I've had 3 people knocking doors this week trying to flog me various home improvements – windows, gutters and replacement mortar and it got me thinking how archaic this is. I don't need to do any of this to my house but it reminded me that my friend was recently complaining about how stressful it had been to get a price for windows and doors, and had to have a salesperson in her house for over an hour!
It seems the normal process, when buying from some of the bigger companies is:
- you call them, email them, go to their website etc – and they send someone out to your house to look at the windows, approx size, talk about colour etc – they then give you a price. Sometimes it's straight forward, sometimes it's a negotiation.
- if you buy from them, they then send a surveyor round who does a proper measurement for the manufacturing process and goes through all the order in a bit more detail.
I’ve had an idea: a simple online quote service where you tell us your window/door style and dimensions, see an upfront price straight away, and then they sell to you at that price, fully installed… no pushy salespeople, no surprises. That covers of Step 1, then Step 2 takes over?
I can’t quite see why it hasn’t been done or adopted, so I’m curious…
I’d love to hear from anyone who’s recently replaced windows or doors (or is thinking about it). What was your biggest headache? Would you use something like this instead of dealing with sales reps calling in?
All thoughts welcome