ANGLIAN WINDOWS

pinky1978

Yesterday I tried to cancel a contract with Anglian WIndows and was told that because I was outwith their 7 day cooling off period that they would be charging me a cancellation fee of 20% of the total value which is £4,496.18. (Is the cooling off period not 14 days by law ?)

How are they allowed to charge such an excessive cancellation fee.

 I realised that I would have to pay an admin charge and was expecting that to be a few hundred pounds as the surveyor has already been out but this excessive charge doesn't seem either fair or reasonable .

At no point during the salesmans visit did he tell me that the cooling off period was 7 days nor did he tell me who much it would be. Nothing was signed whilst he was there as everything is done electronically. This is the first time I have ever had to do that and wasn't quite sure what I was clicking on but I think I just clicked on a link and that meant that the contract had been signed. When I spoke to head of cancellations yesterday he just kept saying that when I "signed" the form I was agreeing that I had read the (10 pages) of Terms and Conditions and it didn't matter if the Salesman had told me or not. The salesman told me nothing but there is also a Contract Declaration Customer Questions form where I have allegedly been told all about the cancellation rights, code of pratice etc etc. These have all been selected yes but I was never told anything about any of these things and I most certainly did not click anything on his laptop. He then went on to say that no Court in the land would be interested in any claim as I should have read all the T&C's. In hindsight I obviously realise that we should all read the T&C's but I'm sure that many of you are like me and when it comes to buying anything and we can't proceed unless we tick the box to say we have read them we all just do it. The Anglian ones are also very long winded and you don't even get to the Notice of Right To Cancel until the last page and it then needs to be done via email. What happens if people don't have a computer which a lot of older people don't ? How do they sign the forms or cancel the contract ? 

When I said I didn't think that the amount charged was proportionate to the costs they will incur he said that they charge for the amount of profit that they will loose. I've never heard of a Company doing that before in my life. This just seems to be totally ridiculous to me as they would have replaced my job absolutely immediately with another one so they would be loosing nothing. Any help anyone can give me would be most gratefully received as this is an awful lot of money to loose.  Many Thanks.

SandyShores

There's information on the citizen's advice website.  It looks like the 14 days cooling off may not apply if they have already started making the windows, although from what you have said that doesn't seem to be the case.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/getting-home-improvements-done/cancelling-building-or-decorating-work/

sheramber

 If you choose an installation company that is registered with the GGF you have seven days to cancel the contract from the date it was first signed


https://www.safestyle-windows.co.uk/ask-an-expert/useful-information-and-top-tips/consumer-rights-when-buying-double-glazing/#:~:text=As double glazing is a,date it was first signed.


 

pinky1978

SandyShores said:

There's information on the citizen's advice website.  It looks like the 14 days cooling off may not apply if they have already started making the windows, although from what you have said that doesn't seem to be the case.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/getting-home-improvements-done/cancelling-building-or-decorating-work/

Thanks you for the link it is very much appreciated.

No they haven't started to manufacture them yet thank goodness as that would be 80% of the deposit paid. I just think it is so unfair to be taking so much money as a cancellation fee as it's not as if they had set specific time aside or wouldn't have got another job.