Anonymous wrote:They want the man there.

When I was single I owned my own condo. I had a couple staying with me when I had an AC repair man come out. The AC repair man would ONLY speak to my male friend. It was pretty offensive even when I was the one who scheduled the appointment, answered the door, was paying and was the owner (and told him this). He just kept walking past me to talk to my male friend. He just assumed that my male friend would understand better than a woman would. At then end, he even gave the bill to my male friend!!! Will never use them again.

It's not just that they want the man there. My DH stays home with the kids, and he has gotten the same spiel about both homeowners needing to be there to get estimates on window replacement and roof replacement. We refuse to deal with the companies that insist on this. I am not taking time off of work to meet with them, and we are not meeting with them in the very limited and hectic time between dinner and bedtime. If they want our business, they will meet with just DH when I am at work and the kids are in school so that he can actually concentrate on the task at hand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's so you can't watch the whole presentation and then say "Oh, that sounds great, but I need to check with my spouse."

or they want you both to commit right away
shady, pushy sales tactic

Exactly. I refuse to deal with people who do this, very condescending. And frankly it just isn't practical for 2 working spouses.

+1 million. I won't do this. I say, you get just me or I will call someone else. Hell - even if one spouse isn't working, it's ridiculous. Why should the working partner stay home when the whole point of having someone stay home is so they can deal w/ stuff like this!

Me too. I always tell them that that's not how we work things in our family and if they want to speak with me, then they are welcome too. Otherwise we choose another provider.

I agree with what others have said. I will never ever agree to this ever again. We scheduled an 'estimate' based on what we had been told that the estimate was good for 1 year, since we were not planning to replace the windows right then. We thought we were having someone come out to measure and give an estimate. What we got was a salesman who barely measured, but who pitched his windows for hours and would not leave. Ex- I say, I need to get the kids to bed, he says oh that's fine, I'll wait. We told him multiple times that we would not be making a purchase that night, he didn't let up. The only way I got him to leave my house was by saying, I have made it abundantly clear to you that we are not buying windows tonight, what we signed up for was an estimate that would be good for a year. The longer you stay the greater the chance that we will never by windows from you. He finally said we would be mailed an estimate, which of course never actually came.

Refuse and tell them why. Tell them that it is none of their business who makes decisions about things like this in your household. Remind them it is within your right as a customer to think about it as long as you want after a sales pitch, and if they will not respect that, you will not do business with them.

I had Thompson Creek do this to me once, too. After basically telling them the above, he came out and gave me the sales pitch sans husband.

Anonymous wrote:This is definitely a red flag. We once sat through an Empire pitch that required this - it lasted hours and the guy would not leave.

We had this happen with another company (Power Windows I think?) After FOUR hours, and counhtless hints that it was time to go, I finally gave up being subltle around 10pm and just said "sorry, I'm pregnant and beat, I'm going to bed. DH - do what you want, as long as you stay in our budget". I think the guy finally left about 45 minutes later.

I gotta say - it worked for him. We did make a purchase we were only sort of considering (we would have had to do it everntually, just not necessary at the time). However, there's not a chance in hell I'll do business with them again.

Went through this with Thompson Creek. Hours of wasted time. We had a newborn and the guy said he would wait until my wife was done nursing. Seriously? Get the F out of here. Never again would I agree to a company that insisted on that.

They want the man there.

When I was single I owned my own condo. I had a couple staying with me when I had an AC repair man come out. The AC repair man would ONLY speak to my male friend. It was pretty offensive even when I was the one who scheduled the appointment, answered the door, was paying and was the owner (and told him this). He just kept walking past me to talk to my male friend. He just assumed that my male friend would understand better than a woman would. At then end, he even gave the bill to my male friend!!! Will never use them again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's so you can't watch the whole presentation and then say "Oh, that sounds great, but I need to check with my spouse."

or they want you both to commit right away
shady, pushy sales tactic

Exactly. I refuse to deal with people who do this, very condescending. And frankly it just isn't practical for 2 working spouses.

+1 million. I won't do this. I say, you get just me or I will call someone else. Hell - even if one spouse isn't working, it's ridiculous. Why should the working partner stay home when the whole point of having someone stay home is so they can deal w/ stuff like this!

This is definitely a red flag. We once sat through an Empire pitch that required this - it lasted hours and the guy would not leave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's so you can't watch the whole presentation and then say "Oh, that sounds great, but I need to check with my spouse."

or they want you both to commit right away
shady, pushy sales tactic

Exactly. I refuse to deal with people who do this, very condescending. And frankly it just isn't practical for 2 working spouses.

Anonymous wrote:It's so you can't watch the whole presentation and then say "Oh, that sounds great, but I need to check with my spouse."

or they want you both to commit right away
shady, pushy sales tactic

It's so you can't watch the whole presentation and then say "Oh, that sounds great, but I need to check with my spouse."

I encountered that when obtaining quotes for window replacement. They are planning on giving you an elaborate pitch and want to do it only once when both homeowners are available. The pitch usually last for few hours. I tend to only invite the ones that do not require both homeowners to be present for an estimate.

I've never had a contractor request such a thing.

I am getting people to come and give an estimate to install an egress window.
Why are all the companies requesting that both homeowners (spouses) be present when they come out?