25 Step Guide to Designing and Buying a Bathroom
A Professional Designers Guide
Step 8. Bathroom Direct Sales Tactics
There is no reason, other than convenience, that can allow me to understand why anyone would consider calling out a direct sales bathroom company, if they want a good bathroom design. The bad storys that should make you think twice about this side of the industry, just keep coming and coming!! It is possible to show a few brochures and a door sample to get by at a basic level, but that is it. No bathroom design is ever at its best after some scribbles and an hours input from an amateur bathroom designer. Why do people commit to a deal, on the first evening, on this basis ? It is simply because these bathroom companies are offering a big bogus discount with slick re-gurgitated sales patter, and many of their salespeople are very good at it. Unless you are doing research on how direct salespeople fool the unwary into buying bathrooms when there better instinct says no, then give these companies a wide birth.
What a nice man
It is in the best interests of direct kitchen sales companies to employ sales people who are able to be nice and presentable, probably more so than your local bathroom studio. It is their job to make friends with you and walk away with a bathroom contract in under 3 hours, if they are slick enough. It is not about bathroom designing, or quite often quality. It is about convincing you that what you are buying is a premium bathroom scheme with a big discount. If you look on these bathroom company websites, if they bother to have one , the bathrooms are at best mediocre and the choice derisory. I have met many people who have tried this route, to see what they offer, and have felt angry and let down about the lack of respect for their wishes when they could not get the salesperson to listen to what they want, or alternatively to leave, They were also upset by the shear determination, quite often, to mislead and lie to get a deal.
Too many well meaning and quite often vunerable customers assume if someone is nice, promises big discounts, and says the right things it should be taken at face value. I am sorry to say that there has never been a more clear case to just mistrust everything until proven otherwise. The best bathroom deal you will ever get from these companies is always as much or more than a comparative bathroom range from your local kitchen shop (always !!) but most people commit before this discount level is reached and pay more.
Add a sub-contractor to this sales mix, on commission or set price, and you are up the river without a paddle as soon as he or she has gone. When they don't deliver, or fit your bathroom, you are normally dealing with some of the toughest back-room people you will ever have the pleasure to meet. You haven't got a chance, if they wish it, when you are not happy with the installation or quality!!
Big discounts are us
If a salesman in your home says to you that your bathroom will cost £24k and the discount is 50% ie £12k if you buy that evening, your better instinct will probably say that this is nonsense, and it is true. If you then are shown products that you do not recognise, alarm bells should be ringing. It is a compelling argument to believe you are getting a bargain, but I have never seen one yet with direct bathroom sales companies, there is plenty of talk but little substance. Bathroom products are often just re-badged, and available cheaper elsewhere.
Convenience
We all work hard and these days we all use the internet to shop regularly, so I know it is hard to be motivated to go and look around showrooms. If you want a genuine good deal, I am sure you will see it down the road at that little bathroom studio with their own fitter, and tradespeople who are locally sourced. It is easy to do research on the computer to check prices, so give yourself time and space to check everything. Never buy a bathroom on the evening with a direct salesperson , the deal will always still be there in the morning, if it stacks up after research.
If I feel intimidated and unsure
It is everyones right to expect to treated with respect in your own home. If at any stage you feel intimidated or under pressure to make a decision the best option always is to walk away and demand the right to get other independant advise. If the bathroom deal is genuine then it will, as stated earlier, always be there in the morning. The salesperson involved will not turn down a fat commission on a technicality, I can bet my life on it!
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