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Archive for the ‘Double Glazing’ Category

10 Year Guarantees

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

One issue that seems to get the blood boiling for people in our industry more than any other is the subject of 10 year guarantees.  Ross Dent, the owner of a window company in Plymouth recently brought the subject up by posting this comment and it got me thinking.

A few years ago I would have agreed with Ross, and in many respects, if you were designing an ideal window industry from scratch then I’m sure most people wouldn’t start with the phrase:

‘Hey, let’s promise to go back and fix any potential fault for the next 10 years!’

However, I’ve been thinking about this for a few days, and have decided that companies who offer and manage 10 year guarantees correctly can use it to their commercial advantage.  And, I believe it should be allocated as a marketing cost on the profit and loss account (assuming your company analyses management accounts).

Just imagine you’re a salesman for a moment…..

You go visit Mr & Mrs Jones and they purchased uPVC windows and doors from your company 9 years ago.  They now need a conservatory and have invited you in to quote.

Since the windows were installed there’s been a couple of issues.  One of the doors was not locking correctly after six months, and last year one of the sealed units broke down.  Your company fixed the lock promptly (the door just needed toe and heeling a bit) and they also replaced the sealed unit recently and didn’t charge the customer for replacing it.

Tell me this, do you think you would have a good chance of selling the conservatory?

Response to Rod Appleyard by Tony Pickup (DGCOS)

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Mr Appleyard, we have already answered most of these queries elsewhere on this blog, but I will attempt to do so again.
 
Not only is DCGOS’s mediation, arbitration and adjudication process free to installer members and homeowners, the Ombudsman’s awards are in fact legally binding and are recognised by the courts.

The key points here are:

1) Consumers can request investigation completely free of charge and installers must enter this process and be bound by its decisions. They are contracted to do this at the point of entry into the scheme. They cannot refuse and opt-out if they don’t like the potential consequences.
2) The costs of all of above and any inspections are covered by DGCOS
3) The Awards are legally binding on both parties (under The Arbitration Act 1996)
4) Any awards not complied with are covered by the members pooled Compensation Fund. This ensures any awards will be paid. Normal awards of the courts or arbitration awards do not have this protection in place.

Dr Barham has dealt with hundreds of cases of mediation involving inspections and in his capacity as QA Ombudsman. He has also dealt with and made over 200 legally binding Arbitration Awards in the construction industry in this same capacity. All are binding on both the complainant and respondent.
 
The Ombudsman is supported by independent inspectors who are highly qualified and who have direct experience of the window industry. You can request a copy CV of the senior inspector from: tony@dgcos.org.uk.

The Ombudsman himself, Dr Ronald Barham, is, like yourself, a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators but in addition is a qualified lawyer and was formerly in practice as a chartered surveyor and consulting engineer and has been a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and of the Rating & Valuation Association; the Chartered Institute of Building; The Architects & Surveyors Institute and the Construction Surveyors Institute as well as a Member of the International Real Estate Federation and the Society of Engineers. He is registered as a Professional Engineer (UK).

He is also a member of the arbitration panels of several professional and government bodies.
 I am not sure what further qualifications you think would be required but if you require a copy of his full CV please do get in contact on: tony@dgcos.org.uk

Ombudsman Schemes:
 
There are a number of Ombudsman Schemes in the UK. Some Ombudsmen are Government appointed, for example, The Financial Services Ombudsman, The Heath Service Ombudsman, The Police Ombudsman, whereas others are optional schemes where interested parties group together and set their own scheme up to protect consumers eg, The Surveyor Ombudsman, The Estate Agent Ombudsman, The Telecommunication Ombudsman etc. The Double Glazing & Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme (DGCOS) is a similar optional scheme protecting consumers who buy from its members.

The points of this scheme Mr Appleyard, are:
1) to give consumers confidence that they are using good, honest, professional installers in the first place (see www.dgcos.org.uk –accreditation)
2) if any disputes do occur they will be dealt with swiftly and robustly with no additional cost to either the consumer or installer for mediation, adjudication, inspections or arbitration (see www.dgcos.org.uk – Ombudsman)
3) These decisions are legally binding on both parties and are backed up with a Compensation Fund if either party is non-compliant (see www.dgcos.org.uk – Consumers- Compensation Fund)
4) the customer is fully covered should any member installer go out of business. Every customer using a DGCOS member has a robust underwritten guarantee in place (not just the ‘offer’ of one) [see www.dgcos.org.uk – Consumers- Deposit Protection / Insurance Backed Guarantee]
5) members of the scheme benefit from addition consumer confidence, point of sale material, the endorsement of Nick Ross, enquiries from consumers wanting to use DGCOS members (see: www.dgcos.org.uk –Installers)

I’m sure you’d agree Mr Appleyard that the current trade bodies cannot offer all these things to both consumers and installers and that if this level of protection, accreditation and investigation had been around for the last 20 years consumers would have a much better impression of the industry.

