Hawthorne

Apr 2, 2025

Nearly called the police to have them removed. Would not leave my house.

We were referred to FHI via the Help to Buy scheme who then pass on a promotional private discount. I eventually relented after lots of calls and agreed to an appointment. It was supposed to be with a person called Jay but a Nina arrived. She was bristly from the off as only my husband was home and apparently she needed us both there to ramble at so I was made to rush home from my errands as she refused to continue to speak to him without me. Ridiculous, he's perfectly capable. I should add, we had cloudy 2 clear out to quote just replacing the glass and a local company out to quote the cost to replace windows. They measure, we pick, they quote. Done in 30 min tops. Nina was here for over TWO AND A HALF HOURS AND REFUSED TO LEAVE. We told her several times we would not be buying from her because after her marketing spiel which took forever (and let's be honest, no one cares about the branding history, product changes, and birthdays of a company and if we did we can Google it). Our kids were delirious with fatigue and we'd been clear she needed to wrap things up by 6.30pm and this was agreed to but she refused to take no for an answer. Deliberately trying to bamboozle and bombard, when we refused the 27k quote, she eventually dropped to 13k if we agreed to sign a non disclosure agreement, agree to never tell neighbours what we paid, have a board outside the house for several months etc. She also tried to get away without telling us how much we'd actually end up paying was over 24k so there was no real discount at all, and she had be persuaded to share the true figure (and i don't believe she would have been honest without me pushing for this). She made a phone call to her colleague about us in front of us which was uncomfortable to watch and still would not leave when I tried to put our children to bed. I ended up pretending to call my dad and saying he refused to pay and she started to talk about him in a derogatory way and demanding to know what he said - none of her business. My husband had to put his foot down and tell her AGAIN no sale was happening tonight (it was gone 8pm. She arrived shortly after 5pm). I was minutes away from calling the police to have her removed. The whole promise of a "free no obligation quote" is quite frankly inaccurate. I cannot believe anyone would behave that way and be okay with it. The distress caused that evening was monumental for us and our children. I read the reviews of pushy sales but thought I could handle it as I have in the past but this was another level I would never have expected. I'd avoid anyway based on the fact FHI would have made a profit at 27k and 13k and have no morals to their sales tactics. I should add, having seen brochures for 3 different companies - they're offering the same thing. Doors are identical, prices are not. Shop around and leave these guys off your list of contenders.