Renegade Conservatory Guy

More shame for the double glazing industry, with an article in the Daily Mail by Jane barrie entitled Glazing Mad.

I’ve copied and pasted the full article below, and written my comments in bold:

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I HAVE come across some pushy salesmen in my time but the ordeal of Tom McLellan is one of the worst I’ve ever encountered Pests from double-glazing firm Weatherseal have hounded stroke victim Tom, 49, for 10 months. Weatherseal is owned by Brian Kennedy’s Latium group, so it’s not a small company.

Tom needs constant supervision and his family have power of attorney over his affairs as his memory is so poor.

Yet Weatherseal salesmen have targetted him relentlessly and signed him up for double glazing and a back door costing £7800. Sounds expensive!

Tom’s worried family have tried to deter the salesmen by changing his phone number, alerting carers and neighbours and even putting a sign on his front door banning salesmen.

But still Weatherseal persist.

Tom’s sister Janie Sirrell, 61, called me in last week.

She said: “The way my brother has been targetted is despicable. I’ve written, phoned and threatened them with lawyers but it does no good.”

Weatherseal first called on Tom, of Shotts, Lanarkshire, last August.

Janie said: “I was away on holiday for two weeks and came back to find a loan agreement in Tom’s house.”

Salesman Chris Dickson had sold him a new back door at £2173, payable at £29.99 a month for 10 years. That’s £3598 for a uPVC door!!!

Janie phoned Weatherseal but they refused to let her cancel as she had not done so within 10 days. She then sent a recorded delivery letter to Weatherseal and finance firm GEMoney cancelling the order and telling them never to contact Tom again.

She said: “I detailed Tom’s illness and explained he would have no understanding of what he had signed for but still they refused to listen.”

The door was never fitted but the firm continued to contact Tom trying to sell guttering, cladding and double glazing.

Janie said: “I changed his landline number and put a ‘No Entry’ sign on his door telling salesmen not to ring the bell.”

When Weatherseal called Tom again, selling uPVC guttering, Janie, of Newmains, Lanarkshire, said: “I was livid. Apart from anything else, Tom already had uPVC guttering.

“I phoned and told them again to take his name off their database.” Weatherseal get much of their work from tele-canvassing obviously.

Weatherseal claimed they had erased his details and Tom would not be contacted again but in April Janie received a panic call from his carer who had been in the house when Weatherseal called again.

The shameless firm told Janie they had every right to call Tom as he kept agreeing to appointments.

The next week Weatherseal turned up at Tom’s house to measure up for uPVC cladding.

Janie sent the surveyor packing but they were soon back, to discuss double glazing.

She finally called me when she visited Tom to find a signed agreement for double glazing costing £5637, payable at £108 a month for 10 years. That’s £12,960!!!
If all this wasn’t bad enough Weatherseal were back on the phone to Tom last Saturday asking if he needed roof lining. I think they mean upvc roofline.

Janie said: “I can’t believe this company. I don’t know what to do to end this nightmare. It’s a disgrace.”

I got on to Paul Dawson, Weatherseal’s customer service manager, who told me: “We conduct many canvassing calls to consumers who show an interest in our products. Yeah, right!

“We use latest technology to ensure our database is updated regularly with consumers who don’t want to receive contact.”

Dawson added: “We would not deliberately harass anyone who asked to be removed from our database and can only assume this was due to an adimnistrative error. No, but they’re happy to harrass everyone else!

“We have purged our systems to ensure no further contact is made. We will be writing to offer our sincere apologies for this oversight.”

Let’s hope Tom never hears from this lot again.

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For those that think this story might just be a one-off, then have a look at these two websites:

Blagger

Review Centre

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My thoughts:

For how long is the double glazing industry going to keep shooting itself in the foot?

Weatherseal is part of the Latium Group owned by Brian Kennedy. Among the companies in the Latium portfolio are Ultraframe, Everest, Zenith / Staybright, GB Wendland - so it’s not a tinpot company!

If the Nationals are going to continue allowing their sales staff to continue behaving like this, then the double glazing industry will always be the butt of jokes, innuendo and bad press.