brick,cills have not been sealed underneath.
Unit : ridge not level and looks like it has been butchered to make it fit properly,some of trims are loose or not fitted properly,end caps on roof bars not fitted properly,dentil moulding was specified and has not been fitted,very liberal use of sillicone sealant which they did not take care over and is either dirty,excess not wiped away or basically looks like someone has shoved chewing gum in the gaps.
doors to lounge: they have several problems which we mentioned to plasterer who called someone then failed to mention they would be replaced we only found out after two weeks when i called the office. In the meantime if we had struggled to lay our flooring it would have been a waste of time and money.
external doors: wrong handle fitted,half inch gap underneath (no wonder its cold)
damproofing has been cut away under doors instead of dressed under
large hole left in living room floor where bricks were removed for doors,
unsightly gap under ridge on outside,
have also just noticed a bent,damaged roof bar.
so basically product it nice but the workmen do not take any pride or care about what they are doing.
of course some of these things will be put right but others may not without having to take most of the conservatory down.
we have spent £18,000 with anglian and expected an excellent job instead we are very dissapointed.
needless to say i am no longer working for the company as i cannot sell to others a product and service that i no longer trust.
February 28th, 2004 at 7:19 pm
p.s if anyone has any advise for me on what my next step of action should be please do as i think i may need it
February 28th, 2004 at 8:41 pm
Tokat, sounds like a bit of a nightmare. Somebody from channel 4 got in touch with me a while back. They’re doing a documentary on double glazing sales tactics. The researchers may contact anybody who leaves their email address on this message board which would get a little more national exposure of the issues raised.
March 1st, 2004 at 10:53 am
We have just ordered a conservatory for £25k and are very worried about some of the comments on the site in particular with the fitting and contractors. Are there any “satisfied conservatory” stories out there with regards to Anglian?
We have until Thursday to cancel within the 7-day cooling off period so advice needed. I am not arguing about the price, just concerned about building quality.
March 1st, 2004 at 2:17 pm
babs
do you have your contract??
if so type in all the sizes/specifications etc as i worked as a conservatory designer 25k seems an awful lot i will work out what you should be paying for your particullar conny.
March 1st, 2004 at 9:11 pm
if the price is the best they can do and you are happy with that and the design etc… and the product itself is very attractive and of good quality. thats great but keep every piece of paperwork safe and to hand and read it thouroughly. get hold of a brochure as it has some of the standards you should expect in the building/basework etc.
check your plans thouroughly when the surveyor comes (before signing it)
keep an eye on the builders if anything bothers you or you are worried about it then force the issue do not take any excuses.
do not pay the full balance until you are absolutely 100% happy.
March 1st, 2004 at 9:31 pm
Hi Tokat and thanks for your reply. I am at work and the plans are at home, however, there is a fair bit of building work to do. Not just the foundations but one wall knockthrough with french double doors fitted. Resiting of a drain and blocking in a pipe from the shower room plus resiting the down guttering and extra guttering work where the flat roof of the kitchen meets the new conservatory. The foundations will have to be fairly deep due to a glass roof and we are going for the woodgrain effect pvc and argon gas windows. WE did get the salesman to knock 4K off the initial price. My husband works from home and has a good digi camera so will be keeing an eye on proceesings. We have until Wednesday to send a cancellation letter by registered post so will put the dimensions on here tomorrow for your estimate! I think the dimensions are around 4.8 metres by 7.5 metres with 4 tilt and turn windows and one angled door to the outside and the french double doors to one room. The conservatory will extend by one metre out from the exisiting kitchen extension, then angle in by 1 metre (the external door) come across and then mirror image back. One skylight in the glass roof. Dwarf brick wall of 7 bricks high 533mm? Hope this helps!
March 2nd, 2004 at 10:28 am
hi babs, sounds like a large conservatory with a complex design. so without seeing it cannot be sure on price.
foundations should be standard of 650 deep and will go to 1 metre at no extra cost (this complies with both roofs!!!) all the units are argon filled anyway!!.
easiest way to find out if you have a good price is to divide your prices up before discounts 1) product costs
2)baseworks)
3)admin costs
they can discount 35% off product
20% off baseworks
and admin remains the same
above is for showhome( but they give showhome to everyone !!!!!!
hope this helps a little
speak to you soon
March 2nd, 2004 at 12:26 pm
ps. seems you could get more than 4k off price, and if you make sure workers take their time and do a good job it will be lovely and well worth the money.
good luck
March 2nd, 2004 at 12:30 pm
Thanks for all your advice. We have decided to go ahead on the basis that we are not going to pay more than 25K and, therefore, if during the survey additional costs are required we are quite prepared to pull out at that stage, and get our deposit back. If, after planning permission is granted and the baseworks starts unforeseen problems are found we have the chance to pull out then. We would lose the price of drawing up plans and application for planning permission but this is a gamble we would take.
