Incompetence, Poor Service and New Problems to Solve
I was specific in my requests. I have gating on the interior of my windows and on the exterior of my French doors. Seeing as it was important that I keep them, I wanted a company that could cater to that and if they needed to be removed that they would be removed and replaced during installation.
I made all this clear to Premier at numerous parts of the process and then the surveyor confirmed it would be fine. This along with good reviews is the predominant reason I chose Premier, and paid almost 1k extra than another company who were less assuring on these points, to avoid any extra hassle.
I simply wanted the current set-up to be replaced with double glazing windows and doors. Post-installation, however, I have French doors that now open outwards for some unexplained reason (despite implicitly asking for inward) which is a problem with gates. Additionally, one of the gates for my bathroom window needed to be removed and was not replaced.
As of now, the doors and the gate outside it are useless as to open the outward swinging door I need to leave the flat and open the gate from the outside before I can open the door. So I have to choose whether I want the gate or whether I want doors that aren’t useless.
This outcome ultimately goes against initial requests, communication and arguably common sense. However, I will concede on one technical point that unfortunately goes against me legally: that I signed an invoice which upon inspection had one small line near the bottom of the French doors section mentioning outward opening.
I looked at the items on the invoice briefly, checking there are the correct number of windows and the exterior colours is correct, assuming it just summarised what we discussed and agreed on. I didn’t think to look out for this specific thing given that it makes no sense whatsoever and of course I requested an update to the same set-up I already had while pointing out the gate was important. Exterior doors are by default inward opening in the UK and if you have gate then, ultimately, they must be. This should be known and obvious to experts and surveyors, and there is zero cause for a competent company to prepare outward opening doors.
Additionally playing devil’s advocate, if the company wants to proudly claim caveat emptor, as they are, waving the invoice in front of me, then what practical use are they if they could not foresee this during the survey and make decent recommendations? No matter how you cut it, it is quite a serious let down by Premier Windows and they could not care less. Ultimately they are the ones who selected outward opening without any good cause (and I accidentally signed off on it) despite it being unfit for purpose and despite it being the opposite of my request.
I’m now stuck with having to get another company to replace the doors (the first thing Premier tried to do after I raised this issue was to try and make a sale by offering to quote me for new doors) and someone to install new gating on the bathroom window. Altogether that’s probably an extra 1.5k. So in trusting these guys I’ve screwed myself very well. In my case, my trust was misplaced and the process was fumbled.
Premier were very fast to essentially claim legal cover with the contract. Which I guess they technically have to a degree. However, I’d question their integrity as while I made a superficial mistake, I would argue they are the ones actually in the wrong. There is no reason for outward opening doors to have ever been put on the invoice.
Anyway, even this doesn’t put you off, at least learn from it and be careful with what you sign off on as they, or anyone, could chuck in some unexpected and insensible item by mistake, by design or by incompetence. Don't put your trust in their competence and fairness.
Additionally, while the installers were ultimately good. There was some prompting involved. If I didn’t prompt them on a couple things then some of the windows wouldn’t even be sealed right now. Significant damage was made to tiling which they just plastered over and some imperfect finishes on some of the window sills. On this point though, you are probably liable to get the same anywhere.
My learning curve is that there are more competent companies to go with.
Caveat emptor.
UPDATE: They claim below I made no complaint to them which is a lie. I have multiple back and forth emails with them to prove this. They claim I benefitted from a high standard of installation, but I did not. I have faulty window seals, a vent that was not even attached on one of the windows, broken tiles, promises about gating unkept and a clearly unhelpful survey service. They have mentioned being available over the weekend numerous times as the only evidence of their good service, that speaks for itself.
4. maj 2023
Uopfordret anmeldelse