TEN
A VISIT FROM PAUL.
I left it at the last chapter of this horror story where NICK FLANAGAN has arranged for a guy called PAUL to come to my house so he can measure for new windows and doors so as to form part of a compensation package as suggested by NICK FLANAGAN. I have been told by NICK FLANAGAN that no price will be discussed as he will offer that through his office once the measurements have been given to him. So on the 24th of August 2018 I am told that PAUL will be coming to see us on the 29th of August 2018 at 10.30 am.
To my surprise PAUL did indeed show up on the said day at the said time and I was quite taken aback when he said who is was and that he was from EVEREST WINDOWS. This was the first person connected to EVEREST that had actually turned up when they said they would not just on the day but the time as well. Could it be that things were changing? Could it be that it is standard procedure for EVEREST to bugger people around until they get bored and then do things properly? Well, I decided not to ask and as difficult as it was, to be diplomatic and show my appreciation for him visiting (whilst swallowing the sick I kept bringing up caused by having to be nice to another EVEREST employee). He walked around with his measuring device and after around a half hour (which seemed terribly quick to measure properly) he returned to the kitchen where he proceeded to input information in to his laptop computer.
It took some time for him to input all of the measurements but eventually he stood up and proceeded to make a call on his mobile phone. I obviously could not hear what was being said on the other end of the line but I could clearly hear what was being said at this end. PAUL told the person on the other end of the line that it was“…for compensation via NICK FLANAGAN…” he read through the paperwork that he had printed off and after a few minutes he finished the call and returned to the kitchen and told us that to replace every window and door would cost £95,817 If we were to agree to have them all done in one go then the price would be discounted to £50,927 but that as it was to try to make up for the problems we were having with the conservatory, they would further discount it to £28,000 but that the price would not be offered indefinitely.
I was intrigued as to how this was worked out and wanted to find out their pricing strategy before I said what I needed to say so I asked him how it could possibly be reduced from £95,000 to £50,000 in the click of a finger. So to you lovely readers out there I am going to tell you how they try to make a sale by trying to convince you that they are doing everything they can, using every discount they are allowed to, to get you to sign up for their product. Unfortunately it also shows just how much of a con EVEREST WINDOWS are. This is exactly what PAUL the salesman/surveyor/manager or whatever the hell he was, told me. Are you ready? Here we go….
So, the computer works out what each window and door would be to supply and fit INDIVIDUALLY. Here is what the computer priced one of the the windows on my landing… 61cm wide x 117cm tall. White UPVC. White ‘bar’ through centre (as we already have). £1,561.00 So the initial price, the £95k I was quoted is achieved by buying each window and door on it’s own. So each window has an administration cost, a manufacturing cost, a supply cost, a fitting cost and a VAT charge. Now to the discount of £44k to bring it to the £50k. Obviously if you have the whole lot done than there is still an administration charge, the manufacturing charge for each window but like anything, the more manufactured in one go, the cheaper it is but then there is only one supply charge and one fitting charge, hence the massive discount. Then they will have a percentage that they are allowed to give to try to make a sale which they won’t offer in its entirety so they can keep a little extra in reserve in a final attempt to close the deal. Shocking eh? So the £28k price I was finally quoted was supposed to make me feel like they were making a genuine attempt to make a mends but how could I be sure that this was not just some price that I would have got if I had just called them up? Now they tried to convince me to take the £28k offer but obviously I had been specifically told that any offer would come through the office of NICK FLANAGAN as no price would be discussed so I was a little confused and could not decide if this was some kind of a game that FLANAGAN was playing. In any case PAUL left without any doubt in his mind that there was no way I would let EVEREST cause any more damage to my property and that I was amused greatly by the misconception that I would even think of PAYING for them to do so. So off PAUL plodded back to wherever he had come from.
On the 12th of September 2018 I thought I would drop a quick email to NICK FLANAGAN to see what he had to say about the window situation. It had been a couple of weeks since the measurements were taken and whilst emailing I could find out when the rest of the problems with the conservatory were going to be sorted. I had once again given them the opportunity to put things right and had specifically stated in my email to NICK FLANAGAN, that I would allow them to return “…in the interests of getting things done quickly…” On the following day I received a rather unfortunate yet predictable reply. “I have not yet received the measurements, I will chase, please feel free to contact Dean to chase the plasterer, I will however also chase him for you.” I wrote again to NICK FLANAGAN on the 21st of September 2018,
“Dear Mr Flanagan.
As you know, we met on the 9th August this year with regards to the problems with the conservatory build here at my house. You agreed that the performance of the company and workmanship was well below par and that I was within my rights to have another company come and finish the works and put right the substandard workmanship that we had been left with. You did request that we allow your company to put it right and in the interest of getting it done quickly we agreed.
I will be honest, as I always am, and say that we are beyond disappointed and frankly shocked that despite it being the 21st of September, our works have not been in any way shape or form a priority. We had a team of workmen come a week ago to fix the leaking roof but only as “they were in the area”. This is unacceptable.
I am writing this morning to tell you that the rains we had last night showed that as far as the water coming through the roof goes, it appears to have stopped but alas we have water penetrating the wall. The plaster in the corner of the original outside wall off the house and the new wall of the conservatory is wet. I would be putting my best guess as to it being where the window was retrospectively blocked up after the conservatory had been built which left a big hole where render was absent which was then retrospectively covered in. Whatever it is, the plastered wall soaks the water.
