Did you see the BBC television production Freefall?
An excellent drama highlighting the effects of the recession on three individuals: a city banker, a hardworking family man stuck with a subprime mortgage and the slimy mortgage broker who sold it to him.
All three characters were shown as stripped down caricatures, the banker high on cocaine and bedroom action, the family man good but niave and the salesman totally amoral and able to apply his self-serving principles to whatever he was selling: sub-prime mortgages before the credit crunch and ethical home improvements after.
The types were all instantly recognizable and plausible but seeing the salesman telling the lady of an expensive detached house how wonderful her home was and how he was appalled at people’s lack of care for the environment and how ‘I am worried for my children and terrified for my grandchildren’ before launching into a pitch for solar heating panels, rang bells for me.
The home improvement industries, including: double glazing, fitted bedrooms, sliding door wardrobes and all types of supposedly bespoke fitted furniture are riddled with them. I have worked alongside them and competed with them and the apparent sincerity of their insincerity has amazed me. Watch out for them because they do exist and for the untrained eye they are very hard to spot. They will offer you a super deal because they really like you and because they think you, and your wonderful home, deserve their product and for those reason they will give you a very special discount. However, the clincher is that the sale ends tonight and if you want that new fitted office or home cinema you have to say yes now. there is no time to waste and the price will double tomorrow.
The fact that they are denying you the right to think it over and compare the offerings from their competitors does not concern them. Decide now or forever lose the deal.
Total nonsense, insist on your right to sleep on it and you will probably seal an even better offer on the same built-in furniture in a week’s time.