I will report back on this board once work starts!!!
March 3rd, 2004 at 9:22 am
Babs, your letter seems a bit spoof to me, you get a lot of conservatory for 25K.
March 3rd, 2004 at 7:00 pm
The buy in price for a window 1000 mm x 1000 mm with a top opening vent, and K glass and outside window ledge is around £89.00 for a n average company. A big national company would have a cost of around £40.00, a one man band would be around £100.00. So bearing in mind that prices are plunging down for all consumer goods and quality is pretty much consistent across the range of UPVC, just look at what the big companies are prepared to charge you for a product which can be otained fron a local company, a tin of peas is a tin of peas
March 3rd, 2004 at 7:33 pm
Work out the base work: £130 a square metre for brickwork.
£95.00 a square metre for a concrete base with insulation.
£150.00 a SQM for a victorian roof. £110.00 for a len to roof.
A fiiter charges the company £50.00 a SQM to install a conservatory
Frames cost around 248.00 SQM.
double doors cost around £900.00
March 3rd, 2004 at 7:39 pm
anglians double doors are priced at £575 no matter what the size
March 3rd, 2004 at 10:57 pm
sales reps are told to use a little trick off adding 1000 to the price of doors before discounts to cover any mistakes !!!!!
as customers rarely know of the costs they dont realise.
this is just one of the other reasons why i can no longer bring myself to work for the company.
March 3rd, 2004 at 10:59 pm
I doubt very much if you can obtain double doors for £575
from the big companies
March 4th, 2004 at 8:28 am
Conservatory buy in prices as advertised by a large manufacturer of frames and roofs
Edwardian 4400 mm wide x 4300 mm projection. all top pange product cost to buy in: £2544.00 this a dwarf wall model with double doors and 4 top openers, extras can be added
March 4th, 2004 at 8:32 am
basher i do not lie and i dont make guesses.
i worked as a conny designer and can send you my pricing list as i no longer need it.
please do not insult me again.
thanks
March 4th, 2004 at 2:57 pm
Firstly, thanks to everyone for their advice. Based on some of the costings above I came out at around £15-£16K including golden oak frames both sides. However, that does not include the extra dormer roof required, and the special attachments (gutter fixing etc) to the flat roof of the kitchen, knocking down walls, extra doors etc. plus VAT!
Basher, my email was not a “spoof letter” by any means but thanks to both you and Tokat for your online help. We will now progress to survey but, if the costs come in any higher will have a rethink. At that point we have a chance to pull out (and get our deposit back)if the costs are over estimate. At £25k they shouldn’t be!!
March 4th, 2004 at 5:09 pm
I have watched with much interest the comments on this forum. I work for one of the big three. It’s an excellent idea that channel 4 is doing a documentary on double glazing companies. Lets see what comes of it.
March 5th, 2004 at 11:50 pm
To Tokat. I dont work conservatories but I cannot believe that you have a price list showing Anglian double dooors at £575 or anything like it. The list price for double doors in a house is nearly six times this.
I cannot sell even a very simple single back door as low as £575.
March 8th, 2004 at 8:20 am
Buying windows a few essential tips
Do not subject yourselves to in home demonstrations and high pressure sales tactics, do not buy out of a salesmans bag, If some one knocks at your door touting for business, ask them where is your showroom, go and have a look, do not book an appointment on the door.
Go round the showrooms of a few companies and look at the products, you should be able to see frames without glass, sealed units, doors and a host of other items, its a bit like buying a car, go out and do it. At this stage you can make a lot of decisions, opening windows, type of locks, obscure glass for your bathroom and front door
Once you have chosen a couple of companies who you feel confident with, check them out, check their FENSA number.
You can save the pain of a 4 hour home demonstration
Never ever sign on the night, if do succumb to sign on the night, you have a 7 day cooling off period, take the quote around a few local companies with showrooms, ask them for a comparison
Basic specifications: 70 mm profiles, shot bolt locking and anti jemmy claw locks, 28 mm sealed units, internally glazed
March 8th, 2004 at 10:31 am
Tokat: sorry if I insulted you, may I just say you are a stanger to the truth
March 8th, 2004 at 10:43 am
I had a bad time with Coldseal – maybe i negotiated too much – any way – agreed a price then they backed out – still havn’t got the deposit of £550 back yet but still trying – but as we had the measurementts we also got a quote from Coral windows – this time the guy new what he was up against – as we had the surveyers measurements and previous price. He was a thouroughly nice gent and left after 1.5 hours after giving us a quote – No pressure at all this time !!! Maybe they are a one off ????