I think that it is well past time that Everest take this seriously. I have arranged for a builder to visit on Monday of next week to quote for the works that are the best course of action to try to sort this problem and to re-plaster the conservatory including any and all works associated with it. I further now must insist that you present a suitable and substantial compensation offer to us. This latest water ingress is frankly unbelievable. A company such as yours should not have had any of the problems we have had to endure and this is now looking like a second winter with an unfinished build. I am sure I need not remind you of the fact that this 12 to 14 WEEK build was started on the 7th of June of 2017.
I request that you acknowledge receipt of this email by close of business today. I will forward any cost estimate as soon as I am made aware of it, this may not be in the form of an official quote as even I appreciate that the builder will not be able to give a precise amount due to not knowing what he may find during the works which I have to be honest, the likely hood of finding more problems is leaning towards being very likely judging by problems and substandard works thus far.
My advice to you would be this; issue to us a full refund so we can employ an alternative company to put right everything that needs doing or, dismantle the structure, take down the pillar adjacent to the house that is leaking. Rebuild and re render properly and then re-plaster the entire conservatory.
I await your correspondence.
Regards.
Mr Pas”
NICK FLANAGAN was on leave when I sent the email so I made sure I sent it to his secretary and DEAN WANT also. I further wrote on October the 1st 2018 after my builder had been to look at the works required. I told him that himself and DEAN WANT now needed to attend my house as the builder had said he would not touch it and to get EVEREST back. I also made it clear that I did not expect to be fobbed off with the words that DEAN WANT need not attend as he very much was needed. I copied in the secretary and DEAN WANT. I received an automatic reply from DEAN WANT which stated that he no longer worked for the company, the one person who genuinely wanted to help had seemingly also become so sick of how victims were treated that he had also left the ship. Was it sinking?
Concurrently to dealing with EVEREST I was also trying to get some sort of active response and action from VINCE HYLAND of the Trading Standards. Needless to say he had been as much use as a handbrake on an aircraft carrier. He failed to show any real interest or support and as such the letter I wrote to him explaining how bad the builder had said it was, how useless Trading Standards had been and how seemingly disinterested he was, that I would now have to look at other means to try to get this looked in to and that I would be doing my utmost to ensure people know what they were getting in to if they decided to use EVEREST. I also sent pictures of the damp readings. This also equated to a complete waste of time.
On the 5th of October 2018 I again wrote to FLANAGAN I just wanted to know when this abortion of a build would be sorted. I wanted to know when he would be coming to see it. He told me that he would not be coming down as per my request and that he was just back from leave and was catching up with paperwork. This angered me, unsurprisingly, and I told him that the priority catch up should be the customer he had been messing around for the last 16 months. I told him the conservatory was not fit for purpose and that despite me allowing them to come back to correct the works it was still far from an acceptable standard and that it needed to be dismantled just to to be able to put it right. I told him to either send people to work on it or refund our money. I further told him that as I had been dealing with him for well over six months unsuccessfully, I wanted to speak to his CEO. If he would not allow this then I wanted the details of the ombudsman they were affiliated with. Obviously, no reply.
On the 9th of October 2018 I called to speak to the CEO. Unfortunately the receptionist decided to put me through to FLANAGAN. How exactly did they think that was going to help? It goes without saying that I did not deal with the patronising comments particularly well and I lost my shit. On completion of the call I immediately wrote to the customer relations department and asked for a copy of the call to add to my file and predictably I have never received it. Although I am sure NICK FLANAGAN will play it in the courtroom when we go. On the same day, after more patronising bullshit from NICK FLANAGAN I again wrote to an equally useless individual, VINCE HYLAND of Trading Standards. Again, no reply. I also wrote an email to the Glass and Glazing Federation who apparently are there to protect customers. THINK AGAIN, the reason FLANAGAN supplied their details was because they don’t deal with the problems I was having. Another waste of time.
I had to constantly keep mailing NICK FLANAGAN to try to get someone to come and see the problems. He is obviously more than happy to visit the site at any time, unless that is, you ask him to come and then he can’t come as he is busy or it serves no purpose. Anyway, October 2018 he refuses to visit but with one days notice he sends a surveyor to do a report, the surveyor will be with us at 10.00 on the 19th October 2018. Now I am sure if you were in my shoes you would be concerned as to if the surveyor they send is going to be honest, I could not take that chance and decided to look for a chartered building surveyor of my own. I call a couple to find out a little about them and tell them I would have a think and make my decision and that I would call if I wish to employ them. I speak to a third and tell them about the problems and try to describe the issues. They tell me that they can definitely visit and write a report and that they will see the issues for themselves on arrival. This company write reports to be used in Court. I tell them that EVEREST are sending their surveyor in the morning and they actually tell me not to decide now but to wait and see how I feel after the surveyor has left. If I want them to write a report after he has been then, to call them back. This was encouraging. The others had not given me such advice, so either this firm didn’t want my work, or they didn’t want me spending money unless I had to.
Next time, “I think I need my own surveyor.”