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★★☆☆☆

“After Care Shocking!!”

written by disappointedcust on 09/05/2013

Having recently bought our house we looked at getting the 9 windows and both front and back door replaced. Having contacted Advance (East Kilbride), the salesman attended our property and gave a quote which we were very happy with. The salesman was knowledgable, pleasant not pushy or invasive, explained that we would attend the showroom the following weekend to have a proper look at the product. True to our word we did and agreed our contract and installation date.

On installation (2-3 April 2013) the workmen were friendly, accomodating and very tidy, over the two days the work was completed to a high standard. There were a couple of small snagging issues chipped sill, scratched window frame and pane, which were quickly rectified and replaced the following day.

The problems then began. . . an issue arose regarding the standard of the internal finishing which we were left with, we waited over a week for an insepector to attend the property (12th April) and the company agreed to carry out the remedial work.

The following week the remedial work was carried out (16th April -plastering), I had contacted the installation department asking if we would need to cover the windows and sills to allow the work to be completed; informed "no - our guys do this as part of their job". Both my partner and I were at work that day and had allowed the workmen access through a family member, on returning back home we were angered, shocked and dismayed to find the sills and windows hadn't been covered! Thankfully the windows were fine but the sills were scratched, dented and plaster stuck to them. There was plaster on the carpet and some areas of the walls that weren't required to be plaster and on the radiators! To make matters worse the workmen had decided to fill our general waste bin full of their commercial water (3 bags and a wheelbarrow full later we managed to empty it ).

On contacting Advance the following morning (installation department) I explained the situation we were in, the lady apologised and wasn't impressed with what the workmen had done and without questioning or inspecting the mess booked joiners in to replace all the sills and contacted the workment to collected their commercial waste.

Second installation of the sills (again family member allowed workmen access to the property), a disasterous attempts that you wouldn't even call workmenship!! The sills weren scratched, chipped, dented, nor level and a far less superior quality than had been initially fitted. The end-caps were barely attached, rough edging and the silicon finish was of a very poor standard; plus they didn't even bother to replace all the sills that were required!!

On calling back Advance the following morning (you'll see a re-occur theme here - you call them, they don't call you!) the lady I had been dealing with was no longer available to speak to me (even though I was informed she'd call me back - that never happened), a gentleman took over my complaint, after explaing the on-going saga, I have never been so insulted by a customer service rep who spoke to me as though I was an idiot and tried to explain to me that having windows replaced is messy! He informed me that I would need to wait until they could send out another inspector before any further work would be done. I asked him to explain the companies Quality Assurance process and was told " it happens once your works/file is complete", having exhausted all avenues myself it was apparant that the department weren't going to listen to me and I obviously was having no affect.

My partner then had to contact them - the lady somehow became available to deal with the issue. Another apology later, third work schedule booked in and a days holiday for my partner to attend and check the standard as being fitted (instructed by Advance that this was necessary - surely paying thousands for a service, you wouldn't need to babysit to check the quality of work/product?). Furthermore, the commercial waste was still sitting at the side of our property!

Third installation of the sills, the workman was efficient, friendly, tidy and work was done to a very high standard. VERY WORRYING the workman explained that he had already had a heated discuss with a manger in the company who had instructed him to fit the same sub-standard sills as previously (his words not ours) and he had refused to do so. He further explained that this was an ongoing problem for several workmen and continually customers were calling and complaining about the poor sills.

We are still waiting for the Quality Assurance manager to visit or even get in touch, our works have been completed for over a week.

Take our advice - the quality of the products is excellent! The customer service is shocking and ineffective, throughout the entire process no-one from the company had or has contacted us, we have constantly chased the company. There is obvioulsy a lack of consistency in standards of workmenship with little to no effect of a complaints procedure or accountability.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!

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