When I went shopping last fall, the sales person said that for $35, they could send someone out for a detail measurement. When I went back on saturday, a second sales person said the same thing. Each time it was clear that I was either going to install it myself, or use my own person, and not use their install services, other than the detail measuring. Since I wanted to make sure I was ordering the right size, I paid the fee, and on Monday, their person called and made an appointment for Tuesday over lunch.
Tuesday comes, and the guy shows up, no problems so far.
Tonight, I go up to place the final order. Surprise, surprise, the sales person tells me that they can't release or use the measurements if I'm doing it myself or not using their contractor. I dealt with three people there tonight, none of them able to explain why they failed to tell me three different times that this would be a problem, other than "It's against our policy to release the measurements." They did say "It's a standard door."
At least they did give me my money back. Except, as I was about to go with the manager to the check out for my refund, they asked if I wanted to go ahead and order the door. My jaw about hit the floor. How am I going to do that, if you won't give me the measurements? I'm just supposed to GUESS at what the "standard door" numbers are? I told them. "No. You guys just lost a sale and my future business for a long time."
I stopped at the orange place on my way home. Asked the guy there if they can do measurements as a stand alone package. He said that for $30, they'll send someone for measuring, and once they have the measurements, they have no problem giving me the numbers. He gave me the number for their install co-ordinator, we ran an estimate based on some rough numbers I already have, and I made the $30 payment.
I guess we'll see if the sales people at this place know their store policy any better.
What I don't get, is why the problem giving me the measurements? I could understand if they had done it as part of a free estimate, but I did pay them for the service.
At any rate, it will be a long time before I go back to the first store.
Update:
I ordered the door without much problem Friday night at the orange store. The sales guy I dealt with this time did draw up a quote for the install without me asking, but when I said I had other arrangements already, he didn't even blink an eye, and deleted it.
(it came out much closer to the quote I already have than I expected. It would be tempting to just go with them, but I think it will be helpful to have a connection to an independent guy for some of the other projects I have on my list that I might not want to take on myself)
2 comments:
There's probably some bizarre fine print about how any numbers they pull out of their asses are their intellectual property!
They really need to change the way they advertise that service, then.
The guy I dealt with at the other store indicated that this is somewhat standard practice in the window and door replacement industry.
Supposedly, that's the best way to prevent themselves from being held responsible when someone that doesn't know what they're doing screws up the install. When they do the install, if there's a mistake in their numbers, they reorder the door at their cost.
It seems they could pretty easily include a waiver in the fine print though.
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