. . "16"^^ . "1"^^ . . "1"^^ . "What follows is our experience on a bid from Re-Bath 5 Day Kitchens on a remodel of our master bathroom. Re-Bath is a franchise and this one apparently represents all of Arizona, plus we were honored to have the owner's son as one of our salesmen. I wrote down my thoughts soon after so I could remember as accurately as possible what occurred. Hard sell is the best way to sum it up. \n\nFirst after asking us a bunch of personal questions to break the ice (not needed imo) we took the 2 sales people to the master bathroom. We were not really sure of how big to make the project but were sure we needed to replace the shower and wanted to redo with a frameless shower with tile on the walls and around a whirlpool tub right next to it. They were friendly enough and asked questions to try to help us figure it out. Then we went back to the living room and were given a sheet of prior customers with their pictures and phone numbers and told we'd be given $50 off the quote for each one we talked to while they measured the bathroom. So we waited 15 minutes while they measured -- I normally call references once I know the scope of the work and have a written bid but at this point I didn't even know what I would ask a vendor-supplied reference (so instead I looked up Re-Bath on Yelp).\n\nThe next phase was them coming back with their measurements for \"show and tell\". They went out to the truck to get samples and also produced an iPad with a canned slide show on it. The slide show was long as they discussed their strong national relationship with Home Depot, their certifications, how much Angie's list loves them, resale value of remodels, why small contractors can't be trusted and their warranties are worthless, etc. \n\nFinally we got to show and tell. They asked us again what we wanted (I thought we already had answered tile and a frameless shower enclosure) but they kept asking why tile. We didn't have a great answer other than we like the look, our friends all told us to use tile, and that we had been visiting local tile stores to get ideas; I even showed them a picture of a tile idea we were leaning toward. They made some comment about tile companies naturally recommend tile and then introduced Re-Bath's proprietary SSP (solid surface polymer) to use as an alternative to tile. The 2 sales guys told us it costs Re-Bath about the same in labor and materials to install SSP vs tile but that it was much easier to maintain than tile, they could offer a lifetime warranty on it vs 1 year on tile, and many other sales points I don't remember anymore. \n\nAt this point we were feeling pressured to agree with them and so said for them to include it in the quote (this quote \"meeting\" had already been going on for 90-100 minutes and we were getting tired). We picked a color and then one of the sales guys went back to his iPad and produced a quote - $15,000 but they would discount the amount by $1,500 if we signed with them immediately and gave them a deposit. No written quote, no itemized list of project scope, just a large number on an electronic screen.\n\nFortunately I had read the negative review on Yelp earlier and so was prepared for the hard sales close and informed them I wasn't going to sign anything without thinking about it. They both then proceeded to grill us on what we were thinking, how are we going to decide, etc. Very negative, not: \"take your time it is a big decision\" but instead: \"why are you not signing today, what will it take to get you to sign\"?\n\nFinally they packed their stuff, made sure to take back the list of references, wrote $13,500 on one of their sales cards, and left. \n\nI don't know how easy it is for someone to get their money back with Re-Bath if they change their mind but I went into my bathroom to at least think over their quote. Immediately I realized that I couldn't even remember with their SSP (plastic) simulated tile product whether they replace the shower pan or reuse the one we have. I also have no idea if any shampoo inserts are included (I think not) but needless to say I can't accept a quote and spend $13,500 under these conditions.\n\nFinally, now that I've had time to think about it I believe if I were a buyer and saw a tile shower vs a simulated tile shower I would pay more for the real tile one. Looking at forums on Zillow it seems most people say they would prefer tile as well. In fairness, Re-Bath said several times during the pitch that they also do tile but we never saw any samples or discussed it.\n\nSorry for the long story but a prior review on Yelp helped us so I felt obligated to share our experience. \n\nPost Mortem (May 2016): we now have an all-new, larger frameless tile shower (rebuilt from the ground up with new plumbing), beautiful new tile floor, and new granite countertops(X2) and sinks(x2), basically an all-new master bathroom, for less than what Re-Bath quoted for just the shower area. Very happy things worked out like they did."^^ . "2016-03-27T00:00:00"^^ . "0"^^ .