Consumers: Don't Accept Bad Selling Practices | Glaze & Save

It’s a sad fact for those of us in the window industry, but sometimes the truth hurts: the window industry has a track record of unacceptable selling practices AKA duping the consumer and, dare I say it, ripping them off.

As the Double Glazing Blogger notes:

“The reputation of the industry is really taking a battering at the moment. Days after the BBC reported that Safestyle had been fined £120,000 for unlawful selling methods, another Bradford-based company has been fined for the very same thing. This time for the amount of nearly £65,000. And there was a 15 month suspended jail sentence for the person responsible too.”

A recent case from Bradford saw a double glazing “cowboy” fined £65,000 and given a 15 months suspended jail sentence for engaging in a range of nasty selling practices including:

· Taking unauthorised payments from customers’ bank cards.

· Charging customers VAT – despite not being VAT registered.

· Leaving jobs unfinished.

· Ignoring complaints.

· Failing to provide safety glass in locations where it was required by law.

· Lying about belonging to an industry accreditation body.

Perhaps even more shocking is the news that national double glazing chain SafeStyle UK has been fined £120,000 and ordered to pay £52,000 court costs for their own aggressive sales practices.

Quoted by the BBC, Prosecutor Ayesha Smart said : "These improper business practices were not limited to a small geographical area or just one rogue salesman but were repeated across the country and repeated over a period of around 17 months.”

These practices included an 86-year old man reporting that he was told there would “be trouble” if he cancelled his contract, employees lying about having a contract with Southampton Council, and false claims about having access to government allowances.

While there are around 4,500 window and door installation companies in the UK, the UK double glazing ombudsman DGCOS reports that they alone received 385 complaints in 2017.

So what can be done to stop these unacceptable practices? The Double Glazing Blogger has his own thoughts:

“This is … the exact reason why hard-selling of any kind has to be banned outright. It’s worth stating from the start that there are plenty of good installers out there who obviously don’t participate in dodgy sales methods, which is only right. However, there remains a stubborn portion of the sector that still think hard-sell of any kind is OK. When it isn’t. And as we have seen in the past week or so, it only takes a handful of companies to step over the line of what is right to bring their companies and the industry into disrepute…

…it only demonstrates further that pressure selling tactics have to be outlawed. Not just in the window industry, but across business as a whole. It preys on the elderly, the vulnerable and those who are too trusting to question what they are being told. Any decent person would know that to take advantage of those sorts of people with pressure and hard-sell methods is plain old wrong. It does not justify the sales person winning a sale.”

Pressure selling is something we are completely against at Glaze & Save. We believe that our products speak for themselves and it is our policy not to produce quotes on the day; you’ll receive your quote to consider at your leisure. We work hard to counteract the negative effect that the bad apples of the window industry have on public perception, it’s one of the reasons why we are an award-winning company and an Edinburgh City Council Trusted Trader.

Consumers: you do not have to accept bad selling practices from the window industry. You can choose Trusted Traders with a track record of excellent service. It also helps to know your rights.

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