Home Improvement “Near Miss”!

Two days ago, on the spur of the moment, hubby decided we needed to “look into” residing the house. He picked up a door-hanger flyer from someone that wandered down our street looking for jobs and had caught him for a few minutes chat… so he called them for an appointment. They came out the next day (yesterday), all smiles and friendly and good news and great offers and unbelievable “DEALS”… They would throw in the gutters, a window replacement, the paint job, and on and on.  Since this was our FIRST quote, which we told him when he came in, we would not make a decision that day.  We had no idea if the price was inflated or truly a “good price” at 20% off the “true price”. My “antennae” went up a few times when he encouraged us NOT to get our son-in-law, a roofing carpenter, involved (a 3rd party).  HE, the salesman, would take care of us.

Before he left, he had our completed job commitment in hand and out the door with all his promises. I was trying to be positive, but I could not believe what we had done. We NEVER buy big offers without research.

THEN, I started searching the internet for local contractors. I also researched the first company, and found a few holes in the salesman’s statements. I lost a night’s sleep after firing off a few email requests for quotes A.S.A.P. so we could know if this offer was “for real” or a price gouging.  The phone rang early in the morning for the 2nd quote to stop by before noon, and another next week.

Our state has a 3 day decline law, so I had seriously considered canceling the contract immediately when I awoke today.  We could always call them back if we found them to be reputable. Checking further, I noticed the salesman had not NAMED the high-end product in the contract that he verbally quoted, but merely called the product by a generic content. Thus, it could be switched out for inferior products and still be legit. Also he over-quoted the board feet of the house by 500 feet. (He had told us there would be more product delivered than needed, and any leftovers would go with the crew, and it did not belong to us!)

By noon, hubby had signed the CANCEL paper because the second quote showed us several “holes” in the first offer. It was mailed, as well as emailed by 1 pm.

We will get a 3rd quote on Monday, which falls after the 3 day law, so we are relieved we cancelled this first offer, and are still looking for options. By 2 pm the first salesman already called back about the cancellation and tried to get back in the line up of considerations for the job.

Uh, maybe not?

What an experience!