Dichroic Reflections

I don't do windows.

I actually had a salesman refuse to sell to me today. I'm so proud.

Background: I've still got this cold/allergies/whatever. so I stayed home sick today to see if rest would help. This meant I got to be the one to see with the window salesman Rudder had scheduled for today. We'd already gotten bids from two other companies; Rudder had worked with those. I think this guy had insisted on being last.

He showed up and spent a lot of time trying to convince me that his were fine products of their kind and were far better than our existing windows. He's entirely right, of course, this being why we asked him to come give us a bid in the first place. (I may have rolled my eyes at this point, because I didn't need to know why we needed new windows but why we needed his windows in particular.) He told me his windows were far better than any of the competitors, and that their price was better, but he had no numbers to compare to the others. He did say the numbers were on the window manufacturers' webpages. He measured all of our windows and started talking about prices. Then he started doing the used-car salesman "What would it take to get you to make this decision immediately" bit. When I told him I wasn't going to decide right away because I don't do that on multi-thousand-dollar deals, as a matter of policy, he started getting a little upset. I think he assumed I wasn't deciding because Rudder wasn't here. I told him Rudder would have said the same thing. (True.) I also told him I wouldn't decide without looking up his windows' data on the Web, since he didn't have it, and that we weren't sure whether we wanted to do this instantly or wait a few months, which is also true.

At that point he decided he didn't want to deal with me because it was "evident I didn't trust him", and refused to write out the prices he had previously mentioned in an actual bid. (Also, when he was going to write them out, it was apparently going to be handwriting on lined paper, instead of a form listing exactly what he was offering, as we've seen with bids on other house improvements.) Well, duh I don't trust him. I've never met him before and know nothing about his company. I don't distrust him either (or rather, I didn't before) but I am certainly not going to fork over a few thousand dollars without checking actual data.

I am still going to look up his windows' data, however. I can only assume his reluctance to share it means he's got an inferior product. And if that's not the case, I may well write a letter to the company's owner. I haven't counted how many ways he insulted me/us, but there are definitely a few. Let's see: getting upset at dealing with me instead of Rudder (not sure if this is sexism or assuming we don't trust each other, but either way I don't like it). Pressuring me to make an instant decision. Wanting me to trust him with no accompanying data. Comparing his window to the existing ones instead of a competitors'. Getting upset when I asked him a couple of times about things other installers had said would be problematic (like the windows with no border from our stucco or the one touching a kitchen counter) despite not being an installer himself. Asking me to feel how strong his windows are. (Sorry, my built-in sensors aren't that accurate - can I use a baseball bat?) I think I'm better off without him.