can it be...? a positive post about my house?????

[swingchickie]

jack got a call from his co-worker's partner this morning... he's a professional painter, and the co-worker had told him the details of my awful spare room with the wallpaper. turns out what's underneath isn't wallpaper, it's some sort of special paper that people sometimes use to cover plaster walls to make them smoother. what does that mean for my redecorating efforts? not sure yet -- he's coming over next week to take a look and give some recommendations. i'm going to ask him for a quote for how much he'd charge to do it himself... i figure if it's that much of a disaster, i'd rather have a professional do it and do it right (depending on the cost). since i decided not to carpet the room, that's an extra $600 i have to play with, so if he quotes under that i think i'll say yes.

speaking of carpet... empire carpet is evil. maybe not the whole company, but definitely my local sales guy. talk about a pushy sales rep -- he was one of those stereotypical aggressive, "what would it take to get you to sign the contract on the spot" kind of guys. blecch. when i told him i was getting estimates from a few places first, he actually told me that if i went with empire, he wouldn't want to come out a second time to get my contract signed because it would cost him too much in gas. what a jerk.

Comments

[ms-violet.livejournal.com]

How could Empire not be evil, with that crazy jingle? I think that jingle has chords in the harmony intended to make people freeze up on a dime, crash their cars, let their dogs outside by accident, cut themselves while cooking...

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

you know what's scary? after hearing that commercial for years, when it was time to call them i looked up the number. totally forgot about the jingle. hee.

[steven.livejournal.com]

My Empire rep wasn't a dick like that, but the prices he gave us were actually more than double the highest of the three other estimates we got from reputable places. We'd already done our homework, so when the guy gave us a figure, I must have been visibly shaken by it.

"I can tell by the look on your face," he said. "You expected a different kind of number."

"Definitely," I told him.

Then he asked me what I expected, and when I told him, he said, "Oh, no, I don't know who gave you prices like that, but we couldn't do it for that. You'd better watch out for the kind of work a company like that will do."

As if that wasn't enough of a turn-off, he then said, "Let me talk to my boss and see what I can do."

I told him not to bother, because if the price you're giving me at first isn't the price, I'd rather say goodbye. I felt like I was at a car dealership!!

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

my empire guy used the same tactic... i'd already gotten a quote for $400 and his was $600, so his answer was, "well, wouldn't you rather go with a company who has more experience and has been around longer? a quote that low means the work will probably be shoddy." bleh.