March 8th, 2004 at 4:45 pm
Wow. Just found this site when looking for Anglian windows on Google. I have someone coming round on Thursday to give me a quote for a conservatory and windows and am now very confused as to the way I should be looking to buy these products.I was told on the phone it would just be a quote and I should get as many as possible, i think the rep may have other ideas after reading all the oteher postings. I shall let you all know what happens on Thursday!! My neighbour fits windows for a living and can get and fit mine for a certain price. It will be interesting to see if Anglian can get anywhere near to this. I still need a conservatory though. The B&Q ones seem very cheap. Are they crap? One last thing, If a you want a rep to go, TELL HIM/HER. As a serving police officer I will have no problems doing this.
Thanks for a great site.
March 8th, 2004 at 8:36 pm
Good god! Of course Anglian wont offer the same price as your next door neighbour will!
Why on earth would you expect them too?
Do you expect the Mercedes garage to charge the same as your mate fred will for servicing your car?
Do you expect Heinz to start selling beans at 10p per tin?
Anglian are not competing on price but on quality. Quality of product; quality of fitting; and quality of after care.
It seems to me that almost everyone on this thread is obsessed with asking ‘How cheap can windows be?’ The answer is that they can be almost as cheap as you want them to be, but you will get what you pay for.
This does not mean that a company of Anglians size will never ever make a cock up. Of course they will. But they make far fewer relative to their size than others, and on those rare occasions when problems occur they will sort it out. Very occasionally some sort of large company bureacracy / confusion will get in the way and the problem may drag on. But it will get sorted.
Believe me, problems with local companies very often dont get sorted at all, and the relative frequency of their occurence is far higher.
March 9th, 2004 at 10:52 am
I’ve just had weatherseal in giving quality promises and cutting their initial quote for 6 windows by a large amount etc. Can anyone tell me if they’ve had bad/good experiences with weatherseal and where they fit into the market?
March 9th, 2004 at 12:08 pm
Great site. I have to agree with all the comments about the sales tactics of Anglian, amongst others, I have vowed to avoid them completely based solely on their methods. I am considering buying a modestly sized conservatory purely to expand the size of the house. One child and another on the way have miraculously swallowed any space we thought we had! We are considering moving the laundry (washing machine and dryer) into the conservatory but I have seen that it would appear that planning permission is needed for drainage. Can anyone clarify this for me?
March 9th, 2004 at 1:25 pm
OK, progress report. Surveyor coming round next week so will then have clearer idea of price. In the meantime received a cold call from Helen Glass conservatories saying “moving into your area” showhome possiblity etc. I explained that they had missed the boat and that we were going with Anglian. Sales Manager from Helen contacted me and said “not only would they give me the 2.5K deposit already paid to Anglian but a further huge discount”! Obviously they are very keen on sales. However, I don’t know them, havent seen their product and am not prepared to go through another 3 hour presentation. We will wait until after the survey but, if the price goes up will think again. Still waiting for the quote from the local company who also measured up at the same time as Anglian. Watch this space…..
March 9th, 2004 at 2:56 pm
Slip, I am after a new conservatory from Anglian. The windows were a side issue.I want quality and am prepared to pay for it. That is the reason I asked them to give a quote. using the analogy of heinz beans for 10p does not work as we are talking about thousands of pounds. I have never bought a consevatory before and was just looking for a bit of imput. Anyone got any??
March 9th, 2004 at 5:14 pm
OK use the anaology of a Mercedes compared to a skoda if it makes you happier. Then we are talking of thousands of pounds. No?
YOu pay more for quality whether its for beans, or a conservatory, or a car, or a house, or anything else.
Let me let you all into a secret. You can say ‘NO thanks’ to any offer made by any salesman.
Let me let you all into another. Nothing is free. The cost of your quote is that you allow the Anglian salesman to show you what he is offering.
Let me let you into yet another. Salesmen, like anyone else, get paid for doing their job. For making sales in other words. So, obviously, they are going to try and make a sale. Why on earth do you all seem to resent this so much?
