In many ways Tony Pickup and his Double Glazing and Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme – DGCOS – must be complimented on their activities. The scheme does indeed appear to offer benefits, although at costs that are deterring many would be members at a time when, frankly, cutting overheads is higher on the list of priorities for most installers, rather than having to decide upon something that most have not needed in the past. The company’s marketing has been quite superb.
And that is probably the point….
The double glazing industry has, justifiably, been labelled in the past for having more than its fair share of cowboys. It was an industry that was buoyant, with homeowners queuing to spend money on their beloved homes as Thatcher created the culture that made home ownership the only way to put a roof over your head and retain any sort of dignity. Big bucks, easy pickings and low set up costs will always attract more than the fair share of dodgy dealers.
Those days are largely past however, with the cowboys having largely ridden off into the sunset in search of easier pickings. Double glazing is a mature market, every sale is hard fought for and aggressively contested by price slashing competitors, all of which has acted as a sort of cowboy filter. I seriously believe that the vast majority of companies serving the replacement window market are hard-working, reasonably honest individuals and companies that are set on doing a good job for their customers. A poor local reputation is, after all, a suicide note.
Interestingly, once the butt of sitcom humour and deservedly the standard for dodgy salesmen jokes, it is becoming increasingly rare to hear any sort of jibe pointed at double glazing salesmen. The stories that once littered the pages of the tabloid press – ‘Our double glazing sales ordeal’ – are seldom if ever seen. It isn’t that it isn’t news anymore; it simply doesn’t happen very often.
I therefore have to ask why, therefore, there has been such a renewed interest in the glazing industry and its cowboy operators. The recent Which? report which I mentioned here was an unusual and unwelcome throwback to a bygone era, which highlighted the sales tactics of the four nationals, although the implication is that the industry as a whole operates this way. The message has found it’s way onto various websites since. There is, I suggest, a single common denominator behind all of this renewed fervour: DGCOS and its hyperactive publicity machine.
I have to ask the question: Was DGCOS instrumental in instigating the Which? report in some way? And without DGCOS and its repeated damning of the industry that it professes to champion, would there be any discussion about cowboy double glazing operators? I think not.
Quite simply, my own assessment is that had it been around in the halcyon days of the ‘Eighties then a great fortune would have been made by Mr Pickup, pretty much overnight. These days however, I believe he will struggle to hit the reported magic 1800 members mark.
DGCOS is quite simply, too much, too late.
