Beware Of The "Model Home" Ploy From Window Salesmen
Thomas says his wife was approached by a belligerent salesman the other day regarding the windows on their home. He tried to get her to agree to an instant estimate and promised a huge discount for being a "model home" for the window upgrades, but when she refused to make an instant decision, Thomas says he "snatched the card out of her hand" and "yelled at her."
Here's the complaint that Thomas sent in to The Window Store of Minneapolis over a week ago. Earlier this week, we too sent the Window Store an email asking them to respond to the story and giving them a chance to explain just how a Model Home offer works. They've yet to respond to Thomas or to us.
My wife had one of your salesmen approach her at home yesterday. It was an older gentleman but my wife did not get the name since he yanked his business card out of her hand. My wife said the gentleman got too close to her, was intimidating and rude and made a scene that even the neighbors were aware of. When my wife could not commit immediately to the usual nonsense pitch that window salesmen use about being a model home and acting now, he yelled at her that she would not get the best deal and snatched the card out of her had. Terrible way to do business with a potential customer that needs new windows.
Thomas adds that you should be wary of any offer to be a "model home" for housing renovations or upgrades; if the salesman demands an instant answer, it's likely the deal isn't that great to begin with.
Potential windows customers should know that if they are approached as being a model home for windows and will receive a discount allowing their home to be seen, this is a tired old ploy to act right away. Usually the deal will not be offered if you do not set up an estimate immediately. The "estimator" may actually be a marketer who may or may not be able to give you a price. Stay away from these lures.
(Photo: glenmcbethlaw)
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Comments:
Somehow I expected this story to be about salespeople offering to give you little models of your home. I sure would like to recreate the town model in the attic from Bettlejuice.
@Applekid: That's the first thing I thought of when I saw the little diorama graphic.
Speaking of which, Gina Davis is HOT in that movie, IMHO. :)
Never, ever, ever do business with a window/door/roof/[insert-house-repair-of-choice] salesman that shows up at your door -- EVEN IF HE/SHE IS EXTREMELY NICE.
Same thing happened to me where a door to door salesman gave me a WalMart gift card and then snatched it out of my hand when I didn't want to buy whatever he was selling. It was pretty rude. Not to mention he gave it to me with no strings attached. I really wanted to keep it to go to WalMart and see if it actually had any money on it.
lots of stories out of MN lately, woohoo! er wait... should I be embarrassed?
Shortly after college, before I knew any better, I applied at a company that sold outdoor signs to businesses. After one day of training, where they went over the pitch, I was gone.
Anyway, part of the pitch was, offering a discount to be the business that was the first in the area, allowing us to show off our signs.
Of course, everyone got this 'offer'.
I had a similar experience with a door-to-door salesman. He was selling a discount card for a local mechanic. He had a laminated discount card that he handed to me and when I said I wasn't interested he yanked it out of my hand and yelled at me for not wanting to save money. Strange.
Gratis do-not-call rules, I have an increasing number of door-to-door salesmen (they're never women) stopping by the house, whether for auto windshield repair, house number spray-paint stenciling, roofing or wrapping-paper sales. The only thing I didn't get recently was Girl Scout cookies. I had to track them down in a Walmart parking lot.
@t-r0y: Strewth! I fell for it once as a young, inexperienced first-time homeowner -- NEVER AGAIN! Thank God Indiana has a 3-day "buyer's remorse" contract clause. :P
Any "Salespeople" that approach my door uninvited get the standard "Sales" welcome when I open the door. It involves my shotgun.
Also, never do business with ANYONE who will not give you time to think about it. 99.99% of the time, "You have to make a decision this instant" means "I know if you go and do some research, you'll find out very bad things about me and my company, so I need your signature on this contract before you can do that research"
That's straight out of Tin Men - a Danny Devito movie about aluminum siding salesmen in the 1960's.
@ChuckECheese: Maybe the Girl Scouts didn't want to wait in the line of sales folks at your house trying to get you to buy something? ;-)
@ViperBorg - SpaceBat hates Facebook: My front door has a window with a curtain covering it. If I don't know the person at the door, I just pull the curtain aside a little and make them talk to me with the door closed. It's partly because we have cats that like to try to run outside, but it has the added bonus of making salespeople give me a confused look that says "Do I really have to yell my offer through a closed door?" They give up much easier than when I open the door.
Just one more reason not to answer your door.
Someone knocks on my door, I look out the window to see who it is. If I don't know 'em, then I go back to watching TV. They can knock till they wear their hand off for all I care.
I don't get the whole door-to-door salesman thing anyway. Maybe back in the 1940s when the population wasn't as mobile and people couldn't always get to a store, but now... why would anyone try to sell me something d-t-d when I can buy anything from anywhere on the internet?
Oldest scam in the world, have your home be the first in the neighborhood to have our wonderful (shit) product installed at overinflated prices.
Never, ever have anything done on your home by someone who comes to your door. Period. Legitimate businesses work by word-of-mouth and satisfied customers and don't have to go door to door.