March 9th, 2004 at 10:22 pm
Coldseal hav eoffered me a ten year finance deal on £1650.00 saying i can pay more than the minimum payment and reduce the period to 2.3 years for less than the monthly £80.00 over three years. any comments
March 10th, 2004 at 3:11 pm
Gus,
Please confirm. Have coldseal offered you a finance deal over 10 years or 3 years? and, what is the monthly interest rate on this deal? Also, is £1650.00 what you are borrowing or is there a deposit you will be offsetting against this amount?
The standard finance package is set up over a ten year/120 month period with a minimum payment against the loan debited monthly from your account by direct debit. The minimum payments would clear this loan in ten years/120 months.
You are entitled to pay more per month which would reduce the amount of interest (ergo the total term of the loan).
These loan accounts are normally reducing balance interest accounts which means that the interest is calculated on the outstanding balance – like a credit card! Now, the interesting thing about these accounts is the fact that if you pay around double the minimum monthly payment you will reduce the total term not by half but by a staggering 70% i.e to approximately 3 years! Good news? Yes!
Another very important factor is your monthly interest rate. Whatever your monthly budget/minimum payment you can actually afford more product with a lower interest rate. For example a monthly payment of around £40 will get you approximately £1630 worth of product at 1.94% interest per month. The same monthly payment will get you approximately £2040 worth of product at 1.39% interest per month etc etc. Does this make sense?
I look forward to your response.
March 12th, 2004 at 1:09 am
I had this wonderful guy called Peter call around and see me and my husband to discuss our conservatory, the product he showed us was equal to, or, probably better then the quotes from the salesmen who you cannot get rid of, we settled on a price of £15450.00 this included all the base and the base wall, the bonus with the company Peter works for is, the owner, the owners brother and owners son are builders, this eliminated the problem of sub contractors, a surveyor called and double checked everything, we changed a couple of opening windows around and added 2 more double point, the work went commenced 5 weeks after I placed the order, the base was completed in 4 days, the following week the sides and the roof were fitted in 3 days and the next day was finishing off, everything went perfect. The perfection was made complete by a visit from the owner of the company with a large bunch of flowers and 6 bottles of wine. The most charming and professional people we have dealt with
March 12th, 2004 at 4:06 am
I was reading the reports from Fiona on this site and I recognised the end paragraph, this is similar to my experience, In fact it is so similar I believe it must be the same company, because the owner and his family members are builders. The chap who came to see us was Bryan, he was very professional and knowledgeable, Bryan fully explained all what to expect from the start of the base to the final finish of my conservatory
I must say it was a complete pleasure to deal with such a good company, We agreed a price of £12500.00, which was a fixed price with no added extras, we paid a 20% deposit with our credit card and when everything was complete we paid the balance by cheque, yes, the flowers and wine followed a couple of days after completion delivered by the owner of the company
March 12th, 2004 at 10:40 am
RE – LORTEL
I am a sales rep. I deal fairly and honestly. I do not like dodgy tactics and do not implement them. I tell you everything straight up front. i give the best price i can. There is no price drop from my first price. If you are looking for a consevatory or replacement windows and doors that really are top quality at the best price go to http://qualityconservatory.mysite.freeserve.com/
March 12th, 2004 at 2:55 pm
Now come on guys and gals, us poor old doulble glazing guys have got to make a living some how. Ive worked for Anglian, Weatherseal and Safestyle, i know every trick in there respective book. If anyone would like advice on how to get the best deal on there windows and doors when dealing with companies like these please email me.
March 13th, 2004 at 9:49 am
I am taking orders for supply only windows and conservatories or supply and fit windows and conservatories, I will also quote for trade enquires, just E Mail: Seasons789007@aol.com for a free quote, I cover all of East Anglia, and further, call me now on 01493 781172, ask for Bryan
March 14th, 2004 at 5:10 pm
A possible problem of negotiating too hard with the Anglian salesman is the likelihood of the company withdrawing from the deal that was agreed and signed up for.
I had the surveyor round today and he pretty much advised me that there was no chance of the work being done at the price quoted.
Should I accept a higher quote? – or should I look to a firm other than Anglian?
Has anyone got experience of the cost of the work being increased on the advice of the surveyor?
March 15th, 2004 at 7:33 pm
Hi John
We have the surveyor coming round this week too. We had been told (by the salesman) that if the price was going over the agreed amount that we have the option to withdraw at that stage and get our deposit back. I think this is also in the contract.
March 16th, 2004 at 4:51 pm
Have just bought Anglian DB. Guy came round, we haggled I purchased.
Not sure why folks think that this will ever be different.
