Ben. Part One.

Ben. Part One.

So I had a long, tiring day at work yesterday, it was a good day, and as I off for a week now I wanted to have no loose ends so I even worked over 90 minutes in my own time! My Husband Paul met me from work and said, “A double glazed, man called at the house and he wanted to know if we would like new front and back doors,” Paul was asked if he would like a Sales Assistant to visit him, he said, “Yes, come round 7.45pm.” I had been in the house a few minutes when there was a knock at the door, I answered it and he introduced himself as Ben, I let him into the Living Room.

Ben sat at one end of the sofa and I sat at the other, Paul sat opposite us. Ben started by putting a magazine on the coffee table in front of us, to look at, Paul picked it up and started flicking through it and quickly choose the door he liked, it was brown and wooden, Ben then told him he could choose various different glass design to go in the section at the top in the oval shape. I was trying not to look too bothered, and trying to keep my distance with my body language.

Ben then asked if he could measure our back and front doors. He then came and sat back down on the sofa by me and showed us the tiny sections of the door they both chatted about how strong it was on the inside with metal bits and the various locks that came with it when the key was turned.

He had a lovely rich Irish accent and he was a confident young man. He talked with complete knowledge.  He told us we have various ways we can pay, he said we can, “Have all the work done, and pay for it a year later, or we can pay for the doors over a five year period or we can pay for them over ten years.”  Then he got his calculator out and as he tapped on it with professional speed, he said to me confidently, “What do you think they will cost?” I replied, “Well now that you have just mentioned, ten years to pay I assume they will cost £4.000!” He tilted his head quickly side to side and said, “£3.889” followed by, “What do you think about that then!” I said, “Not a lot, that’s far too dear!” Undeterred he then said, “Your Husband did choose the most expensive doors in the book, with the most expensive window for the top section, white doors are cheaper,” so I asked him, “How much for the doors in white and with the cheapest glass in the oval section at the top, your most basic door,” tapping on his calculator he said the amount and I was not impressed at all! I told Ben “We are not having the doors at that price.” So using another tactic he said, “Which door would you like to have the most, the front or the back?” Well our back door window was broken about five to six years ago the bottom half is wood the top bit glass, Paul had put wood in its place, we did intend to put the glass back in but we never got round to it! But it keeps the draft out, yet our front wooden door is very drafty, you can see daylight at the sides inn the summer and in the winter it is freezing so much so, we have no choice but to put a huge curtain up. We have recently had modern doors put in at work and they are SO smart looking, so we decided to have the price for the front door, white with basic glass in the top part.

After looking at his crossings out on his sheet, he tapped a few more numbers on his calculator and said, “I can do the door at the front for £1.423” I told him, “No, still too high.” He asked Paul what he thought for he’d been quite, Paul said, “How much would it be for over a year?” Ben worked it out and still the price was ridiculous! Then Ben said, “If you agree to have our plaque, to advertise us, on the front of your house for three weeks I will take £300 off the price, for we need four houses in this area to generate more sales,” I quickly replied, take £500 off the price,” he said, “No I can’t do that.” As he didn’t want to lose the sale he told us how little it would cost over ten years, I told him I didn’t want to commit to anything over such a long time. Then he told us again how little it would be over a five year period, I went on to tell him, “Every morning I sit here and look up at that clock on the wall waiting for 08.10am, for between that time and 08.50am if we are in the red I get a text from the bank, I don’t always tell Paul for he does not sleep when I tell him, and he has panic attacks, and starts to talk negative, then which adds extra stress to me, he does not work, for he was made redundant many years ago and I earn only £7 per hour and Part Time!” I was very close to tears, both Ben and Paul could see this, I was tired and now very hungry and just wanted to be left alone! He rang someone in the office, and said that we wanted £500 off the price he had offered, the person on the other end of the phone must have said no to that! Then turning to me Ben said, “What would make you accept a sale today, for Paul had already said to him, “We are not going to make a decision today, I want to think about it first.” I then said to Ben, I will agree to £800 and interest free, he passed this on to the person on the other end of his phone and then he put the phone done and said, “It can’t be done for £800 or interest free.” We seem to hit a stale mate, but he wasn’t giving up, and he still wanted to persuade us to sign up, so I said to him, “If I was at home when your Sales Person knocked on our door, I simply would have said ‘no thank you’ and I would have closed the door! Then we would not be having any of this conversation! I don’t know what possessed my Husband to agree to you coming here! For we have no money!”  I went on, if we were rich I would have all the doors in the house done, and that would probably cost us £10.000!” Which he didn’t deny.

I was weary and sad, and totally fed up! He had been now in our house for over an hour! I said to Ben, “We are in a lot of debt, our over draft is £800.00 and every single month we go up to that amount, all our bills are paid direct debit, why would I want to add to those bills another £1.423, plus interest? When we are struggling at it is, which bit of, we don’t have any money don’t you understand?”

Finally he seemed to accept it, that we just can’t afford it! I was a bit cross with Paul for letting these people into our house, and I told him so with Ben still here, for usually he is like me and doesn’t give them the time of day! And by the look on his face he was more than fed up too!

Then Paul talked about animals for about ten more minutes and Ben left! Without a sale. It was an awful experience that I don’t want to ever happen again! I was on the border of hating that Company! In fact I DO hate that Company now! If I told you their names you would know them too. I felt that was the end of that, for I was confident that Ben would pass on to those in his office, that we are skint, small fry and not worth bothering with.....