We were in the process of having the house rewired when we had a door to door salesman call about double glazing. He asked if he could make an apointment for a salesman to call to give us a quote to renew the windows. I had always resisted the idea of changing the windows but as the house would need completely re-decorating after the rewire I thought it would be a good time to at least get a price.

I had heard a lot of horror stories about double glazing companies but after years of painting Georgean style metal Crittall windows and French doors and the fact that they were now letting , draughts in and heat out; I decided to give it a try. I had heard the amounts that it had cost others and the fact that I wanted 13 windows (15 actualiy as the two bay windows counted as two frames each) plus a set of French doors and a new front and side door I was expecting it to be out of my price range but nevertheless I arranged a visit from the Safestyle UK Rep.

The Rep arrived on time but immediatley rubbed us up the wrong way. He was over familiar asked personal questions and gave me a sales talk that was so obviously a load a rubbish that I felt that he was insulting my intelligence. He did not show me the product nor did he measure up. When I said that I would not under any circumstances buy on the day he could not wait to get out. He asked me if I still would not buy if he gave me a price of £5000 for the whole house. I said put it in writing and I would think about it. He then said he would send me the quote and quickly left. He had still not measured anything and had not shown me a window.

I thought that I had heard the last of Safestyle UK but two days later I had a phone call from the Bradford office asking what I had thought of the windows. When I complained about the Rep and told him that I had not seen a window nor had he measured up the caller seemed genuinley astonished and apologised profusley. He asked if I would be prepared to give them another chance and I reluctantly agreed.

The second visit was totally different. The rep showed me the two different grades of window and explained the difference between them, he measured up thoroughly and then sat down to work out a price. He said that the £5000 quote given by the previous rep was too small but he would do the lower grade windows and the doors for £5400. I asked about the top grade Diamond windows which had the energy saving Pilkinton K argon filled glass. At first he came up with a price of £8700 for the whole house and although I thought that this was a very good price for fifteen widows a set of French Doors a Front door and a side door I told him I would think about it and let him know. He asked me why I kneeded to think about it as it was a very good price. I said I did not hand over money without checking on the company and other customers. He then said that the only money that was required was the £80 survey fee and the balance did not have to be paid untill the work was complete and when I was totally satisfied. He then dropped the price to £7200 and went out for a ciggarette while we thought about it. He also agreed that if any scaffolding was found to be required this was included in the price.

As I liked the quallity of the windows and doors and the price was half of what I had been expecting I was tempted, The fact that I did not have to pay anything untill the work was completed and to my satisfaction I decided to go ahead and I agreed to the sale. I wrote a cheque for £80 for the survey fee and was then given a date for the survey and a provisional day for fitting. The surveyor arived on time and measured everything thoroughly and left. A few days later Safestyle phoned and offered to fit the windows a few days earlier than the provisional date, I agreed and nervously waited for the fitters to arrive.