Double Glazing door locks

Songbird181

Hi can anyone give me a bit of advice , we replaced the standard double glazing locks on our doors with Avocet ABS High Security Euro Cylinder - Anti Snap Lock - TS007 3 Star ,they have been in for over a year now, we noticed lately that our back door was getting harder to lock , and noticed a gap at the top of the door when pulled to to lock, and when the handle was lifted it didnt pull the door in at the top properly. but when you push the door up it locked, so the problem looked like the door had dropped
We called out the company who fitted the doors, and they came out when I was at work and my elderly mother was here, he took out our expensive lock and fitted a normal lock on the door and it seems he also adjusted the door as it now closes at the top, he said it was due to a faulty lock and took out expensive lock away with him !!.
I contacted them on Monday to ask about the lock and they have said it was a faulty barrell ( which we knew it wasnt as it still locked the door only after you push the door up back into place ) and they are now saying that because we had these new locks fitted it may invalidate our guarantee on the door, I have asked for the lock back since it cost us a lot of money for these, and also to check the lock out for ourselves, the keys for these lock can only be cut by a certain code so no one would be able to get another key cut but the key they have also opens the other doors in our property as we had them all done to the same code,
Can having high security locks on your property really invalidate your guarantee ?

jk0

No. That's just a convenient excuse to let them charge you for the callout.

bris

It shouldn't no but you need to read the guarantee to see what it says regarding replacement parts. A Guarantee is not part of your consumer rights so what the terms of the guarantee are, are what you go by. If there is no mention of this then they can't really blame you for upgrading the security.


A euro cylinder would not cause the problem, they are essentially all made to the exact same spec so blaming it on the doors problems is nonsense. The cylinders job is a simple one, turn the key which rotates an arm to engage the lock on the doors mechanism, nothing fancy about how they work.


The climate can have an impact on the movement of the door, this extreme weather we are having can cause them to expand and contract throwing these locks out of position. It doesn't take much movement for thee hooks or rollers fall out of alignment and that means when pulling the handle up they don't slide home in the frame so you can't pull the handle all the way up to lock the door.


The guy who fixed it probably just did a bit of adjustment and blamed the new lock to save them from taking the blame, it may be he covered up a genuine fault with the door but to blame is euro cylinder is wrong.


I have change many of these mechanisms over the years, so know how it all works, there are hundreds of different mechanisms, but euro cylinders are all the same.

Norman_Castle

Songbird181 wrote: »

the key they have also opens the other doors in our property as we had them all done to the same code,

He's nicked your Avocet lock.

I believe Avocet locks have a 10 year guarantee. If the lock is faulty you will need to return it to get a replacement.
Explain you want it back with the key otherwise you will charge them for replacing all of the matching locks. Consider contacting your insurer and possibly the police.

Claims that this lock may invalidate the guarantee (unlikely) doesn't give them a reason to take your lock and certainly not the key.

Chrishazle

I had a similar problem recently with our front and back doors, initially thought it was the eurocylinder locks, but it was not. Called out a local locksmith who adjusted both doors, now works perfectly. Like you I had years ago changed the original locks for new higher security 1 key to pass locks.


Your problem was that the door had dropped/gone out of proper alignment, nothing to do with the eurocylinder.