windows .... everest vs anglian?

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

Do some more digging.....

If I were looking I'd get a quote from

First 2 that caught me eye.

Ask for local references. Speak to them and get a feel for them on a personal scale, anything that is a "familly run business" and has been established for 10 or more years has to be worth checking out..

Albion, to me look like a company set up by an ex employee of one of the nationals who know what they'd quote and have gone a shade under. Might even have a source feeding them quotes for back handers as it's so close to the original.

Re-read the advice from others here. We have absolutely nothing to gain so why would the majority be in agreement?

Enough from me. I self-fitted my 6 windows as I'm incredibly finikity (and they were all ground level and no existing windows to remove) and saved myself £500 for a weekends work plus I know they're fitted superbly. ;)

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

This may or may not interest you...

All Craftsmen Ltd (Dissolved)

1 active director

Gregory Allen

Final piece of the puzzle.... Glowing reviews for Albion on allchecked.co.uk (who I've never heard of but seem to be SEO'd to ) but.... look at this page:

"In 1989, when his parents suffered a bad experience at the hands of an unscrupulous double glazing company, Greg Allen was determined to do something about the sharp practises and shoddy workmanship that plagued the home improvement industry"

There's Greg! What a coincidence. Just something of interest. I might be reading far too much into these connections... ;)

[Theo]

Everest subcontract. That means it /is/ a local guy fitting your windows, just you pay for the salesman and head office to waste your time. That subcontractor is being paid a lot less.

Have you asked more than one local guy? There's likely to be a range in pricing, and I would guess the one you have is at the top end.

My ballpark is a factor of 2 between Everest's initial quote and 'best' price, and then 30% off down to the lowest 'local guy'.

Theo

[Tim Streater]

Don't use either. They all use the rubbish sales techniques of quoting high, and then pretending they can get discounts if they call their boss before 17.00, or that there is some cash left in their advertising budget that could be used to give a discount if you don't mind the finished job being photographed for one of their brochures.

All provided you sign up within the next five minutes.

Further, consider this: the problem with most double-glazing is that it looks like, well, double-glazing. I don't know what these companies offer these days, but look up double-glazing profile and discover that other outfits offer windows that look a lot nicer than what your two do, without sacrificing effectiveness. In other words, have you done research into what products are available. Check into profile, equal sight lines, and the actual efficiency rating.

What you should do is look up and find out five or so *local* companies (not national ones) that do double-glazing, see what they offer, and go and visit their premises. Pick say three that seem to have a reasonable approach, get them to quote. We did that and were quite satisfied with the outcome. And the one we picked was cheaper than either Anglian or Everest. And ignore any that is having a *sale*, which Everest seems to be doing 100% of the time.

You'll also find that any reputable local company will give you a quote for the job as specified, and if you don't call them back, you'll never hear from them again.

[polygonum]

How about getting a quote from SafeStyle?

Then you'll win your round with three of a kind.

[Jeff Layman]

You should look here:

Albion Windows are listed by Checkatrade

so should be fine, but there are a lot of other companies listed as well. You should get a couple of other quotes from them too.

[invalid]

Good.

Neither Everest nor Anglian have entries in checkatrade.com. Are they afraid of negative feedback, or is there some other reason for their exclusion?

[Bob Martin]

Everest quoted me over £8000 to replace our French doors, "but with our promotional discounts we can reduce that to £5500". I went to an outfit on the local trading estate who did an excellent job for £1400.

[alan_m]

The MD of checkatrade was on the radio 4 yesterday defending his company and why complaints from a customer using his service were dealt with in an unsatisfactory way.

I had some sympathy with the MD in this case in that it was a no win situation as the customer insisted that he didn't want the building firm knowing who had complained but the process was to give the building firm

21 days to correct the faults before taking further action. No action was taken and the high rating for the building firm was maintained.

What put me off from ever using this web site is that the MD agreed with the statement from a representative of the building industry [I paraphrase] that the man in the street couldn't judge good or bad building work and negative comments from customers should be treated with suspicion.

Surely if the average man in the street cannot judge good workmanship the good reviews on that site should also be discarded!

The listeners were informed that checkatrade is not a charity or a consumer orientated web site but is a commercial operation that companies pay to be on.

The representative from the building industry (a buildings surveyor???) suggested that a member of his organisation should be employed for all home owner building work and the Government should legislate to make it so.

[alan_m]

They don't pay to go on the site - nor do thousands of respected traders in the windows and building industries. The reviews are only for companies that have previously paid to be on the site and they don't appear solely on a customer recommendation.

[Jeff Layman]

Who knows? Maybe they think they are too big to be the sort of tradesperson that Checkatrade is set up for. In any case, they have to apply to be members and they are vetted:

Checkatrade note: "Not all trades and services are accepted as members. Checkatrade is only as good as its worst member and we have suspended members for poor service or/and workmanship."

[Brian Gaff]

Also of course its often not the quality of the windows which is the issue, its the reliability of the local contractor they both get to fit them. You do hear of horror stories like bay windows where the support of the top bit containing the roof tiles has not been held up during the install or even the gap filled with foam resulting in collapses or leaks later on.

I will just say this, whoever fits them maake sure that any warranty on the work is underwritten by a known company like an insurance company, not by the fitting company etc, as they tend to not be worth the paper they are written on. Brian

[Tim Watts]

That is extremely disturbing. Checkatrade is already biases as their revenue comes from the people who might get negative reviews. And all this "give the trade 21 days blah blah" is bollocks.

We need a site like tripadvisor or amazon reviews, where you can say what you like, good or bad.

[F]

I don't know Albion but, if he's local, he's going to need to keep his reputation. If Everest or Anglian screw up they have the rest of the country as a source of business.

Save the £300 and avoid giving Everest and Anglian any more opportunities to do what they do. Win-win!

[tabbypurr]

He should save way more than £300. But it seems he wants to be ripped off .

NT

[F]

I agree, the savings compared with those two outfits should be much greater, but the choice seemed to be between the three.

[The Natural Philosopher]

More people vote with their votes or their chequebooks - to avoid risk stuff than to get good stuff.

Everest appear to have some sort of guarantee. They dont in reality, buts that's how they try to appear.

[tim...]

Because, despite its pretence of being a helpful consumer aid, it's a commercial organisation looking to turn itself into a billion pound 'net company.

As you don't pay it a penny the turnover to achieve that must come from the advertisers, and national companies with an established rep don't see the need to pay tuppny-bit companies for leads.

tim

[damduck-egg]

Did you let him out again? It's illegal to release vermin you have trapped back into the wild. You were obliged to humanely dispatch it.

G.Harman

[Dave Liquorice]

Anglian are a load of self employed window fitters working for the local Anglian franchise who aren't good enough to get work fitting windows any other way. When (not if) the installation is not of standard suitable standard Anglian head office won't want to know and only point you back at the franchise. It also says something when the franchise has to have another team of fitters fully employed going round corecting instalation problems.

Both Everest and Anglian employ dubious sales techniques. The "discounts" are not really real, they fiddle the figures by have stupidly high list prices, and sail very close to the wind on how those list prices qualify for being used as the discount reference.

You'll get equally good prices, if not better, with a better installation from a local installer. Ask around and see who has a good reputation.