Rogue salesmen do people actually for it?

A rogue salemen knocked on my door and started telling my mum he's from BT and needs ot check the bill for an MR number, this qualifies you for a discount line rental of £9.99 a month.

He said BT have been taken over by Fones 4 U and this why we can get the discount.

My mum refused and just said she would contact with BT directly or via post she knew it was a scam.

Basicaly this saleman was from Fones 4 U and was pretending to be from BT, once he got hold of that account number he could cancel the BT account and switch it to Fones 4 U without my mum knowing.

I fear a lot of older people might fall for this.

The simply thing is never deal with door to door saleman, we have a big sign telling salemen to go away but they don't take any notice.

 

We had some bloke from Scottish Power knocking on the door the other evening. He said he'd already signed up most of our neighbours so I felt no compunction about telling him to sling his hook, even though it was pissing down with rain at the time.

 

The thing that annoys me is that if my parents want to change provider they will do without some sales person knocking on my door.

When I need a new window last year my dad ask the landlord next door if he knew any decent people who fits windows, we got a company to do it who supplied and fitted a very good quality double glazed UPVC window for £350 and the window is quite a big one.

This is much cheaper than the stupid companies like Safe Style US would charge and they probably did a better job, they spent 6 hours fitting it, two hours of that was spent doing all the finishing touches.

We did have to wait 6 weeks for them to come out but I guess that just shows they have lots of customers.

Large UPVC sales tacticts damage the reputation of good trademan like the one that fitted my window. I

I do deliver leaflets but that is totally different as I am not trying to get people to buy anything and my dads leaflets have the address on and have proper prices on them etc. We have found that honestly is really the best policy.

On a seperate not there is no way I could do door to door sales.

 

Oi take it easy with uPVC sonny. 6 weeks is nowt! we get up to 12 and 13 weeks later in the year. Most of my day is going visiting potential customers but its always invite only and most, if not all of our customers are recommends or existing so really Im in a much different situation to most sale people. Safe **spit** Style and the like are *** the next 8 paragraphs are censored due to my desire for not being sued ***.

Ive no idea how door to door people do it, the successful ones have more front than blackpool and will do anything for money.

 

This was 6 weeks after they came to do a quote, its expected though I wasn't complaining.

What also impressed me with these people is there was no hard sell, they gave a price, they told us what we would get and what they would do, that was it.

We were then left to think about it and let them to know if we wanted themto do the job, none of us we will inflate the price by 200% and knock it off if you decide to go with us in the next 2 minutes lark.

 

Im a no haggling person (even thought Im a haggler myself), you get the quote in writing in the post and thats the price, take it or leave it, very very rarely will I budge, even then the max Ive ever given away was 2%.

 

Telesales are worse, if that's conceivable. On the day of my father's funeral, the phone was ringing non-stop with people wishing to pay their respects. On about the tenth call, this bloke said 'Are you interested in double-glazing at all, sir?' I explained the circumstances, and the bloke said 'Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, sir. Can I call you back tomorrow?'

 

You have a lot of patience I think I would have simply said "f**k off" and slammed the phone down. My parents have caller ID and they have no patience for tele sales, if its intertnational and they leave no message we just wait for the answerphone and slam the phone down.

I.e cost them money even if they are using voice over IP.

It must be nice to be in a situation not be able to haggle, my dad kind of is, but it depends how many other jobs he has, at this time of year he can afford to turn jobs down, after Christmas he will probably always accept reasonable haggles.

 

Very few of us Brits feel comfortable being sold to in our home. As a nation we don't enjoy the buying experience. We're poor at haggling and we rarely tell the truth to sales people because we think its rude to say no. Have you ever heard yourself saying "I'll think about it" when what you should have said was "You haven't given me a good enough reason to buy this."

The reason so many people get flustered or feel pressured is they don't know if they're on a good deal now, so they can't make a proper comparison when a new deal is offered. A good canvasser will help the customer work out the benefit of switching. But can you really rely on them to make an honest comparison?

I saved myself a lot of time and money by working out what I pay for main utilities and I keep the info in a little book by the front door. If a canvasser can prove their offer is better and it'll save me money over the next 12 months months then I consider switching. I'll call my existing supplier there and then, tell them you have what looks like a better offer and ask if they're willing to match or improve. Its worked for me and I feel in control when canvassers call.

Hex