@snowburnt: Better Mormons than a Kirby salesman.
Yeah. I fell for that once, too. It took hours to get that asshat to leave. *facepalm*
Just yell through the door "I have swine flu!"
Oink, if you think it will help.
I was at The Home Depot with my fiancee last Saturday morning and a man sitting in a brown folding chair asked, "Would you folks be interested in a Florida room?"
I've lived in Florida since 1970 so not so much, but I responded, "Thanks, already have one."
My fiancee said, "No, they're too expensive."
I noticed the gaffe right away but dismissed it; we're usually right on target with our way of thinking. Besides, I was focused on the grocery list of things we needed to buy to renovate a rental apartment.
As we were leaving, the same man sarcastically said to me, "Enjoy your Florida room!"
To which I responded, "Enjoy not selling any!"
First, I was taken aback by his smarmy opening sales pitch (I wanted to wash up afterwards) and I didn't particularly like him leering at my girl either.
Epic Fail.
Many of these door to door scams are done by Irish Travelers. Good rule of thumb - don't buy anything sold door to door.
They still have door-to-door salesmen in parts of the country?
I've never seen one in my life. The only "sales" people who show up at our door are the occasional Jehovah's Witness freaks.
Surprising lack of Arrested Development comments here...
Sudden Valley is the place to buy!
None for me, thanks. My Bluth Model Home windows are Solid as a Rock.
@redskull: Seriously. If I don't know who's knocking, I don't open the door. I really don't understand why any business would depend on door to door as a viable sales option.
Guy came to my grandma's door selling windows once. She actually let him in, listened to the sales pitch, and agreed to think about it. The next morning, he brought her a bag of blueberry muffins. WTF? Maybe I'm getting too cynical but that seemed so scammy to me!
She didn't buy the windows from him, thank goodness. Who knows what kind of baked-goods shenanigans he was up to!
@ViperBorg - SpaceBat hates Facebook:
I usually cuss out the solicitor with the most foul language I could muster. Being a retired sailor, I can do that. If that still doesn't convince the salesman I'm not interested, I run after them with my sword. A sword I picked up in Japan. Yes, I actually did this.
Unsolicited sales pitches are a dead end with me anyways. Show up and my house and hassle me? What are people thinking.
Actually having windows installed right now from a d-t-d sales call. Did some research, and decided to go with it. So far, very professional, excellent quality for the price. I'm cutting my utility expenses, improving the look and value of my home, making my wife happy, stimulating the economy by buying products made in USA. Overall satisfied so far.
I was told by my local police department, during a neighborhood watch meeting, to call the police if you see a door to door salesman (other than a girl/boy scout) because it isn't legal without a special permit. I hope other cities catch on and do this. I hate when people come to my door and try to sell me stuff. Especially the Kirby vacuum people!
@snickers: Last year we were averaging one a day in the spring. Selling all sorts of scams, grocery raffles (not associated with any group), cleaning products, magazines, windows, some bizarre insurance. The insurance one was just odd, I used to work in the industry and this sales person could not explain to me how it worked or what it insured.
90% of them were hostile when you said you were not interested including screaming at you through the door after you closed it. I scared the crap out of two poor college kids who were canvassing for Obama, I thought they were more of the aggressive sales people.
One perk of the crappy economy, no door to door sales this spring.
I had a guy walkup trying to sell me his religion, the other day, it was strange, something about being a model christian...
I think that an essential shopping experience is to have a salesperson flip out at you when they can't nail the instant sale. I had a Toyota salesman do that when my then-wife and I were looking for a second car. The trigger was when I said something about looking up model info on the internet. (This was about ten years ago.)
@IfThenElvis: I am glad I double checked. that is exactly what I was going to say. though in Tin Men the scam was being the before picture in Life Magazine.
@Eldritch: I don't think Christina Ricci's in Beetlejuice, unless there was some remake I don't know about.
I live in Minneapolis. I posted the article on Facebook. I would never trust anyone selling goods door to door, except for neighborhood kids trying to fund school activities.
I always ignore the knocking people on the door, unless I'm expecting someone or they shout out and I know who they are.
That said, this is a nice article about a 90-year-old Fuller Brush salesman (I didn't know they were still around!), he's been working for decades:
[www.latimes.com]
I had something like this happen. It wasn't door-to-door, but it was a follow-up from a home show. My wife and I actually did like the windows, and the house is 40 years old so definitely could use them. We signed.
Next day we had another estimate come out. Came to about half. Here in Maryland, ANY sale done in your home can be retracted within three calendar days thanks to high pressure crap like that. I faxed them saying CONTRACT VOID / COPY SENT TO ATTY GENERAL. I live in the boonies, at least 45 min from their office. The next day after work the guy actually is at my door asking what they can do. I told him straight out to halve the price or just walk. He thanked me for my time.
I generally despise salesman. Some are good, polite, informed. I find those to be the minority. Most are arrogant, don't know anything (nor do they care) about their product and are only concerned with making the hard-sale.