I’ve sold cars and know the way customers treat salesmen. Not a job I’d do again.
I now teach, guess I’m just destined to suffer.
I’ll post again when the windows have been fitted and pass on my experience.
March 16th, 2004 at 10:00 pm
How to over the the surveyor increasing the price: Print this out out on your PC: I and the sales person (Name) who is a representative of (company name) agree the following price (*****) and we both agree this a binding contract in law, Sign this document and ask the sales person to sign it, you have now got a fixed price quote, do not sign the contract which the salesman produces, this will waver all your legal rights.
March 17th, 2004 at 8:11 pm
Help.
We have had similar experience with Anglian Windows.
Last December, I has a visit by one of their Area sale manager…did a wonderful sale presentation to us..sign the deal to install 5 windows and a new door porch for 5.5K.
Applied for their finance scheme. Several days later, they told us it didn’t go thru so we changed the contract to pay in cash, under the assumption we can defer the installation six months later – to give us some time to build up the fund. However, we discovered that this verbal agreement was never put down in writings and we have been hound by calls from their installation department week after week to come in to install the windows. threatening us to pay storage fees of £50 per week. We now want to cancel the contract.
We made the error of signing the contract.
Can anyone help/advice what we should do?
March 18th, 2004 at 12:01 pm
Babs
I am a conservatory designer for one of the big 4. 25K for the conservatory you have described is, if anything underpriced. A good rule of thumb is to expect to pay at least £1000 per square metre for a quality conservatory. Yours being 36 square metres will not only require planning permission but also come under building regs. This means deeper footings possibly upto 2m deep plus gas filled glass in the windows and roof. this will add at least 2k to the price and usually an additional non returnable fee of £600 for buiding regs approval which includes detailed plans. Woodgrain effect also typically adds 20% to the cost. Forget about 15-16k as a price. There is no doubt that you could get one for that price but you would end up with a pile of crap that would detract from the value of your property and would in all likelihood need replacing in a few years. If you would like any more advice dont hesitate to mail me. Dont worry I wont try to sell you anything. Lol.
March 18th, 2004 at 10:29 pm
Baracus, thanks for your sensible advise. The conservatory is actually going to be about 20sq m which still works out at £20K and we are going for the oak-grained effect. Surveyor has now been round and the next stage is the detailed plans and planning permission application. Surveyor took 3 hours and was very thorough.
So far so good!
March 19th, 2004 at 9:24 am
gas filled is a load of bollocks!!
Look at Pilkingtons site
March 19th, 2004 at 8:06 pm
Conservatories and windows are zooming down in price, do not be fooled by all the shit spouted by the big 4 reps, its a load of bollocks, their windows are no different then the the local guy who has ben around for a few years. do not be fsucked in to paying over the odds
March 19th, 2004 at 8:11 pm
Conservatories and windows are zooming down in price, do not be fooled by all the shit spouted by the big 4 reps, its a load of bollocks, their windows are no different then the the local guy who has ben around for a few years. do not be fsucked in to paying over the odds
March 19th, 2004 at 8:11 pm
The guys and galls who say they are designers for the big 4 companies are full of shit, they are sales people looking to con the public out of 15% of the selling price in commission, kick them out of the door, they are parasites. buy from a local company, they do not have area managers and reps driving around in BMW and Mercs
March 19th, 2004 at 8:15 pm
Sorry Basher but I dont drive around in a BMW or a Merc but a 5 year old Mondeo but using your analogies, they are the same or are BMW and Mercedes conning the public with their high prices? As for gas filled windows, thats not something dreamed up by window companies, its a legal requirment as soon as the conservatories reach building regs sizes.You astound me with your ignorance.Firstly local companies dont manufacture any of their products so how can they control the quality? Secondly, if there is a failure of one of these bought in products, who will honour the warranty. The manufacturer will say that its down to the installer and the installer will say that its down to the manufacturer. Meanwhile the person that you advised to go to the local company is left high and dry.I dont condone the sales tactics employed by the big 4 but its pretty obvious that you wouldn’t recognise quality if it smacked you in the face. The average life expectancy for a local window company is 8 months. Why? because they cant afford to honour their warranties and it is cheaper to go out of business. You really do get what you pay for. Buy from a local company and you will invaribaly get externally glazed windows that are as secure as rice paper.Buy from one of the big boys and your house is like fort knox.I have worked for both big and small and know which I would rather buy.
March 20th, 2004 at 12:35 am
Baracus,
Do not be sorry for me, regarding your ignorance, there is no requirement under building regulations or any other regulation to fill a sealed unit with inert gas.
