Anglian Windows / Home Improvements?

trisontana

Pennylane wrote: »

Sorry, sorry, sorry - not Anglian Windows - it was Zenith Windows.

News story here :- http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED08%20Jan%202008%2021%3A04%3A57%3A553

I am glad that Zenith have gone bust. They also were a dreadful company. Sorry that the workers have had to lose their jobs though.

trisontana

I like this quote from Anglian Windows :-
Anglian is fortunate to have an excellent heritage with over 40 years trading, and a brand which is trusted and respected by consumers. We are the market leaders in the industry with a reputation that has been built on quality products produced by quality people. In 2007 we have just posted an all-time sales record, thanks to the incredible efforts of our entire workforce

What planet are they living on ?

georgielb

LETTER OF COMPLAINT TO ANGLIAN

I write with complaint to accompany my cancellation and to express my dissatisfaction with the appalling service provided to us by your salesmen.

Your salesman, a Mr S, first came to our property on the 7th January 2008 to give us a quote for new windows. After much negotiation and a further meeting with him on the 8th January we agreed a price of £2399 for 4 UPVC sash windows of various sizes, which we were fairly happy with. In addition to this Mr S gave us a guaranteed total price of £4200 if we ordered the additional 3 windows we would need in our new extension within the next 6 months, and he wrote this onto our contract in order to honour it. We were promised that the surveyor would come out within 21 days but that it should be sooner as we had asked for as quick a fit as possible.

However the surveyor did not come out until 23 days later, 1st February, despite the contract stating that he would come not later than 21 days. In addition to this he raised a number of issues which made us realise that we had been misled in a number of ways by Mr S. The surveyor pointed out that one of the windows on the front façade of the property would not match the others as it had not been put through as a sash window but as a White Knight. This was thankfully picked up by the Surveyor who obviously knew his job and understood fully that being in a conservation area we would get into trouble for having odd windows in the front of our property. This disturbed me as we had clearly discussed all the windows matching with Mr S and had even stood outside and discussed how they should all match the original wooden sash windows style on the property next door. Understandably I also made an error in signing the contract despite the information being incorrect, however I was led to believe that all windows were to be the same on the front of the property, the only difference being that this one small window was to be fixed and not sliding. Although I signed the contract, to my detriment, I believed that Mr S was a professional and assumed that he knew his job and the area within which he was working, and to have ordered an odd window on the front of a property in a conservation area which would cause serious planning issues for us, shows clearly that he is not a professional and that he does not know his job.

In addition to this problem, the surveyor also, thankfully, pointed out to me that Mr S had not included any finishes including window sills to the windows. This again disturbed me as we had been promised that the windows and sills and linings internally and externally would all be finished and even if plaster or render was affected that everything would be put right, with no work left for us to do at all. This was an important aspect for us and again had been something discussed at great length with Mr S, as we knew the price that we could buy the windows for off the shelf and knew we were paying a premium to have them finished professionally. For the surveyor to point out that this was not the case was shocking. Therefore the Surveyor put a variation of contract into place and told me that the salesman would probably call me again to put the price up.

Mr S called on Sunday 10th February to see if he could come out and re-price the windows as obviously mistakes had been made. I expressed my dissatisfaction with the events that had unfolded and was threatened with the 30% cancellation fee if I changed my mind, despite the fact that errors had been made. He also claimed that the windows would be finished off and so I asked him to contact the surveyor to check this as that was not the impression I had been given and to then get back to me. On Monday 11th February a man claiming to be Mr S’s manager called to discuss what had happened. I agreed that he should come out and discuss the matter as threats over the phone were not going to get us anywhere. I asked him to come out before Thursday 14th February as I felt that modifications had been made to the contract and I wanted to be able to cancel if necessary before 14 days were up, he agreed and set up a meeting for 2pm on Wednesday 13th February. At 1 pm on the 13th he called and said he could not come as he was interviewing. He wanted to rearrange the appointment for 4pm on Friday 15th February. He also changed his admittance to the fact that mistakes had been made by Anglian and that it was my own fault for signing, and as such I could not cancel myself before Thursday as the modifications were my own fault, therefore coming on Friday would make no difference as if I cancelled I was going to pay the 30% fee anyway. Despite his threatening tone and infuriating comments I agreed to the Friday appointment as more than ever I wanted this sorting out, especially as my planning for the extension had been completed and in actual fact I wanted an additional 6 windows.

On Friday 15th February, Mr S and his manager arrived at my property at 2pm without prior warning that they would be early. I explained my concerns and asked for the windows to be re-priced, despite the fact that Mr S had severely misled us in the first instance. The window that had been mistakenly put through in an odd style came out at £350 on top of its original price. In addition to this we were told that finishing with duraboards would cost an additional £250. Therefore the price had risen from £2399 to £2999 due solely to being misled by Mr S. I queried how much the window in its current White Knight style was costing and was given a figure of about £400 but was told that that was not how they worked it out. This confused me still as if you don’t work on prices then how do the figures come about? However, at this point I was still trying to come to some sort of mutual agreement as I still required more windows for the extension.

