Safe Style Windows

[Tully]

Hi, I am a widow and want some new windows Safe Style came to give me a quote, the price seemed okay but what is the firm like. The salesman tried some silly sales tricks which put me off somewhat he phoned his manager and offerred me a price if I took it and signed on the spot. His now given me 24hrs lots of drama but the price is okay what about the products anyone had windows by them?
Tully

 

[Rad1o]

Just ask round the neighborhood for recommendations.

 

[Paintguy]

They used the managers phone call trick on us too, although I was expecting it anyway.

When he first started pricing up I told him I was expecting around £3K, he laughed and gave me a retail of over £8K (for 2 bay window and 2 other small ones). After applying seemingly endless discounts and ringing his manager he eventually got it down to £2800

It's all a game, quote high and bring it back down to make it seem like you're getting a real bargain. I just played along, knowing what was coming.

Unfortunately after their "surveyor" came round they backed out of the deal, even though we'd paid a deposit. Apparently he thought the bays were due to collapse due to a crack in the render. We got the deposit back so no harm done.

I have no negative feelings towards them, I'd be quite happy to use them in the future, but their surveyor assumed wrongly and we took our business elsewhere.

 

[pete50]

They all do that even the local ones. I even had one call me a "time waster" when I got fed up of his clowning around and booted him out the door. We have Safe Style windows and a front door and they all look and work fine but the Safe Style salesman did give me the run around. The other problem with Safe Style, and I would imagine it's much the same with the other companies, is that they will not leave you alone on the phone after they have made a sale. I made three phone calls to their head office to tell them to take me off their phone list and have blocked at least three different numbers from Safe Style.

 

[ronniecabers]

I would be tempted to get a couple of other quotes too, maybe local companies. A lot of bigger companies will adopt this ' start high discount ...discount ... discount ' but small local companies will usually give you their best price first time. You have a 14 day cooling off period, seeing as you signed up on the night. Most pvc is of a similiar quality these days but it all comes down to the actual fitting ... a good window fitted badly is much worse than a bad window fitted well

 

[Notch7]

Safestyle.....

'You buy one, you get one free'

'It really is free fitting'

Find a small local company, or a one man band and get a recommendation -pop round and see a nearby job.

The problem with the upvc industry is that its sales driven. You get a commission only salesman come round, they will sign you up at the highest price they can. The surveyor then comes round, he may be self employed and on a percentage. The most important person though is the installer, the quality of the install is everything.

If you find a 1 man band window business, the person thats comes to talk to you, the person that measures up and the person that fits could all be the one and same.

 

[Doggit]

I find the best time to negotiate, is the end of a month, or even the end of the year; they'll always be more flexible when they've got to meet targets. Sometimes it works to chat with the installers you see doing a job, as they may do private work on the weekends.

And as paintguy says, don't worry about looking a fool asking for a massive discount; at the end of the day, it comes down to who blinks first.

 

[Tully]

Thank you for your comments all good stuff and sound advice thanks Tully

 

[Steven Prentice]

Fully agree, a window is only as good as the way it is installed... as the silicon sealant is slowly failing in my house the UPVC edging is coming away and the wind howls through... and its a simple fix, fill in the gaps between the window frame and the wall rather than leaving a hole all the way through with only 5mm of plastic on either side to keep the heat in. Yup, not impressed by whoever the last owner had to install the windows. Now I have to redecorate house.. again... after filling in all the gaps

 

[Gazman16]

Avoid the big company's like the plague and go local (with recommendations from friends and family).

Big company's pay fitters around £50 per window so they quite literally throw them in and get out as quick as possible. I have seen them do houses with 20 windows in a day.
I generally fit 2-3 windows per day, I spend more time just cleaning a window than they would cutting out, fitting and finishing one.