If you would like to find out the real information about DGCOS may I suggest you visit www.dgcos.org.uk or apply for a ticket to our first national conference at The Ricoh Arena, Coventry on 11th Nov 2011.

How do I comply with the new regulations from 1 October?

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Following is a letter from Giles Willson sent to Nathan at the Glazine which I thought might be useful guidance (and another very easy post for me where I can copy and paste):

How do I comply with the new regulations from 1 October?

This is the question which we are still being asked; we have known and published the details of the new requirements since they were published at the end of April – ie replacement windows need to be WER B and C rated or better or whole window U-value 1.6. The centre pane U-value is not accepted as a method to show compliance for the majority of replacement windows.

The BFRC WER approach has been in existence for over 10 years, with the Authorised Retailer scheme and Licence of Addition; the route for covering your products is now very comprehensive. More details are available from www.bfrc.org

If you want to use the whole window U-value approach; the difficulty with this change in regulation compared with the existing 2.0 U-value is the window needs to be validated to achieve the 1.6 U-value. Currently to achieve a 2.0 if you use low emissivity glass, 16mm air gap you are deemed to be compliant. The magic specification to achieve a 1.6 U-value keeps on being requested.

The work which has been undertaken by BFRC with the detailed simulation of thousands of window combinations and the resulting whole window U-value and WER means we can look at which combinations achieve the 1.6 U-value. One solution is that if you have a timber or PVC-U frame (as long as it has five chambers) and you use an IGU comprising: soft coat low-e glass, 90% gas filled and warm edge spacer bar; you will achieve a 1.6 U-value.

We know there are many other combinations of component which can achieve the 1.6 U-value and this does not preclude the use of hard coat low-e glass or standard spacer bar, however, the above specification is a clear simple guide for FENSA registered window installers who need a quick guide solution to be prepared for 1 October 2010.

We would also like to remind readers that there are transitional arrangements applicable for the replacement window industry for the change to the 2010 regulations under Approved Document L1B. Any contract signed before 1 October 2010 can be installed using 2006 guidance as long as the installation starts before 6 April 2011; all contracts signed after 1 October must comply with the 2010 regulations.

FENSA inspections will be reflecting the transitional arrangements therefore, it is assumed that all installations registered during October and November will have contracts signed before 1 October therefore will be compliant via the 2006 regulations. From December FENSA will be checking against the 2010 regulations (if the contract was signed before 1 October 2010 and is inspected; any non compliance due to meeting the old thermal performance requirements, can be cleared by producing a copy of the signed and dated contract and still comply with the 2006 requirements).

Yours

Giles Willson
BFRC / FENSA

gwillson@ggf.org.uk
020 7645 3700
enquiries@fensa.org.uk

Cold calling is a waste of time

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Jennifer Pinch from Ultraframe floated the following question on the GlassTalk website yesterday:

I’ve just started to read a book called ‘Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time’ because I’m curious to see what the Author has to say … what do you guys think? Are the days of cold calling over?

The question raised a few comments and I pitched in suggesting that although door knocking and tele-canvassing clearly work, I’d be quite happy to see tougher regulations to ban cold calling altogether.

However, it seems my sentiment is not shared by everyone with one of the GlassTalk members suggesting that the industry had developed from cold calling:

I wonder how many on this site started out as knockers or took leads off them as a sales rep or was the fitter that fitted the job that came from cold calling. We all loved the little toe rags then eh? Now just imagine that the bat phone stopped ringing, how long would it take YOU to get out and create some business by knocking doors again or get somebody in to do it for you? Or would you fold because you’re too proud?

I do understand his sentiment and appreciate that many people have become very rich over the years using this marketing strategy.  But it doesn’t mean it’s right and I have never condoned it in my business.

Andy Mac weighed into the discussion by suggesting that times may be changing:

I was brought up in sales cold call myself and then covering cold called leads. It is not for the feint hearted and can be a very time consuming and expensive process.

You also need to be able to sell on the night and sell finance, it takes a very different animal to sell cold called leads successfully.
Firstly who cold calls, do you get your sales people to do it? Good Luck!

