Sales tactics.

We need a new roof.  We are not happy about this and don't exactly have the extra 10+ grand hanging around to just slap down on the table and do it immediately.  Yet it needs to be done fairly immediately.  And so the adventure begins.  Well, it really began about a about a year ago when a leak appeared on the ceiling.  We had our neighborhood handyman climb up and patch the culprit of a hole and then report to us that really, we needed to deal with this in an asap kind of way.  But we didn't have the money then so we crossed our fingers, and continue to do so.  Thank-fully luck has been with us, but we don't figure we've got enough luck stored up to last another winter. 

So last night we got a couple quotes, both from companies with A+ ratings from BBB.  First guy was nice, seemed respectable, gave us the quote (about $3000 more than the very top of what I expected) and took his leave.  Then the second guy came. He was very much into the sales pitch, making a point to use our names every third sentence or so, which made me suspect, add that to some other funky mannerisms, along with the general look of him, and I was reminded of Robert De Niro. 

Before even looking at the house, De Niro went into a long spiel about the quality of the product he is selling.  We've heard of it before, and have no doubt about the product or the company, so we really didn't need this, but he has an agenda.  Finally we show him the crawl space so knows what he's dealing with from the inside and he takes a walk around.  Then the three level sales pitch comes out.  There is the average quality roof, which of course they guarantee for a number of years, and it has one price (about $4000 more then that previous highball I figured).  Then there is the middle-of-the road roof that has a middle-of-the-road guarantee and middle-of-the-road price (about $7000 more than the top of our budget - really? middle-of-the-road, huh?).  And finally, the top-quality, guaranteed for 30 years, everything you can wish for package for a mere $9500 more than we could afford.  The first thing I notice about these prices is that with the conveniently included financing, the average quality roof payment is nearly twice as much per month as the top-quality roof.  For only 3 years vs. 10 years. 

I am ready to send De Niro off into the sunset (and the sun was setting by this time) as we explain that, yes, we do need a roof, but we need to consider these prices and all of the information that he's given us, and consider other quotes, before we make a decision, when he pulls out the secondary sales pitch.  Now De Niro wants to give us the top-quality roof for the middle-of-the-road price, which would make our monthly payments less, but would extend the loan to those 10 years.  In exchange for this offer, we'd agree to write a testimonial letter as to the high quality of work (should we agree), would be available to speak to 3-5 potential future customers and tell them about our experience, and could be listed as a happy customer (as he hopes we would be).  All of this sounds like a fine exchange - we're still not too sure about that 10 year financing, but we haven't looked into what other financing we could get, so it might be the best thing out there.  We are considering it. Heartily, as we really do need this roof, and frankly we just want to get it done. 

 So what's the catch?  Ahhhh! In order to get in on this fantastic deal, we'd have to make up our minds on the spot - the deal goes away if he walks away.  As in we can't think about it.  Can't look into other options. Can't be sure this is the right thing for us to do in our situation.  Granted, the previous quotes we got would be good for a year, but this extra $2500 off of the top-quality roof would not last.  I think we both had the feeling that it was a quick jump into a big commitment, but since we knew the company/product he almost had us.  Until Papa called us and advised us to back away - quickly, back away from this highwayman of roof-seekers and do more research.

So we put the brakes on - and none too soon, and we were mighty close to signing those papers.  But funny.  De Niro, who I seemed to warm up and act more and more human to over our hours-long interaction, suddenly cooled off and got just a touch hostile, with a finely tuned edge of guilt.  What, that he wasted his evening on a sale that didn't happen?  Sorry buddy.  We were able to get him out the door, feeling a bit vulnerable and more than a little foolish for coming so close to signing something we hadn't had a chance to mull over properly.  After he left, I stayed up far too late still trying to shake off the feeling of being had.

This morning when we woke up, not quite rested, but with head that were more clear.  We agreed that it was good to have NOT signed the deal.  We may still need to pay the same amount of money per month, or we may still be financing our roof for the next ten years, but we will certainly have thought about the decision for more than a three hour sales pitch. 

We also decided to write to the company.  We will explain that while we have every confidence that their product is high-quality, and we may have even decided on them to do the work had we been given time to think things through, due to their high pressure sales tactics they lost our business.

I will study this article on How To Defend Against 7 Sneaky Sales Tactics before we see anyone else for estimates. Because, after all, we still need a roof.