1st Choice Home Improvement

My wife called these guys when they stopped by going door to door and set up an appointment. She forgot to tell me and so I was called the next day on my cell phone asking about the appointment.
Confused, I said «well, I don’t know why she thinks we need a new roof, but if you want to do an estimate, be my guest.»
Them: «Okay, we’ll need you and your wife present»
Me: «What? I’ve gotten estimates on all kinds of home improvement work, and I’ve never needed to be home to do it. Why must I be home for you to determine how many shingles I need and what they cost?»
Them: «Well, we’ve had times where the spouses turned out not to agree on something and we get in the middle of a big mess»
Me: «I don’t give a damn about the shingles, they’re fine. If you don’t want to quote them without me present, don’t worry about it, I highly doubt I need new ones anyway. I’m sure if I do, there’s no shortage of people who will give me an estimate without ANYONE having to be present if I so choose. They ARE on the outside of my house, after all. Good bye.»
Well, like most things, I thought that would be it.
A month later, they call me again asking if there’s anything they can do to make a sale. I’ve sold things before, and I respect the effort to follow up.
So I said: «I don’t need shingles, but my gutters are damn near falling off. Do you do those?»
Them: «Absolutely!»
Me: «Excellent. Well, if you insist, I’ll leave work on time though you’ll have to understand I work very long hours and very strange hours. I get out at 7:00pm from work (I go in at 9:30) so realistically the earliest I’ll get home is 8pm. If you can’t do that, forget it. I’m not leaving early for a gutter estimate.»
Them: «No problem, thanks for giving us that second chance. We’ll take 20% off your order because we really want your business.»
(Now to me, that says they’re willing to really damage their margins at 20%, unless they were artificially high to begin with, and they’ve got even a bit more in there since going straight to 20% without negotiating means they have more to give away if I’m going to negotiate with them, sorry, just the department head who does a lot of purchasing and is heavily involved in determining costs for my department’s product in me coming out, what do I know, right?)
So today rolls around, they’re at my house at 7:30 anxious I haven’t arrived. They were about to leave as I pulled up around 8:10pm.
«Hi I’m Mike from 1^st choice home improvement we’ll just get the measurements of your gutters. You can go inside and we’ll knock when we’re ready»
I ask them about the flashing that my home inspector pointed out was potentially problematic, and asked them if they’d quote that and new vents in my attic too. They went on to talk about how home inspectors don’t know what they’re talking about, they aren’t builders, they aren’t electricians, and don’t know anything, blah blah.
Didn’t win any favor with someone like me who is a family friend of the inspector they hired, who, by the way, has an A+ rating with the BBB (unlike their C+ rating, though I don’t put too much stock in the BBB, honestly), posesses a builders license, and has taught home inspection on the college level and was a past president of the great lakes region of ASHI. Obviously other home inspectors thought he was alright!
I notice right away they are driving a Ford Taurus (so no ladders? But that’s okay, it’s an estimate, right?) So they do whatever it is they do outside, and come knocking.
They take a seat on my couch, show me a cross section of the new gutter type (without much context at all), and then belt out the number $ 1814 after scribbling on some paper. They offered me 1 year same as cash, and a number of other finance options, most of which ended up having a 1 year term, all of which had interest, with all sorts of oddball options. No way am I going to pay interest on a $ 1814 1 year term, so I thank them for the estimate, and ask them to leave a copy of the estimate and their number and we’ll get back to them after we’ve gotten a few more estimates on it, as this was the first and I had no basis of comparison. Then they said my 20% discount was only good if I signed tonight. I told them I’d have to take the full $ 2268 price into account when I compared quotes then, because I don’t sign anything major without comparing prices.
So they jotted $ 2268 on a business card and left. So much for that «your quote is good for 1 year and binding on us» stuff the phone sales guy was telling me earlier. I mean, I’d certainly not consider a quote written on the back of a business card binding, after all.
Either way, I decided I was going to call the sales guy and give him an earful about this and demand they extend the 20% or I won’t even consider their quote, but after reading the previous review, I’m not going to waste my time.