Do you set up a telephone canvass room with students and other people desperate enough to sit and take the abuse they are likely to get just to earn a few quid. A good telcan room is as good as the supervisor who knows how to motivate people and also knows all the blaggs, they will try anything to get a salesman’s bum on a customers couch to earn a sit bonus, you can waste a lot of time and money and demotivate salespeople unless you know exactly what you are doing.

As for door canvass teams, multiply the problems and blagging by 10, you need a strong sales manager who is going to confirm decent leads and blow out the rubbish, the door canvass manager will then complain that the sales manager is blowing out good leads, the canvasser or their manager will the recall the customer to get the lead back on. Are you starting to get the idea about cold calling, you shouldn’t get involved unless you are extremely savvy, anyway why would you want to have all the hassle of the pro-active, scatter gun approach if you don’t need it? With the www you are much better spending your money on SEO and conversion rates on your web site, you will attract a much better quality lead and have much higher closing rates. To answer the question ‘Are the days of cold calling over’ not quite, not for the nationals like Zenith and Weatherseal but even they are spending much more on web sites now and generating leads that way, but cold calling is dying a slow death, the public are getting wiser and less likely to accept unsolicited calls.

I couldn’t agree more with Andy.  I’ve traded for 17 years without ever employing door canvassers or tele-canvassers who just use the scattergun approach.

With the internet, everything has changed.  SEO and PPC are the new door knocking and tele-canvassing.  And its power to the people as they won’t contact you unless they choose to.

And, that’s how it should be!

191 companies in trouble

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

I was interested to see the press release in the GGP mag about the latest Plimsoll market analysis for the UK windows and doors industry.

According to GGP:

Its new research shows that with 191 companies ‘in trouble’, 377 others ‘powering ahead’ and a further 215 set to be taken over, the market has never been more fragmented.

David Pattison, author of the new Plimsoll Analysis – Windows & Doors stated: “Having rated 191 struggling companies as ‘danger’ and given 377 others a ‘strong’ rating, I am surprised at the gulf in performance in the market. Despite all other factors, success still comes down to how well a company is run.”

Should this continue, Mr Pattison was certain where this would lead to: “Acquisitions. The market, in the current economic climate, cannot support this many companies. There has to be further, more radical consolidation in the market. Strong companies will be buying up distressed competitors in the next 12 months”.

I regularly buy the Plimsoll books, and although they are far from comprehensive (eg. some leading companies are not listed and sometimes the information available on companies is limited) I’m sure they do give an overall view of the state of the market.

It seems to me that the consolidation required is well overdue.  There’s many of the big names in the industry have been unprofitable for years, yet you don’t see the amount of acquisitions and mergers you’d expect, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Plimsoll’s prediction for the next 12 months takes place.

And, with smaller companies, if I get an installer contacting me about supply, I’m pleasantly surprised if I get a positive response to a credit check.  It doesn’t happen very often, though.

Football tournament update

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

It looks like there is enough interest in the 5 A Side football tournament I’m trying to organise, although I still need a few more teams to come forward.

At present, the following companies are committed or trying hard to get a team together:

Conservatory Outlet (factory lads)
Conservatory Outlet (office)
West Yorkshire Windows
Veka
Motionlab
Tailored Systems
Fab n Fix
Eurocell (profile division)
Eurocell (roof division)
Polyframe
TWS (Leeds)
Mid Wales Windows
GGF
Anglian
Leads2Trade
Synseal
Distinction Doors
New Look Windows (Rochdale)
Cantifix
Mila
Window Widgets
GM Fundraising
Classic Design Conservatories
ConservatoryLand
Quickslide
Lister Trade Frames

So, we’re about 8-10 teams short, and not all the teams above are guaranteed to be able to get a full team together.  If there’s anybody fancies taking part, but can’t get a full team then we could consider having a GlassTalk team, or even a Renegade Conservatory Guy team.

Ian at Fenestration News has put the downloadable PDF at:

http://www.fenestration-news.com/pdf/Power_League.pdf

Anybody interested please get in touch with me ASAP so I can finalise numbers with the venue.

Time for price increases?

Monday, August 16th, 2010

While wandering around the Pembrokeshire seaside town of Tenby with the family last week I was intrigued by the name change of one of the town’s famous shops:

And, it got me to thinking that if a shop set up to sell products for a fixed price has had to increase its prices by 20%, then surely there’s a lesson here for our industry.

The systems companies have been leading the way with passing on price increases to fabricators this year, as a result of higher raw material prices and a weak pound. Indeed, I understand that militancy in the Far East is forcing up wages of the low paid factory workers who produce much of the hardware our industry uses and at the same time improving their working conditions. But, somebody has to pay for this, and clearly that has to be the UK window fabricators.

