On Fri, 29 Apr 2016 20:25:58 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Fri, 29 Apr 2016 20:01:21 +0100, charles
wrote:
snip

Some years ago I answered an advert in a national paper to renew my
drive. I was visted, shown lots of photos and quoted a silly price.
Some months later I had a phone call "since we're doing work in the area
and if you pay cash there won't be any VAT" They quoted half the origal
price. I said "I don't do business that way" and put the phone down. I
had a local firm do something very much more attractive and costing even
less |(and I paid VAT).

sigh

The worrying thing about all this is there are so many people who do
just take them up on their first quotes. We do sometimes get to see them
and their 'efforts' on the likes of Rogue Traders, Dodgy Builders and
Watchdog ... and hear the sad tales of those who fell for it all (who
often really can't afford to and are embarrassed and often traumatised
by the whole sorry business). ;-(

A long time ago, we got quotes from Anglian, a local guy and someone
else. The local guy quoted a final (good) price and stuck to it.

We had fun with them. We arranged the seating so that the salesman
couldn't look at us both at once. Then we made it clear by words and
actions that we had equal input into the final decision (or made it
unclear who was driving the deal). A lot of head swivelling.

We also (more recently) has British Gas quote for a replacement boiler
(they had maintained and broken the old one). This was more for sport
than anything else.

When the man arrived, I told him he had exactly half an hour (he said
"are you going out, then?" and I replied just that he had half an hour. I
also told him no decision would be made that day. I challenged his sizing
of the boiler (I had worked it out at 24kW, and he said 18kW). And a few
other things. After all the 'discounts', he quoted £3400 for flush,
boiler and some TRVs. I got an excellent job from the local man for £1900
(replaced all the valves, not just the TRVs); to be fair, I ended up
doing the sparks on that one to save time - it was cold!