Double-glazing complaints anyone?

[John Doe]

Hi,

I am currently researching a paper on direct sales organisations, and in particular a number of double-glazing firms have come under serious criticism.

If anyone out there has any horror stories they would like to add, please do so here. You can also email me directly by removing the obvious SPAM trap from my email address.

What I'm looking for in particular are:

• The lies you were told * Problems you had cancelling * Credit issues (did the salesman explain the 10 year period, APR etc.) * Quality, guarantee and after sales service.

In fact, just about anything that gets up your nose. The aim of this paper is to get the legislation changed to protect ordinary people from these sharks. CAB is doing the same and hopefully this paper will lend even more weight to the argument.

One section discusses how many salesmen may actually be text-book psychopaths as it divulges how Ted Bundy and Richard Rameriz (to name but two) could just as easily have made money selling crap windows and doors!

Note that while I cannot name companies directly, I am compiling statistics.

Thanks,

JD

[BigWallop]

Just write down that all these window and door salespeople are sharks. Simple. These sales people are only doing it for the money and they are the same as any other sales person. If any sale is driven by commission, then the incentive to make more from a sale is there right at the start. It's the companies who use permanent salaried sales people that are preventing the fly by night companies who use young commission driven temporary staff from running riot, and they are the ones you'd need to clamp down on.

So if you find out which companies are using commission driven sales, then you've found the companies that are giving the market a bad name.

[Tony Collins]

Be very careful about identifying specific companies.

They can and will go after you for libel if you are not able to prove anything you put in writing - even in a newsgroup.

[John Doe]

It's reasonable to assume that all double-glazing companies use hungry young men. But the paper goes a lot further than that by detailing HOW they operate. What I'm looking for is confirmation that my information goes deeper than the two companies I infiltrated.

In particular I'm looking for hard evidence that the sales tactics used go higher than "branch" level and that the top managers not only know about them, but condone and teach them too.

I'll probably post some extracts here later on if the publisher agrees.

JD

[John Doe]

Anyone who wants to identify a particular company should do so directly to my email. I won't publish the names or the sources in the paper, but I will be passing any interesting complaints directly to people who can investigate further such as the OFT.

This will hopefully allow me to prove that the rot from at least one company goes deeper than anyone has been currently able to prove. They are big enough to have expensive lawyers so without a decent amount of corroboration I can't go to the OFT and have them investigate.

[N. Thornton]

NT

[John Doe]

Thanks,

but I really want to hear people's personal experiences. This is, however, interesting.

[Peter Parry]

Arguably the biggest scam in the glazing world is the regularity with which some companies keep going out of business to shed their repair responsibilities and reappear the next day as a different company in the same premises and with the same people.

[John Doe]

Very true. Any suggestions as to how we might legistlate against this?

Serious question as I can't think of anything offhand other than the rules we already have.

JD

[RichardS]

This isn't a problem that is confined to DG outfits - damp-proofers and many other building companies also seemed prone to pulling that trick.

You won't really tackle it in relation to laws for DG companies specifically. FENSA ought to stop this kind of thing if it's any kind of association that gives customers protection, but I doubt that it would.

What's needed would be hard company case law to the effect of "if it looks like the old company, smells like it, operates in same premises, has same staff etc then for purposes of enforcement of existing contracts it _is_ the same company".

However, you're now into the realm of changing basic principles of company law and all of the associated pitfalls of that. Good luck!

cheers Richard

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[John Doe]

Actually, the paper deals with the selling tecniques employed by direct sales people. Once these are stopped in their tracks the rest should follow suit. I can virtually guarantee anyone who reads this paper will never let another salesman in the door again! ;-)

JD

[Jason N Beck]

So when will you be posting your paper?