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Just had a call from Mrs Spanner.
We've a locallish company knocking on doors offering to clean gutters and 'restore' our UPVC for £200.
I've advised her to say no but she feels I'm being over cautious.
I'd never use a company that just knocked on the door.
Would you?
They seem legit but it just sets alarm bells ringing for me and the price seems high.
Apparently they've tried 'Well all your neighbours have signed up' and 'We can't repeat this price'......etc. 🙄
Am I being over cautious? I had no idea it needed cleaning anyway, surely that's what rain's for?
local as in nearest layby?
That's a pretty expensive window cleaner.
That would pay for my window cleaner nearly 20 times over....
Supposedly a legit company from a local town.
There is a company of that name locally. Whether they actually work for them or not, who knows?
One of the phone numbers she was given does not exist, she's told them to jog on.
Surely a upvc refurbisher would by definition be going door-to-door...
I’d never use a company that just knocked on the door.
Would you?
No. A company you've never heard of offering services you didn't know you wanted? Jog on.
I had a 'roofer' a little while back offering to fix a few loose slates he'd "noticed whilst working for a neighbour." Wanted something like £400 cash-in-hand. I told him to give me a card and I'd let him know once I'd been paid as I couldn't afford it right now, by the time he finally left his price had dropped to about £70. One of his tactics was to point to a "broken slate" in my front garden - on inspection it looked like a grey wall tile.
An established, reputable tradesman doesn't need to go knocking on doors, they're booked up for weeks with work.
There is a company of that name locally. Whether they actually work for them or not, who knows?
Oh, yeah. My "roofer" only had one business card, which he couldn't give me, and looked years old. Totally legit. Might be a good idea to contact that company and ask if they're aware of someone working in your area claiming to be them?
Am I being over cautious?
Err...no...everything about a doorstep sales pitch like that screams 'rip-off'.
If you have any elderly/vulnerable neighbours, might be worth checking that they haven't been signed up for it.
I never buy on the doorstep. Never.
I use tradespeople to do a job I *know* needs doing, not one they point out.
I ask for recommendations of tradespeople from friends and folk. Cheapest is not best, nor is anyone who is available tomorrow...
Never, ever, use anyone knocking door to door. You know why.
>If you have any elderly/vulnerable neighbours, might be worth checking that they haven’t been signed up for it
This.
Offer them £100
Don't say yes for anything over £120
It's UPVC, a wipe with a damp cloth with do it. If you'd pay someone £200 for that then you'd be daft.
Depends on whether you like being up a ladder?
.
My window cleaner charges £12 to clean all our windows. He also does specialist cleaning including UPVC. I got him round to do our medium sized conservatory. He used a chemical deep clean, lots of elbow grease then some fancy chemicals to stop grime from sticking for a while. He calls it a Conservatory Valet. It took him 2.5hours and cost me £75. Looks like new, I am happy with that.
Depends on whether you like being up a ladder?
WorldClassAccident doesn't.
Last summer i was standing in front of my garage at the side of the house when a guy walked up the driveway and told me how he waould be able to sort out the brickwork on the garage which needed repointing. He wasn't even slightly fazed by the fact that i was holding a pointing trowel in one hand and a freshly mixed bucket of mortar in the other and seemed shocked when i declined his bargain offer.
I fell for the door knockers trick many years back. Yeah, my gutters needed cleaning out and hmm, of course they were doing work a few doors down... what didn't need doing but did end up getting splashed out on was £300 for replacing the rotten facia boards that they discovered. You live and learn eh.