cold callers………….grrrrr………..
Published 1 year, 8 months ago in Local services.I’ll begin this with a lead into my story, by saying Hubby lost his job, been made redundant. times are tough, but then, I’ve heard worse stories, onwards & upwards etc, etc. But, as he is home, he is answering the phone, and actually chatting to telemarketers, something that I discourage. As a matter of course, I am aware that our roof needs work, so I suppose when he was offered by a company to come and quote our roof, he accepted, makes the day a tad more interesting. Two days later, I come home from work, walk in the door and he casually mentions that another roofing company has rung, and is coming to give us a price on the roof, you know they want to hang a sign, and with that give us a good price, for the advertising. Well up turns Mr smarmy, from Roof seal, he does all the right things that you would expect a “salesman” to do, he made eye contact with both of us, and made sure he included me in every piece of the conversation. he asked if we both understood why he was there, he was not here to quote us, but to offer us a price, with the sign out the front etc. And our roof being so viewable, but, he would be off in another area tomorrow, so we would have to give him the go ahead tonight, or he couldnt’ go ahead with the price. He hopped up on the roof, chatted to hubby about what needed to be done, and then asked if he was on holiday, Hubby explained the situation…..oh, did the girls on the phone not ask if you were employed.He then came inside, and wanted to set out his paperwork, but before he set it out, he voiced that hubby being unemployed was a worry, and what did he do? I told him that he wasn’t interviewing hubby for a job, and what was the problem, he said well we may not have the funds to do the roof at this time. I said if his price was right, we would have the money, and to just go ahead and quote, with this he said he was not quoting that he was giving us a price, and that he needed our assurance that we were going through with the deal tonight. I told him that only an idiot would sign up on the night without getting other quotes,and comparing figures. He then asked what we were prepared to pay. At which I told him that I wasn’t prepare to tell him any such figure, that he was to give me a price and then we would decide, so he shut his big fat book and said that he thought that we would just let it all pass this time and when we were ready we may contact them again. if he was really serious about a price one would have been given, as I said to him, he made no effort to even offer a price. I said well we need a quote, so just give us a quote, no he wouldn’t give a quote, he was only giveing out prices. Meanwhile my tea is late, and hopefully this slick little salesman, was tired and hungry also, but obviously he must be used to this cos, I cant imagine, he would suck many people into his supposed special advertising scheme. He kept saying that if we wanted to go with the 1250 deal you see on lamposts, go ahead, but dont expect your roof to stay that way after a year, they use inferior products etc. Of which I dont doubt, but he did slip up at the start and say something about 3 to 5 thousand. Of which I’m sure they would have to charge, if they pay his wage to stuff around day after day ! I know what we will be doing……..homework for sure. And I’d never use this company on principle now.
5 Responses to “cold callers.............grrrrr...........”
Leave a Reply
Your reply will not appear on the site until it has been approved
I don’t understand the difference between giving a quote and giving a price. I thought that a quote was a price. Then he tried to make you give him a quote - I’ve never heard such nonsense. Don’t you just hate time wasters!
Keep away from these people, they will paint your roof with paint and then charge you for sealant. They a rip offs. Tell you husband to start delivering pizza or pamphlets and to leave the phone alone
As they say “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”. Unfortunately some people believe the hype and do sign up there and then, if someone wants your business, tonight, tomorrow a week down the track it won’t matter and they’d be prepared to give you a written quote. I don’t think truly professional companies harass you over the phone or come to your door unasked.
Roof painting and sealing ……. a waste of money, unless you are about to sell and want to ‘pretty’ the place up for sale ….
Consider the following:
I have yet to see a repainted tiled roof that looks much good after 4 to 5 years.
The roof repainting companies will tell you that when it rains the old concrete tiles will absorb many tons of water and put excessive stress on the roof structure …. RUBBISH - they will absorb some water, but I have yet to see the water seep all the way through a tile which is not cracked - so how far does ir seep in - perhaps 2 to 3 mm maximum, and how much extra weight will that add to each tile? - Much less than 10% - so what it the water adds an extra ton to the weight of the roof - the (dry) tiles themselves weigh 50 or 60 tons or more, and the roof structure is designed to cope with it anyway - that is what the building regulations are for.
If you are worried about lichen on the roof - it actually protects the surface.
If the tiles are Terracotta - they come in unglazed or glazed forms - the glazed form is only for appearance - unglazed terracotta has been used for centuries in Europe.
If however your roof is corrugated iron and showing signs of rust - then some form of rust treatment followed by a good quality top coat is advisable - and finally you can do it yourself, save heaps, and know what quality paint you are putting on it - but if you decide to do this, be very careful - it is not the fall that hurts it is the sudden stop at the bottom!!!
By the way I am a professional engineer and have been through 7 or 8 redundancies - God has always provided me with another job - but I have had to be out there knocking on doors - I have only applied for jobs in my area of expertise, but I applied for everyone I saw advertised and also went through a specialist agency - my philosophy was that I would accept the first job I was offered and accept that as God’s direction ….. I have no complaints! Be encouraged there is a job out there for your husband - encourage him to keep knocking on doors, and putting in applications.
All the best
Bill
Hi
I have recently dealt with Roof seal. He showed up at our door stated that he wasn’t here to bs us but he will be blunt and tell us what needed to be done if any, cause he didn’t work on commission he got paid whether we signed or not. He made eye contact played with my kids spoke of his family, got on the roof etc went though the roof seal way of doing things and kept asking so how much of a deposit do u think u could have. i was like well u tell us how much then I will tell you. He then said he will give us a deal if we have a sign up and write letter saying how happy we were with the work and take before and after photos, and we were not allowed to tell anyone how much we paid. That all sounded very odd to me but as Hubby and I are 1st home owners we didn’t want our house falling down around our ears and we have 3 young children. Hubby signed and now 1 day later i’m freaking out, you know that little voice that thinks something just not right. With the money he is charging i could afford to get the new car i want or redo my entire kitchen. I mean a roof we cant really enjoy it. I’m really worried now that i have read some stuff on the internet, ive been googling to find if other people find this company shonky or feel they were ripped off.