Window shopping or is it fleecing?

About a month ago, we had a window rep from one of those companies that call you up incessantly finally come by to give us an estimate to replace our very old 1955 vintage windows with efficient new ones that'll block out sound, and keep in the heat & a/c.

Well, when the demo/etc was going onto the third hour or so, Mermaid told me I HAD to drive her to her boyfriend's house for some reason or other, and we had to cut it short. It was going to go on for at least another hour (the guy told us) and frankly, by that point I was about done anyway. So we made another appt for two weeks later (my mom would be visiting the next weekend) and we didn't hear ANYTHING from the salesman the next weekend. He was getting married or something, and someone dropped the ball. I wasted an entire day that day.

So this time, an older woman comes by at 10am (I wasn't going to have the rest of my day shot to shit, you know?). During the hour she spent with us, she told us she drove up an hour and a half just for us, and later on, that her windows in her desert area really kept the a/c in when her (adopted sexually abused) daughter cranked it up whenever she left the house. She could give us a superspecial discount right away, if we signed the contract within the three week time frame the Guy said we might have enough income to cover it. Meantime, the "real" estimate was about $21000 for 10 windows (4 of those are 6x4 feet large, plus three sliding doors), but with the limited discount, it'd be about $14 to 15 thousand. Because the funds from the SoCalGas program works that way. Keep in mind, with all the phone calls, ALL the phone calls and talks with these people, we were assured that any estimate would be good for one year.

As soon as she left, the Guy and I did a double-stare at each other for a moment and gaped. Did she REALLY just mention her daughter was adopted and yadda yadda? And that she drove especially out here for us for an hour and a half? Seriously?

Only just a little bit of digging on the internet (hey, it's been a whirlwind few weeks, what with it starting out with our dog dying, mother visiting, and kids getting out of school) we both realized these folks were way way way overpricing it. And as wonderful as these windows are-they're Anlin brand windows-and as superduper as this company apparently is, that's just way too much. We're going to be replacing our 18 year old heating unit probably in the next year, and my Civic is a POS that'll need replacing in a year or two...just wow. This was ass backwards. She wanted us to sign right away, of course, with the paperwork, and it took the Guy to remind her clearly that we were only doing this now to get the estimate. What's this shit about special discounts? He said she gave us a high price, to then give us a lower price to make the pricing sound more reasonable.

Ugh. At least I have leads on less expensive windows and a company in the Simi Valley that installs them, although they mixed, though generally good, reviews.
 

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There's a skull hidden in the picture. Can you find it?

This was done in response to a scavenger hunt in the art journal course I'm taking. I had to include a gem, a flag, ink, an astrological sign or constellation, light, and an aquatic animal. I thought'd it'd be fun to create a scene with it, like the other three I did. Unfortunately, this was only a four week assignment.

Hope you like it!