Had a double Glazing salesman round at the house on Saturday morning. I’d gone through the web pages to request a brochure and lo the phone calls started, telling me there was a team in my area and they’d be happy to pop round to give me a quote. Well, says I, “I’d love to get a quote, but I won’t be signing anything on the day”. “Oh now sir, that’s not how we work these days.” she assures me. We’ll see! Anyway, couldn’t do it the week they said there was a team in my area, but by amazing coincidence there was one im my area the following week too – how lucky am I?

Anyway, the guy appears at my door bang on time, with a big bag of brochures and a laptop and printer. 45 minutes later and we still haven’t seen a brochure, never mind had the windows measured. 1 hour in and he’s just coming back from the car with the demo material – a corner piece. At 90 minutes in he’s now retrieved the demo window with the locks. He’s assuring me that although some companies might quote about 5 grand for the windows on the front of my house, that’s far from realistic and here’s all the ways they’ll be ripping me off.

Come 12:30, we’ve finished measuring the windows and he’s putting together a great quote for me. He’d love to have one of the company vans in my street, there’s plenty people needing window replacements and I could be the one to kick off a lot of sales in the area – I’ll get a great price based on being the conduit to all these sales.

My wife is now putting on her jacket and getting the wee man ready for going over to his Grannies. At 12:45 he prints out the 1st quote just a ba’hair under £14k. I stifle a laugh… I thank him for his time and go to get my own jacket. He’s mumbling something about window scrappage scheme and Barclays finance package. I’ve got my coat on and he’s furiously typing away at the calculator.

“I can do this for you at £7900 but you’d need to sign up today and don’t tell anyone I’ve offered you this price.”

“Well, thanks for your time. We’ve got to go to the Grannies now, I’ll be in touch next week if we decide to go with you.”

“Aye, well, it’s not for everyone. Some people just can’t afford the best and take short sighted decisions due to financial constraints, I understand that”, says he in what I’m beginning to suspect is a bit of an indignant manner.

“Do you need a hand carrying your stuff back to the car?”

Now, the question I have is, why should he be shitty with me? He was supposed to take 45 minutes to demo his product and measure us up for a quote. The fact that he took 3 hours isn’t my fault. I said right up front that I was after quality and a good value for money quote. I explained to him that I was web savvy and had been doing a bit of research on double glazing. I had decent question to ask him about his product, but I’d told everyone I wouldn’t be signing up on Saturday. How disrespectful is it of him to think that I’d change my mind based on his wasting an extra 2 hours and 15 minutes of my Saturday morning? Giving me a quote that can immediately be reduced by over £6k is exactly what I told him not to do.

This is a genuine example of a customer receiving a quote for double glazing in 2009. Not 1989. But 2009! Is this acceptable? Is it time that our industry accepts this type of sales practices? Your comments are welcome (without naming names)…

RCG traffic

Another good month for traffic to this blog in October:

I’d like to take full credit for all this traffic, but I have to come clean and thank Anglian Home Improvements for a healthy amount of new visitors. Since they started actively marketing their own version of the ‘Window Scrappage Scheme’ this site has been extremely busy.

It must be frustrating for the marketing team at Anglian, but Google are currently positioning RCG in the top two places for ‘window scrappage scheme’:

Anglian have been forced into bidding on the term through PPC, although I have thought about bidding against them All joking apart, I can only imagine that Anglian are doing a very good trade as a result of jumping on the GGF’s petition. I can only suggest that should the government take the decision to support the window industry with such a scheme, then consumers will definitely be very responsive. Just what the industry needs!

GlassTalk

We’ve stopped taking bookings for GlassTalk now, and we’re looking forward to welcoming around 150 people to Daresbury Park to talk about glass. I’m looking forward to the event and chewing the fat with some of the most proactive individuals in our industry.

Day 1. Growing a Mo

I stopped shaving on Thursday so I could make a positive start, and by GlassTalk, at least have something furry to discuss. Then, I read the rules:

1. Once registered each Mo Bro must start November 1st with a clean shaven face.
2. Then, for the entire month of Movember each Mo Bro must grow and groom a moustache according to these rules:

• There is to be no joining the Mo to the side burns – that’s a beard. There are no beards.
• There is to be no joining of the handlebars on the chin – that’s a goatee.
• A small complimentary growth under the bottom lip, aka a tickler, is allowed.

I was gutted to find out that I couldn’t join my Mo to my side burns – wouldn’t that look ace! Anyway, I’ve already broken rule 1 as the following picture taken this morning will testify:

You can be the first person to sponsor me by visiting my Mushbashers page at:

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/22901

The Glass & Glazing Federation (GGF) has petitioned the government to introduce a scrappage scheme, whereby householders are encouraged to scrap their old poorly insulated windows in return for a £1,000 grant towards the installation of new, professionally installed, energy efficient ones. The petition has been set up through the ePetition Scheme on the Official website of
the Prime Minister’s Office at: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/windowscrappage

The benefits of this scheme for window manufacturers, suppliers and installers would be increased sales and a reversal in the downward trend in the number of installed windows and doors. Consumers would save £1,000 and enjoy a facelift to their homes, along with lower fuel bills and more energy efficient homes. And the government would benefit from reduced emissions from the
existing housing stock, helping it to meet the necessary greenhouse gas emissions targets. The government would also reclaim some of the grant money in VAT.

“Energy Efficient Windows (EEWs) have a huge role to play in improving the thermal performance of the existing housing stock,” Nigel Rees, Chief Executive of the GGF, explained. “EEWs can reduce emissions by 10% from dwellings nationally and reduce national domestic energy expenditure by 10%.

“The glass and window industry represents over 100,000 employees. Currently direct sell windows and doors fell by 12% in 2008 and a further 14% in 2009. The forecast is for a further 10% drop in 2010. In 2008 FENSA registered 880,831 installations made up of 3,292,437 windows and 761,054 doors. The GGF strongly believes that the proposals to incentivise the professional installation
of new energy efficient windows are the only logical way forward.”

Five hundred signatures are needed to take the petition to the next stage. Given the size of the industry, and the popularity of WERs, the GGF expects the petition to receive many more signatures than that. We at Edgetech urge you to consider signing the petition by clicking the link overleaf in support of this worthy initiative that could be of immense benefit to our industry. 500 signatures are required to ensure that the petition receives official consideration but GGF sees no reason why 10,000+ cannot be
achieved; Whitehall would really have to take notice then!

RCG says – There is a bit of cynicism about signing petitions, but this one really does make sense and the GGF should be applauded for their efforts here. As I write this there are 831 signatories which is disappointing considering the amount of publicity in the trade media this has had. I think 10,000 signatures is unlikely, but if everybody who signs it lets their colleagues know then we can have a good go at getting a decent number so the Government considers it.