I’m probably going to get my gutters replaced this year though, now that they brought up all the upsides. Thanks for that, at least!

High pressure selling. It usually means their product is not much to write home about and this is my suspicion after putting up with a pushy salesman from this company recently.
Too bad for 1^st Choice, they had no idea I’m not their average sucker born every minute. Watch out for these guys. I have been thinking about getting a new roof for a couple years now as the shingles are showing their age (curling). I have an engineering degree and I do like to do most of my home improvement, but I don’t want to break my back on this job, so I’m going to contract it out. I had a list of questions ready before the sales guy ever came over and already had researched their company a little bit. More on that later.
The reason I set up an appointment with these guys was simply because there was a flyer canvasser wandering our neighborhood and so I thought why not. Flyer guy promised the sales person would take some measurements and take about 30 minutes of our time to make a presentation about their product (which turned out to be closer to 1 hour 15 minutes instead). We set up an appointment and it was confirmed by a call from the company, who also insisted my wife be present for the presentation.
The sales guy comes over and takes «some measurements» although I was not outside there with him to see him write anything down… nor did he share any of these so called measurements with me. He did this all without being on a ladder which I think is fine for an estimate. However later in the presentation he couldn’t tell me exactly how many «squares» (as they call it in the biz) of shingles my job required. How do you make an estimate then? Sorry, simple-​math-​engineer-​guy asking here.
Most of my pre-​visit questions were answered before I had to ask. I had a clear understanding of what they wanted to offer before the estimate was made. When it came time for the estimate, the fun started, just as the sales guy said. First he pulls out a sheet of paper with some basic text on it… he wanted us to each put down on the page what we felt a reasonable price would be. If we guessed right vs. his estimate within +/​-​$ 400 then we would receive a $ 400 discount. Good deal right? Yeah, but I guess the sales guy must be adding at LEAST $ 400 into his BEST sales price to cover the potential loss of us guessing his price. Go figure — we both low-​balled his offer by a long shot. Ha-​ha. The game has just begun.
I ask a question about referrals in my area. Great question, he pulls out a book about 2″ thick with about 20 addresses per page. Keep in mind I know this company has only been in business 3 years per the
website. Conservatively let’s call this 20×200 pages = 4,000 references and divide by 3 years/​1095 days = 3 jobs a day, every day, year round. Pretty freakin’ good business if you can get it. But I highly, highly doubt it. Furthermore I am ready to write down some references in his book and he says, «you can’t write down the phone numbers, it’s against our privacy policy». OK I tell him, how about I just write down the addresses. He agrees. I write down 3 in my area. I’m going to check these references out… at this point, for fun, because this guy probably thinks I’m just another sucker and won’t do it. Sorry, I will. With much joy! Can’t wait to hear from these clients!
More hilarious sales tactics were used as time went on. First was the «if I don’t have to follow up and come out here again, we can give you 10% off the price right now». Nope. I told this guy he was my first quote and there was no way I was going to sign any contract on my first quote. And when I said this I meant it. To me getting at LEAST 3 quotes before making a decision is more important than making sure the Pope is Catholic. This sales guy did not hear me talking and didn’t care. Keeping on with his tactics…
«I’m the son of the owner» he says. So let me call my dad and see if we can do something more for you. OK kid, I didn’t say yes or no, but right away he’s on his cell faking a call to dear old dad. He hangs up and tells me there’s great news of course. They have this program where there are these signs with their company name on it, but they are in limited number (of course). If I can put this sign in my front yard 2 weeks before the job, and 2 weeks after… I can get another 10% off!!! Holy cow I say! Well, unfortunately there are only 15 signs and 13 are already in use, so I better act fast if I want this. Sorry sales kid — you have no idea, I am no fool… as I told you before. Three quotes minimum, and you can even offer me a prostitute, 72 virgins and life after death. Three quotes.
After turning this sweet deal down the guy was getting frustrated and ready to go. As he packed up he asked would I take the deal ½ price. No way I said, makes me even more suspicious of your offer. Good he says. He leaves. Thank goodness. Look at
and google them. Avoid!!!