We are replacing our master shower and scheduled our appointment but also went to visit the Peoria showroom to get an idea ahead of time. The showroom is beautiful, but there are no prices. Not even a ballpark, or this shower cost xxx to be found. We knew there were three styles of shower materials - tile, natural stone, and what I'm going to call plastic. It's not plastic, the sales guy had a name for it, but it's basically synthetic with the look of textured tile.
The salesman arrived 10 minutes early, but right away it became clear how this was going to go. Two prior estimates took about 30 min each, and I was willing to commit an hour today. This was like a sales scene out of a movie... I'm not one to spend a lot of time chatting, but clearly step #1 is the get to know your customer phase. I was working from home, so I don't have a ton of time to BS, so I took him into the bathroom, showed him our shower and said we would like a quote on each of the three options you have, tile, stone, and plastic. Seemed simple enough... little did I know what was coming...
First he informed me that he needed to measure and draw up a schematic of my entire house. Really, the whole house, for a shower replacement? Yes, I was told, permitting in some cities including mine require it. I suggested that we go through the quote process first, because depending on that we might not even need to draw my entire house, but was told, No, we have to do this first. So for 15-20 minutes he went around measuring and completing his drawing. At this point I had about 40 minutes more I was willing to commit. He let my wife and I know that he would not be done by then, but could likely finish up without me.
When my wife asked if the stone was less expensive than the tile, he informed us that the stone was the most expensive, and in our case would be at least $15,000. (At this point I should mention that we have a phone booth shower. Very basic, standard installed by the builder, 3 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet. It's not a tub conversion, it's not big, it's literally the size of a phone booth.) I let him know $15k wasn't going to work for us, so we just saved time not having to price out the stone. He added that tile would be about the same, so I said we could skip that one too. Little did I know that he would still be in my house an hour later.
At this point he went to his car for 15 minutes or so, presumably to write up the estimate. He returned and we began phase 2: Shame the customer into thinking they must buy the shower or else risk 'hundreds or thousands of dollars of damage' if they don't. Pull out the ipad, and we were shown a presentation that started with a video of our bathroom, and him doing the voice over pointing our the flaws in the shower. Nothing new here, yes we are replacing it. Then the presentation goes into the We are the best and only company that can do this portion, with several slides dedicated to maps of the US covered in dots, logos of companies they work with, and all the reasons why we should be using Rebath and not a competitor. I am told by friends of mine (who are in sales) that most people love this. I hate it. I don't care how many people you have helped country wide, or who you partner with, I just want a shower.
Next we got a demonstration on why we shouldn't use tile (although we had ruled it out, and also they sell it?) because it is porous, leading to massive potential water damage. He had us pick the shower door (didn't see options, just said 'frameless'), specific shower head and handle (from pics), and the actual color and style of the material for the shower.
Finally, we reached the closing which included the classic line, So besides price, is there any other reason we wouldn't be able to get a deposit and get this scheduled today? Me: Oh we are not buying a shower today, we'd like to know the price. Finally he slowly turns the ipad around for the big reveal... $18,200 but with incentives could get down to $16,500. WTF.
This review isn't a knock on the sales guy but more the process that Rebath operates under. I'm sure he was doing what he was told to do. Their products look great in the showroom. Their crews probably do good work (although read the other reviews here too). But I will never buy something that I need to be sold or talked into. And we ruled out stone and tile due to the cost of $15k, then spent an hour picking colors and styles for him to come back with a quote of $18k? This is a basic shower. No seat/bench, no cut outs, nothing special. There was no breakdown of the price, just the total.
So...word of caution: If you go with these guys, prepare to invest a lot of time - even more time than it took to read this review. Maybe my review will save you the 90 minutes I won't be getting back. They will be your most expensive option. My two other quotes before Rebath were half the cost.