I asked if I could have another small window priced and added to the contract. This was priced at £900 and we were told that this was the best deal they could come to. Simple mathematics, even at the higher price of £2999 for the original 4 windows, calculates that price for 1 window average was originally costed at £750 and not £900. This I then queried and brought up the fact that on the original contract it stated that we could have the original 4 windows and an additional 3 windows, of the same dimensions as the 3 larger ones on the original contract for £4200, which averages £600 per window. The manager claimed that we would never get 7 windows for £4200 and tried to claim that what was written on the contract was not what it actually meant. He claimed that what it meant was that we would get the first 4 for £2399 and then another 3 for an additional £4200, double the price £2000 more!- why would we have asked for that as a deal to have been written into the contract?

When confronted with basic maths and yet another inability to know their jobs, the manager refused to accept the figures stated on the contract. He kept repeating, “I don’t know” when asked to show how we could have been promised one thing and now offered another. He was abrupt and absolutely refused to accept the overwhelming facts set out in front of him (basic mathematics). He became exceptionally dismissive and patronising despite us having evidence of the original offer in front of us. Throughout the whole meeting, Mr S remained quiet and looked decidedly embarrassed at the mistakes that had been made. While still trying to come to an adequate resolution I asked whether I could get a guaranteed price for all 10 windows that I required for the property and the extension. At this point the manager claimed he couldn’t do that now as he had to go and pick up ‘Morris’ and take him home, thus yet again showing the epitome in customer care! At this point we decided to give up on trying to get any element of decency from them and told them that unless we were offered our original deal on all windows we were going to have to cancel. To which the manager shouted “whatever!” got up and walked out.

Thereafter, we received a phone call at 6.30pm from the manager, offering us all 10 windows (the original 4- all as sash and finished, the extra 1 we asked a price for, and an additional 5 needed for the extension) for £6100. So from “never getting 7 windows for £4200” we have now actually been offered 10 for £6100- you work out the math!

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BOG OFF as one other window company might say!

Hardwick5

Anyone contemplating using Anglian should be aware of their labour charges. We found out the hard way! Anglian were called to repair a recently installed conservatory leak, by the previous home owners just before we purchased the property, having had a temporary repair made already. Two workman duly turned up two months later with materials and scaffolding the intention to undertake the repair. Having stripped off the existing lead flashing and some rows of tiles, they called out the Divisional Manager who brought with him the original order and contract document to prove that this would not be covered under the existing warranty as we were led to believe.
We had two choices, either to get them to put everything back as it was and try and resolve the leak with someone else, or get Anglian to make the repair with the materials they had brought with them. We decided the latter as it had rained heavily the day before and rain was forecasted again. The manager made a big deal that we would be taken care of and informed us that there were set charges for this work and he would let us know what they were so we could see how reasonable they were and as a goodwill gesture we would only be charged for labour and materials.

The work took one full day with a further 2 hours on a return visit, totally 11 hours for two men. We learn't to our horror what the labour charge was when we received the final invoice without any forewarning as promised the day before they returned to finish the job two weeks later. It amounted to a total of £1222.21 for labour and a further £426 for materials.

We have challenged their charges for what effectively works out at £55 per hour on the basis we deem them to be unreasonable when they did not clearly notifiy us of them at the start of the job and the fact we have discovered the going rate for skilled workman in this region (bricklayers, stonemasons, roofers etc) is between £20-£30. What has annoyed us more is that if there was document proof to identify the leak was not part of the new conservatory warranty, why did they strip off our roof first and leave us in a vulnerable position.

Anyone thinking of using Anglian should get clear notification of their charges beforehand, we trusted Anglian and felt we had no alternative but to ask them to reinstate what they had removed with new. In hindsight had we been made aware of their high charges we would not have used them.

shack76

Regardless of who you work for, everyone has a conscience ! - apparently not the salemen working for Anglian !

I hope the saleman in question reads this post ! - Shame on you !

You got a frail lady of 86 years to sign on the dotted line for a new kitchen, knowing that you had grossly overcharged her for half a dozen units, one work top and a new sink (which actually didnt have to be replaced). Price ? £10.500 and you insisted on an £8.000 deposit !! - it didnt include anything else like a cooker, extractor fan, floor and wall tiles !

Then to add insult to injury, you made a mistake and delivered a top of the range worktop and sink and told her she would have to settle the difference when you involved her for the balance of the account.

So readers of this forum, BEWARE, you've been warned to stay away from this firm - what they are doing is plain theft !

g1974

I worked for Anglian at a fairly senior level for many years and left because I couldn't accept the deceptive tactics towards the customer. Never ever accept the first quote, in fact you can half the first quote when haggling, and ensure that you get the price and fitting standard confirmed on your contract, otherwise you'll have Mickey Mouse and his mate fitting your windows badly 6 weeks later. The product is good but the fitting, customer service and extra charges are terrible. My advice is to speak to your friends and go with a local company who will provide you with the service you expect.

Desperate007

Hi, can anyone there help me with Anglian charges???
They are trying to charge us over £2.500 because we cancelled 24 days after we sign the contract... Aparentelly, they can try to charge us 25% of the quote, Is this for real????? They have not started the job or even the surveyor came to check the roof for the solar pannels....:(

hollydays

omg-what did your contract say.A contract may be legally binding.Why did you cancel,could you have been missold? Why did you sign something if you weren't committed to it?

nomoneytoday

I had Anglian windows installed 8 years ago. When a window lock stuck they came out a couple of days later, free of charge, and fixed under warranty

Desperate007

We were comited to have the solar pannels, but the offer for the loan came 13 days later and by the time we tried to get another loan with a beter interest rate and realised it was really high every where, it was 24 days after we signed...