soffits and fascias

[RanjS8]

Couple of weeks ago, I was looking at the front of my house and comparing it to the neighbour and i thought the guttering could do with cleaning.....but i m scared of height and thought the only way i d get up there is with a scaffold.

Well as luck would have it, I happened to answer a random telesales call selling fascias and soffits....now usually i just put the phone down without even saying a word but i thought you know what lets see what they have to offer.

So a chap comes round...in his 60s, suited and booted and carrying a big black suitcase....noticed he pulled up in a merc c180 estate too....

Anyway, I'm expecting him to say 'ok let me do the measurements and I ll give u a quote'

But instead, he says 'can I come in'...just my luck, this was one of those typical sales calls where they spend ages buttering u up about who they are, what they do, what so special about them, and so forth....he wasted an hour going through all this and eventually he says ok let me have a look around the house.

We then come back inside...and this point it has been 1hr 40 or so...and i m truly anoid cos i wanted to change the front brakes and the sun has gone down now....

I m sitting there and he says rite i need to do some calculations....in the meantime i google price estimates on my iphone and see that you should haggle for at least a 75% discount...so i m kinda prepared for an inflated quote but i couldnt believe what he came back with.....

he says it will cost £10000 pounds and no i m not adding an extra zero by mistake!!!!...and he goes you can take out finance with barclays at favourable rate of 13.9apr to pay it back over 10 years....payments of 201 per month...

I started doing calculations...i m like if i take out finance over 10 yrs this is gona cost me something like 22k....and even so i said howmuch are parts gona cost that you will fit....

now the total length of pvc i needed was about 30 metres, and i told him rite now you are quoting me 300 pound a metre for plastic....and much to his credit he kept a straight face and goes well thats what it costs!!!!

At this point, i had lost patience and said look mate i m not even gona start haggling your quote is insane!!!!!...to which he responds how much will you spend....i said i m looking to spend a 1000 at the most...so you stop wasting my time....he tried the usual let me call the headoffice and let them know you arent interested and came back with some jargon about needing to make a sale today and would be willing to negotiate...but at this point i just felt insulted and said look just go....you are just not getting anything today!!!!

I m still looking to do this....so has anyone done it recently and what kind of quotes were they getting....plus if i was to do it myself does anyone know any decent suppliers?????

thanks

Ranj