It is 2011 isn't it?

...we haven't gone back to the good ol' days when we mere females needed the permission of our husbands or fathers to make decisions have we?

I ask because I had a rather interesting and amusing thing happen to me this morning that made me think we had.

To explain:

MONT and I are thinking of getting one of those clear PVC blinds on the side of our back deck to minimise the wind and give us a bit of protection against the rain...so I rang a company on their 1300 number to organise someone to come out and give me a quote.

After the consultant had been rather nice to me on the phone and got most of my details, she then asked if I was married and what my husband's name was

The following conversation went something like this:

Why do you need my husband's name seeing he won't be here?

We like to meet with both the husband and wife for the consultation and can arrange to be at your home in the evenings or even the weekends. We find it works better that way

No, that's OK...I'm quite capable of looking over and deciding on a quote seeing I'm the one who'll be paying for it so it'll just be me

Yes, I understand, but we like to have both people there for the 45 minute consultation.

45 minute consultation? I just want a measure and quote for one side of the back deck of the house and if it's going to take 45 minutes for the salesman to measure the height and width of the wall, then maybe I could measure it myself and you could give me an estimate over the phone.

Now, there's no need to get defensive, we just like to meet with both people and can arrange to be there when you're both home

(now this is the point where I realised that whoever turned up on Wednesday at 3pm wasn't just going to be here to give me a quote...no. He was going to try to not leave here without a signature)

I don't need my husband here to help me make a decision. I've never needed my husband with me when I've purchased a house or a car, so I'm sure I'm quite capable of choosing and paying for a Cafe blind.

We can be there on Saturday or even Sunday if that suits you both better, we don't mind at all and it does work better that way.

(She was persistent, I'll give her that)

No, Wednesday afternoon suits me better

(This is when she gave in and realised I wasn't going to budge, so we arranged for someone to come out at 3pm...she didn't even say goodbye, just "have a nice day" and hung up)

I had this conversation at work and my colleague couldn't believe what he was hearing!

I've heard of this sort of selling shtick before, but thought the old "get them together to play one off against the other and pressure them into signing on the dotted line" was well and truly in the past. Obviously not.

I've got someone else coming to give me a quote on Wednesday as well. It should be interesting to compare the different selling styles.