Last week we had a guy come from a local company which supplies blinds to give us a quote for Roman blinds. I saw him drive up and went downstairs to meet him at the door but after a minute or so he drove off again. I then realised that my phone needed rebooting so perhaps he had tried to call, but on the other hand he never even got out of the van to see which was our house. I rang the company before he got to the end of the street and he arrived back about 10 minutes later. He measured up, showed us one sample book, said there was another one in their showroom, made no effort to engage with us at all about fabrics, and was packing up and back down the stairs while I was still asking him questions We were really annoyed and I decided that if he followed up I was going to tell him that they had not got the job and why.
Well, my moment came today - he phoned and asked if we had had a chance to think about it. So I told him we would be going elsewhere because we did not like his attitude. I said it appeared to us that he had either decided that we were not going to buy or else they were so busy, they didn't need our business. Do you know what, he didn't even apologise He just said "Ok thanks" and that was it! I was even more pleased then that I had said my little piece.
Things work out - SIL's family company does hotel interiors but I never like to impose by asking for stuff, although I know we could. When I was telling him the story last weekend, he insisted that I send him the measurements and said his sister would deal with it for us. We've had a great quote from them, and it will be hotel quality, just need to choose fabrics now which we will get at cost.