I’m Just Sharing

On Michael Fortin’s blog, he recently wrote a post called Customers Won’t Discount Your Dishonesty, and it’s a very good read, something I agree with wholeheartedly.

Though he’s basically talking about internet tricks such as when you try to leave having a pop up window stop you with a discounted offer, I believe it applies to so many different types of companies, and I for one don’t like it, and, he’s right, you lose respect for them. I remember when my wife and I first moved into this house and we thought we needed new windows. This guy came to the house and was here for 3 hours, first measuring the windows, then supposedly doing all the calculations he had to do so that he could talk to us further. He then dropped the price on us; $36,000. I actually laughed out loud, which is so unlike me, but it was more than 1/3rd of what we’d paid for the house.

He left, but three days later we got a call offering the same package for $16,000; one again we said no. Then four days later we were offered the same package for $9,000. At that point I told the person that I didn’t want their company calling me anymore because I didn’t trust them. A couple years later, my wife contacted one of the big home improvement chains and asked someone to come look at our windows. This guy gave us a quote where most of our windows came to $70 each, with the big bay window coming to $1,000 on its own; I could understand that, as it’s a different style. We didn’t go for that one, but we did replace a lot of the other windows, at a very affordable price.

Some of these guys are obviously making a lot of sales, otherwise they wouldn’t persist in using the tactic. Personally, when I’m ready to leave, that’s that, and if I see a pop up window, it just irritates me to no end. But when I see the pop up window has a discounted price, well, I start worrying even a little bit more about the product, and I wonder about the old bait and switch; why didn’t they just offer it at that price to begin with, right?

Well, no matter. I will guarantee you that I won’t have any of those types of tricks on this blog. Just your average everyday rant, rave, or affiliate marketing link; no tricks.