Seriously?

Stein and I have been contemplating getting new windows. However, the cost has prevented us from doing anything about it but dreaming. Tired of dreaming (and also motivated by a sweepstakes entry), Stein made an appointment to have a company come out to give us an estimate. What an experience. I should've known by their ads on TV. If you live in Michigan, or have ever visited Michigan and had the TV on, you probably saw the commercials. The jingle can stick in your head for days. I guess that's effective if you're looking at advertising dollars, but annoying nonetheless.

It all started when he tried to schedule the first appointment. I was meeting a friend for dinner that night, and would be about a half hour late to our estimate "appointment". When Stein questioned why I needed to be there the whole time, they said that we both needed to be present to make the decision. So we rescheduled for today.

The guy was supposed to be here around 7:00, but showed up at about 7:20 claiming he couldn't find our house on his GPS. The guy was obviously trying to cover up for being late, because he was well-outfitted with technology. Blackberry and cell phone he had. I don't understand why you would have to stop at the GPS. But I digress.

He first measured the windows around the house, then went out to the car to get his samples. He needed one window to stomp on (seriously), one to show us the weaker competitor, and one to show us how strong his frames are. And then he brought out a heat lamp, and some windows that gave us a cross-cut perspective of what's inside. Thankfully, the guy caught on to Stein's impatience. He cut his lengthy sales pitch short.

When it came down to numbers, it was a lot more expensive than either of us had thought. But we didn't need to worry about the original price he quoted. In a matter of minutes, and 3 (3!) phone calls to his "manager", he cut the price in half. I'm not kidding. How are we supposed to take him seriously when he cut the price that much?

I felt exactly how I feel when I buy a car. No matter how low they go, you always end up leaving the place thinking you've been taken. We told the guy we weren't going to buy tonight, and we didn't. But he was pulling out all the stops to try to get us to buy. He gave us money off for putting a sign on our lawn for a couple months, he gave us a "first time customer" discount. The last stop he pulled out was calling his manager and asking him if we could be considered contractors to get that discount. It reminded me of the "What can we do to get you in a car tonight?" tactic that most car salespeople use.

Thank goodness for caller i.d. I have a feeling the hard sell isn't over just yet.