How Dirty Can Companies Get!?

I know I've said I'll try to keep my blog unbiased towards any company, but in this instance I have to mention the company name again, Safestyle.

I've come to know of a customer who had asked Safestyle to visit his home to quote for replacing his windows and doors. When the 'salesman' turned up, he was in a tatty T-shirt, scruffy jeans, no relevant paperwork to even begin to work on the quotation, and a terrible attitude to boot. The customer allowed him time to get into his sales pitch and talk about the product he would be buying, but that never came. All that he got was pressure to buy right there and then. After a lengthy amount of time, the customer had run out of patience and asked the salesman to leave. At first he resisted and gave the customer the usual twaddle about the kids not eating tonight, then the usual aggressive 'well you've wasted my time' speech. Eventually the rep agreed to leave but (and this is where it's gets disgusting) asked the customer to sign a form to say that the rep had actually been out to the house and had not been wasting Safestyle's time.

Two weeks later, a Safestyle van had turned with the windows and doors for the property! The form the customer had been asked to sign was actually disguised as a contract. Despite the fact that the customer had kicked the rep out two weeks earlier without any intention of buying, the fitters still initially tried to fit the windows! The customer quite rightly told them where to go and that was the end of it.

These extreme and disgusting tactics are something which nearly all national companies practice. In my opinion, the sooner they either get fined, stop operating the way they are, or go bust, the better it will be for the smaller, well established companies trying to shake off our terrible reputation.