Many of the extrusion companies have been losing money for years due to too much competition and falling demand. There’s been talk of consolidation for ages now, but this doesn’t seem to have happened. So, there had to come a point where all extruders would need to force increases through, and over the last few months this has clearly been happening. I mean, if you can’t run your company profitably then the only answer is to put your prices up. Right?

And, then if installers put their prices up accordingly the whole industry will be better off. So, I’d like to make a request that all 14,000 installers out there reading this article to increase their prices by 20%, so that the fabricators of the windows, doors and conservatories stuck in the middle of the supply chain can pass on the increases they’ve had from systems companies.

Simple guys: Just put up your prices, and don’t worry because all your competitors will be doing the same!!

Incidently, you may have noticed that Tenby’s Famous £1.20 Shop is up for sale. It looks like the price increase has not helped their business. Not surprising really.

I bought the following water pistol for £1 from one of their competitors:

In fact, it’s not any old water pistol. It’s a massive, high powered water gun with pump action and a huge water tank for non stop action. It shoots up to 12 metres!

I thought it might come in handy when I’m negotiating with systems companies.

Government response to Window Scrappage Scheme

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

The Government has responded to the Window Scrappage Scheme petition as follows:

The Government agrees that energy efficiency has an important part to play if we are to achieve our carbon reduction targets. The benefits of energy efficiency for households are clear: saving money on energy bills, reducing reliance on imported energy and helping householders reduce their carbon emissions.

However given the high cost of replacement windows (typically £5,000 to £10,000 for a small home), the marginal improvement in performance, particularly when replacing like-for-like double glazed windows; and given that band C windows will be the minimum standard permitted by building regulations from October 2010, a window scrappage scheme is unlikely to be cost effective on energy efficiency and carbon savings grounds.

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from energy efficiency measures and the energy bill savings they can bring. However, we also recognise that the cost to retrofit homes can be substantial – our ‘Green Deal’ will allow consumers to fund the upfront cost out of energy bill savings. It is expected that double glazing will be one of the measures that can be installed under the Green Deal.

Cancellation clause assistance required

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

I’ve had one of my readers asking my advice, and to be honest, I’m no expert in this field, so wonder if you can help.

My main reason for contacting you today is that we have just had a situation where a customer has placed an order and we carried out a survey as normal.  We have then 8 weeks later turned up as agreed to fit the job and found someone else has already fitted the work.
 
The customers claim they have cancelled the order which they didn’t but as time has gone by have bodged together a letter that they say was sent by first class post, not recorded delivery as we ask for.
 
We thought we had a claim for a solid court case based on all of our contracts and other signed documentation but it has been brought to our attention that under the:
 
Comsumer Protection Law – Cancellation of contacts made in the consumer home or place of work etc
 
States 2 in : Section 8 (5 ) A cancellation notice is sent by post is taken to have been served at the time of posting, whether or not it is actually received.
 
Im sure your aware of this but it just seems ludicrous that all of this protection is there for the consumer and nothing to protect the small businesses trying to make a living.
 
Can you shed any light on to this matter from past experiences or where we should look to turn.

I understand that this company has paid in the region of £3500 for the products, and £100 to the courts.  The guy is obviously very frustrated that in this instance the law does not protect small businesses.

Does anybody have any constructive advice they can offer?

49 days to go to comply with new building regulations requirements

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

In an article from Richard Bate (Technical Director of Build Check) in the latest Glass & Glazing Products magazine he points out that:

There are currently 360 companies offering 1461 different windows to either ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ bands.  That is a 20% increase since March this year but at the current rate it will take over nine years for every fabricator to attain its ratings.  We have less than three months and there is no extra time in this fixture.

Indeed, I’ve calculated that there are now only 49 working days for all the fabricators and installers of windows and doors in the UK to be ready to comply with the new building regulations.

I had a chat with a supplier to the PVC window industry recently who contacted 46 fabricators to see how they were preparing for October 1st.  They were specifically talking to smaller fabricators who were making between 6 and 20 frames per week.  Of the 46 fabricators, not one of them intended to be complying with the new regulations in October.

Not one of them!

It seems to me that there is a small, yet significant uninformed section of our industry that is not interested in Window Energy Ratings and has no intention of getting involved.  They’re more interested in earning a living today, than worrying about the implications of the new regulations which are written into law.

As a fabricator who has made the investment in WERs I’m interested to know how this will be properly policed when clearly a significant portion of our industry has no intention of complying.

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