I stupidly paid a =A31000 deposit on new windows for my flat in December
2006. After hassling Everest for months they have only now delivered the contract in May 2007. The local rep. (Heathrow) has been rude and dismissive. No-one from Everest has bothered to actually contact me. Now because I am threatening to cancel the contract they are going to charge me another =A31000 for loss of materials etc. In fact the windows haven't even been made yet so I don't see how loss of materials features in this. Has anyone else had a run in with Everest. They are certainly the WORST company I've ever had to deal with. C.J.Brady. P=2ES. Is there an anti-Everest / Double Glazing website anywhere.
Did you pay by credit card or other credit vehicle? If so, contact the card company. They will have a department that handles issues such as this, because they are aware of their liability. Phone call first and then follow up in writing by Special Delivery.
Why did you wait so long? Suppliers should be kept on a much shorter leash. 7 days would have been reasonable to have received a contract. It is rather odd that there is such a time delay because a deposit is of limited use as they can't complete the job and be paid.
He will probably have received some payment on order and the rest on completion. Is the job a small one? If the total is only £4-5k then he can make more money by selling complete house installations.
No point in bothering with him.
Did you ask them to do so? In writing?
No but I have had numerous run ins with suppliers of goods and services who feel that they can offer and sell one thing and deliver another. It never ceases to amaze me how shocked some people and companies become when asked to do what they said they would do.
I wouldn't have allowed the situation to have taken so long. It's time to cut it short. First step is to decide whether you still want them to supply. If you don't, then identify whether you can recover the deposit and avoid any other payments. They will probably have wording in their contract around this, but it may not hold up under unfair contract legislation. Having said that, one would have expected this firm to have done its homework on that issue.
Not really relevant. The contract is between you and the supplier with any credit supplier jointly and severally liable with the supplier; it is not with a website or even a newsgroup.
Really, you can use all of this as a source of information as to what steps to take. There is no point in getting into mass protests, class actions or camping out like Swampy at the company's head office.
You have the options of contacting the trading standards office at your local authority, citizens advice, solicitor, credit company. These are where a difference will be made if it is possible to make a difference.
As well as putting it on here and telling everyone you know what a s**te time you have had with them so hopefully no one will deal with them and they'll go out of business..
But they'll come back under another name -- so can't win!...
My late parents had a similar experience with Anglian Windows. They seemed to be organised along regional lines - and the regional offices were very quick to disclaim all responsibility and pass the buck up to head office - which also tried to pass it back to the regions.
Total disaster, which involved serious damage to the structure of their cedarwood bungalow (Anglian removed the structural timbers which held up one side of the biulding and replaced them with a non-structural set of UPVD patio doors).
Only solved after 9 months of wrangling, and a report for an independant structural surveyor...
Best bet in your case is registered letters to regional and head office - copies to BBC Watchdog - an generally jump up & down and make a nuisance of yourself..... also follow up the Trading Standards and Credit Card route...
Many solicitors will give you a half-hour free consultation - or try the Citizens Advice Bureau.
Everest still have a big reputation to maintain, albeit with little old ladies who still think DG is a bit technical. Why anyone would use a national company is beyond me.
Do you really think anyone is bothered? Read your copy of the contract you have, if the other side hasn't stuck to it then sue them. Very simple to do. You do seem a bit thick as you didn't shop around or get any customer opinions.
"Colin Wilson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net...
Trading standards ?
Pointless, they don't have much power to do anything and often have to be forced to react. Keep watching the news for one particular head of trading standards that was mixed up with DVDs! Possibly in a few weeks from now.
Because their salesmen keep appointments, and if you're a little old lady you could die before you can find an independent tradesman that keeps appointments.
I bought windows in the same area as the OP, only booking appointments with local independent tradesmen. They all turned up on time and one of them was run by multiple generations of the same family, who had employed fitters with 20+ years at the same company, they fitted my windows.
Oh and the deposit was £1.
There is no reason at all to use national DG companies, they are all con men.
Good advice, just one think I've found tho: standing outside and telling potential customers what happened has been a very fast way of getting a complaint addressed IME.
That's true. I did suggest to one of the DIY supermarkets that I would do that on one occasion when they had a memory aberration over delivering what they had sold. The duty manager resolved the problem quickly.
One small tip here is to take the duty manager/supervisor away from the desk occupied by the member of staff who has been a roadblock up to that point.
This gives the manager the scope to fix the problem without having to be seen to countermand the assistant in front of the customer- i.e. effectively having to choose between doing the correct thing for the customer and backing his staff member. Actually he should do both. He can fix the problem for the customer with as much flexibility with the customer as is necessary and then talk to the staff member later to the effect that they have done the right thing by following the procedure but that on some occasions it is the right thing for the business to vary that to meet the customer's need.
The customer should never return to the original assistant with an "I told you so" or any other "ner,ner,ner,ner,ner" attitude. It doesn't achieve anything and is unnecessarily rude.
Regarding a DG outfit, it would be a bit difficult to tail a salesman, although some of the firms do have displays in garden centres and retail parks. One could camp outside those on a Sunday afternoon I suppose.
However, to be honest, it would be more productive for the individual to take charge of his own problem and deal with it through the (essentially financial) remedies available.
Is this one of these things where you open the door at the side and walk in and then close the door and fill it?
I think that if these suppliers want to try selling me something and "not meeting expectations" that's one thing. When they sell things and rip off the elderly who either can't or won't push for what they bought it's unacceptable.
While I don't believe in "society" as a concept or accept the mamby pamby packaging around it - i.e. I think that individuals should take responsibility for themselves, I take a really dim view of commercial outfits who offer specialised products and services to "seniors" and the disabled and then rip them off.
I think that I will do my piece to redress this as a retirement project in a few years time, so they had better watch out.
I believe so. I haven't visited since it was done.
Oh, my mother now has a fully working bathroom[1] and I think the company realise the error of their ways.
My mother does not take being ripped off lightly, and I suspect the chairman of the company was tracked down through the annual report and given her best "stand up the boy or girl who burned down the gymnasium" Deputy Headmistress speech.
:-)
The tinks probably make chalk-marks outside your house saying "tarmaccers enter at own risk"
Owain
[1] Apart from the shower which apparently broke a week after guarantee expired.
Deputy Headmistress. Excellent. Hopefully she hasn't noticed all the nonsense about corporal punishment being removed from the agenda and has given said chairman six of the best.
Guarantees are a policy statement like traffic lights in Milan. They are the starting point for discussion.
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