Look at Pilkingtons web site and you will see the u values with and without inert gas, in a sealed unit.
As of yet Building regulations are not needed in general for most conservatories, your lack of knowledge is appalling
You may be meaning planning permission; some unaware and under educated people quite often confuse the two.
There is one of the large companies which sell external beaded windows, so you do not know what you are talking about, probably some old crap you have heard at one of your sales meetings.
Final point, if you are calling your self a sales person and you are driving around in a 5 year old; you have not made it and never will with all the incorrect statements you make.
Baracus, let me try to educate you:
1: The most common reasons for needing building regulations are, a very large conservatory, open archways from the building to the conservatory, a spurred fuse point for an electric heater in a conservatory, a radiator from the wet system of the house, fitted in to the conservatory, some of these points then require low E glass to be fitted in the sealed units, sorry inert gas does not enter in the regulations
2: planning permission is need depending on the size of the conservatory, the existence of extensions, the size of the property and garden, conservation areas.
3: there are lots of very successful local companies who buy profile from the big manufactures, Status, Rehau, Kommerling etc; and they manufacture their frames in their local factories. This system is reducing the cost to the public, the selling methods of these local companies does nor involve sitting in a customers home for 3 or 4 hours drop closing from a silly first price to silly bottom price.
March 21st, 2004 at 8:29 am
Well, after nearly a month our local company finally said that their conservatory quote was ready. When we said we had already gone with Anglian their comment was “did they quote you above or below £30K?” so it looks like they would have been more expensive!!! This local company one the best domestic fitter of the year recently so it is a pity that they took so long to come back with a quote. Have asked them to quote for windows however!
March 26th, 2004 at 9:22 am
In the last 4 years we have had Anglian replace most of the windows in the house. I would say that they are definately a superior product and we are very pleased with them. But I too, had to go through the haggle, the negotiation and the stand-off to get to the price I wanted to pay. BUT I knew what I wanted, i.e. equal sightlines and dummy vents – to ensure that the original line and balance of the original wooden windows was preserved. Some people make the most horrendous mistakes because they simply dont know what they are buying and how the end product will look. Maybe some people dont care but it was important to me how they look as well as perform! Another thing – Anglian Windows dont “ripple”. The glass sits firm in the frame. Look at some replacement windows and they give a distorted reflection. Horrible! BUt I had to fight to get the equal sightlines – even though the salesman promised them to me, when the surveyor came he told me that was not what the saleman put down. So, I told him the deal was off unless I got exactly what I asked for. Which, of course I did! If you chose cheap windows, you will only find you are replacing them in 10 years time, so if you want to stay in your house, might as well get a decent job the first time round!
March 27th, 2004 at 3:19 pm
At the end of the day ,today not being a very good one,aren’t we just a reflection of each other?You say you’ve had a quote for half the price for better quality because you think you’re a good haggler.I think you’re a mean bastard so I say “whoops,I forget to charge for the vat”.If only.The customer’s always right.The thing that pisses me off is the bastard that nails you down to the ground & pays less than the people that don’t want to haggle .My whole life revolves around this debate which is why at the end of the day we salesman don’t give a toss what you punters think.It’s our job and we know how it works.What really pisses me off is how everyone knows how to do the job better than us.Bye bye.
March 27th, 2004 at 11:00 pm
Got quotes from weatherseal coldseal everest and a local company 11 widows french door front door quotes ranged from 4700 to 9300 all salesmen tried to sign me up on the night weatherseal was by far the worst salesman coldseal and everest the best on the issue of price Vs quality everest were by far the best but that was reflected in the cost is it worth paying extra to ‘Fit the Best’ or should i look for the middle ground are the other companies that have the same quality at a better price? and why are the no negative comments about this company if ‘all PVCu windows are basicly the same’
March 27th, 2004 at 11:44 pm
Hi will, do you con people in to buying anglian products, your comments seem to be a load of bull
March 28th, 2004 at 8:23 pm
plastic is plastic, locks are locks, glass is glass, all quotes should be within a couple of hundred quid of each other, you are not dealing with BMW’s and Skoda’s. there is no comparison, tell the direct sell it on the night, ring the manager, for a better price, hard sell sales persons, to piss off. buy local and pay the right price and save , lots of money.
March 28th, 2004 at 8:29 pm
Comments on this post are now closed. The discussion continues here: http://www.guyweb.co.uk/archives/001017.asp
March 29th, 2004 at 11:12 am