Windows and Lintels - Ventrolla

phil24_7

Your problems with this seem never ending! You have my sympathy.

Clairebare1

Howdy all

Another 2 weeks down the line and it seems that things could start to shift along again tomorrow - hopefully! The builder has now finally been paid (last Friday) by the window company for the work remaining on our property! Once the builder has been tomorrow and Friday the painter should then be with us next week and the following week and the house should then be painted from top to bottom!

Still no box bay though and we cannot see that being done before September now. My husband is away for 2.5 months from the middle of June and has informed the window company that they WILL NOT be setting foot on our property while he is not here. Has this information prompted them to get their fingers out and get them moving - probably not!

Toodle Pip xx

Furts

Clairebare1 wrote: »

Howdy all

Another 2 weeks down the line and it seems that things could start to shift along again tomorrow - hopefully! The builder has now finally been paid (last Friday) by the window company for the work remaining on our property! Once the builder has been tomorrow and Friday the painter should then be with us next week and the following week and the house should then be painted from top to bottom!

Still no box bay though and we cannot see that being done before September now. My husband is away for 2.5 months from the middle of June and has informed the window company that they WILL NOT be setting foot on our property while he is not here. Has this information prompted them to get their fingers out and get them moving - probably not!

Toodle Pip xx

The delay you have faced in unacceptable, and I ponder over why this has occurred. I do not know the window company's procedures, nor how they record commissions/costs/profits nor how they report back to Head Office. But my pure speculation is as follows:

I was once involved with one of the large national house builders and they had different regions all reporting back to HQ.

"My" region had serious losses being hidden from HQ. So new houses were being built in one part of the region and the profits made were diverted to hide and reduce the undeclared losses. HQ just assumed market forces and profits were bad for the Region and never investigated what was happening. It all became embarrassing, and somewhat comical to those in on this, but eventually over many years it worked. The MD then got promoted to MD at HQ, because there was a sudden jump in profits for the Region! He was thought to be a genius for suddenly transforming an under performing Region! The main board had no idea what he had been covering up and it follows neither did the shareholders.

Going back to Clairebare1 I wonder if profits from jobs elsewhere are being used to drip feed the costs incurred on your job. I would not be surprised if those at HQ know nothing about matters. Or if they do, this is being hidden from the shareholders, or owners of the company.

Come back to us please Clairebare1 if you think there may be substance in this. You might work this to your advantage if you have not already done so. Perhaps use it as a lever to get things done more speedily or to claim some compensation?

Clairebare1

Going back to Clairebare1 I wonder if profits from jobs elsewhere are being used to drip feed the costs incurred on your job. I would not be surprised if those at HQ know nothing about matters. Or if they do, this is being hidden from the shareholders, or owners of the company.

Come back to us please Clairebare1 if you think there may be substance in this. You might work this to your advantage if you have not already done so. Perhaps use it as a lever to get things done more speedily or to claim some compensation?

I think you could be right. When this initially all happened they said they would not be going through insurance, as the excess would be more than putting the job right themselves - although saying that I don't think they thought it would cost as much as it is costing them. Would a company have more than a 35k excess, that seems rather steep, or is that just a fib?
The person we have been dealing with works at the head office, but they have a company who owns them which has other different companies underneath it too.
It's difficult to know what to do for the best, but it will be interesting to see what sort of bill we receive at the end of all this for the windows.

Clairebare1

Here we are another 2 weeks since my last update and things have moved forward a little. The builder has returned and the decorator is currently painting our entire house (nearly) from top to bottom. The second floor and first floor are near enough done, just the ground floor to go really.

News on the box bay, well there is no news apart from we had an e-mail last Friday (3rd) saying that they foresee the windows being ready for week commencing 13th June, but they will confirm that on Monday (just gone). Did we hear from them - NO! I will assume from the no contact that it will not be ready next week, which is the last week they have to do any work before my hubby goes away.

I will post again in a couple of weeks to let you know where we are in the works that remain to do from the middle of September and also, by some miracle, if the box bay has appeared.

Everyone, please keep everything crossed for the box bay for us, so that we may have light in our living room over the summer!!!!

Ta ta xx

Clairebare1

Its quite surprising as you say .I would bet my house on you not being the only customer who has had this problem unless the original fitters were on their first job for the company.

Sorry leveller2911 missed replying to your comment above. The fitter who cut out our lintels has worked as a window fitter for this company for 30 years and, worryingly, still remains to this day with the company!!

I think your house would be safe in the bet you mention also, as one of the questions I asked him when I was quizzing him about removing our lintels was "I don't just mean in this house, but do you normally remove that piece of wood (lintel)" "yes, we do it all the time"!!

Trading standards are itching to know the name of the company who have caused this issue and we are a little annoyed that because of the delays, caused by them, we cannot tell them or you all who this company is. I don't think it will done again by them (well I hope not anyway), but who knows how many other houses in that 30 year history have been affected!!

Furts

Clairebare1 wrote: »

Sorry leveller2911 missed replying to your comment above. The fitter who cut out our lintels has worked as a window fitter for this company for 30 years and, worryingly, still remains to this day with the company!!

I think your house would be safe in the bet you mention also, as one of the questions I asked him when I was quizzing him about removing our lintels was "I don't just mean in this house, but do you normally remove that piece of wood (lintel)" "yes, we do it all the time"!!

I hope you get satisfaction, but it is barely believable that a company can continue to c-ck up on this scale. Also truly worrying for other customers of this company.

The fitter's 30 year experience rings a bell with a conservatory I recently had built. The best fitting team were allocated to this job, and they, and their management above, had 30 years experience. The fitting was a disaster area, yet the team are still working for the company.

After the conservatory the team were off to a country house to install countless replacement windows. I dread to think what standard of work was undertaken.

The bottom line is all this industry, be it windows, conservatories, front doors, soffits, gutters... is completely unregulated, with many unskilled workers, and with no quality control/checking procedures. It is left to the consumer to monitor, inspect, quality control, and sign off. Unfortunately this is what you are finding. Of course, this is not satisfactory, but it is the way the industry works, because it can get away with it most of the time.

Clairebare1

Well here we are, another 2 weeks down the line and the deadline for the window company has come and gone. Any guesses for what they have done since my last update?

Stevie_Palimo

Why not check your home insurance for legal cover and then just let a Solicitor deal with them via a given notice period to resolve in full otherwise they pay you a fixed fee to remedy the issues by a professional Company ?

I am also unsure as to why all the cloak and dagger posts here at the end of the day naming and shaming to protect others will be the right thing to do, Who cares what they say as they cannot stop the actual work that needs doing just because you named them.

Furts

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

I am also unsure as to why all the cloak and dagger posts here at the end of the day naming and shaming to protect others will be the right thing to do, Who cares what they say as they cannot stop the actual work that needs doing just because you named them.

IIRR OP has not paid the bill for the windows. I am guessing the strategy is not to name them in the hope of negotiating a lower bill.
If so, judging by the incompetence all have witnessed I am not convinced this strategy will work.