Warning Apropos has been liquidated and left customers stranded with outstanding works and deposit, please avoid Apropos and their newly formed company Viva Folio. Feel free to verify liquidation with Companies House.

For the second time Apropos have taken client deposits and then gone into administration. Will they Phoenix the company again, ready to do the same a third time?

We chose Apropos after much consideration due to our belief they would provide a high quality product and principally because they led us to believe they would handle all aspects of the design and liaison with builder to get the project completed. We are busy working people and so wanted as little hassle as possible. We couldn't have been more wrong. From the moment we signed a contract things started to go wrong. The design they came up with clearly breached permitted development rights, even on cursory inspection. Yet they were adamant it did not require planning permission - it later became clear it did and they eventually sought planning permission, further delaying the project. The designs are produced late in the process - they work around their own manufacture time ahead of install which is fine for them, but how is your builder supposed to know what structure to build without the drawings? This delay made us postpone our build until we had all the drawings. The apropos surveyor didn't bother to survey inside the house and the initial drawings did not show internal beams that would need to tie into the new opening for the kitchen extension. Despite the sales person knowing all about and us having discussed it in detail. I spotted this error after talking to the 3rd party structural engineers they sub-contract to. In which case you might as well just contract someone yourself and have the control (and probably cheaper). The drawings are good for foundations etc, but still do not cover every aspect of the build e.g roof construction etc. This is key as we had planned for 150mm upstand above the folding doors but now have 300mm as the designs do not reflect the location of the beam and roof construction - as far as Apropos is concerned that is an issue for you and your builder, despite their sales people promising they handle every aspect of the build, working hand in hand with your builder - a blatant lie. Our builder tried calling them once and the person at Apropos made noises and pretended there was a bad line and hung up on him! The apropos pricing is deliberately obscure. We made a slight change to the design just before we signed the contract which added £1500 to the cost and later tried to revert back to the original design - we were then told the price wouldn't change. The sales director later admitted that their sales person in question had simply added on £1500 as personal commission, despite telling us it was due to cost of materials and glass. They eventually reduced the price by £600 after repeatedly chasing them over the reduction in materials for the doors. At almost every stage of interaction they have failed to deliver to the quality they sold their service on. They clearly have no effective quality control processes - everything sent from them is either incorrect or late. When they came to install our doors and windows they realised they had 'forgotten' to make the window frame and we had to wait a further 2 weeks until it was all finally installed, adding further cost and hassle to us. I voiced my frustration to the installation team who said "We hear that about Apropos almost everywhere we go ". I think that says enough. We ade a fomal complaint to the MD who replied assuring us that everything would be handled better going forward. The very next thing they did was wrong and so it continued. When we finally complained again after installation and the missing window frame, he didn't even bother to acknowledge us. It tells me the company is poorly managed from top-down and their focus is simply on getting their money from you and not customer satisfaction. We still have marks on the door frames where the paint wasn't applied correctly in manufacture but have so little faith in them correcting it that we agreed to settle on a reduced final payment just to end the misery of dealing with them. If you are not put off, then check every aspect before you sign and be aware of your rights when they get pushy under the Consumer Protection from unfair trading regulations. I felt we were misled about the price and the manner in which the price was calculated i.e. commission versus material costs. I reported it to the DCGOS and the OFT. This was our personal experience and it was very unsatisfactory from start to finish. Every other trade or supplier we dealt with during our project was the exact opposite of Apropos - they were courteous, honest and helpful. Apropos were not and i would not recommend them to anyone

We faced issues from design errors, one product was still wrong when it arrived, and ongoing problems with leaks and draughts. As we were supplied by the "old" Apropos the "new" company initially refused help, until we discovered on a web site that as we had used Barclays finance the "new" company had to cover our warranty. We have had many visits in the last few years each one has taken long periods to arrange and some required multiple visits. We still have issues, yet another leak which this time seems to involve a sealed unit. Our long term concerns are around our doors, as the whole unit moves when they are fully open, and what we will do when our warranty expires. We have logged all this with the company in the past, managers have been sent but the bottom line is that the product does not deliver reliability.

Four years ago we had an orangerie extension added to our restaurant plus a bi-fold boor to our kitchen above the restaurant which was also the entrance to our flat. When the doors were fitted to our kitchen I asked how to open them from outside but were told " you can't open them from the outside". I pointed out that this was our entrance. They fitted a grab handle on the outside. Bad planning. As far as the orangerie is concerned we had a lot of problems. Apropos engineers had to come back several times to refit broken gaskets and many other little repairs. It was no surprise that they went bust. Of course their 5 year guarantee was useless and as with many other dodgy companies they simply changed their trading name and carried on. The building work that was carried out by an outside contractor is well constructed. Last year we were unable to open the doors on the Orangerie and were at a real loss as what to do but fortunately I have found a local firm who have repaired the doors at a cost of over a thousand pounds. The chap who has carried out the repairs was amazed at the poor workmanship. Because of the weight of the doors hinges have been bent and the doors have dropped so that they scrape along the bottom of the frame. I will need to have yearly service visits with subsequent costs. This company's advertisements in weekend papers etc., look great but I would urge anybody thinking of using them to look elsewhere.

We spent £50k on bi-fold doors and lantern windows in 2910 /11. We immediately had problems with leaks and faulty locks. We phoned constantly but were fobbed off, they then went into administration and of course refused to deal with our problems. The same people bought the Company under pre-pack ! With summer approaching we are again unable to open our doors! We don't know where to go now to resolve our problems . We trusted them because of the claims made in their advertisements and their guarantees. Avoid these despicable people at all costs !

After a great sales pitch we were induced into paying a £10,000 deposit. We specifically asked and we are sure they they said if we didn't get planning permission we would get a refund less costs and that the costs would amount to no more than £1000. We were told they would liaise with the council about our project and keep us informed. We heard nothing from Apropos about our planning application and had to contact the council ourselves to find out that the plans had been rejected. Subsequently we requested a refund of our deposit from Apropos on a number of occasions but heard nothing from them for nearly three months, despite sending them a warning letter saying that if we didn't hear from them we would take legal action. After spending a further £410 taking legal action they finally responded saying they would refund our deposit less costs but that the costs amounted to ~£4000. They also said "With regards to your actual refund, Apropos have at no time declined to return your deposit less costs occurred. Our terms and conditions I'm afraid do not stipulate a time frame in which this amount will be returned to you. To recuperate your costs in this manner is obviously entirely your decision and Apropos are not responsible for the costs you have occurred throughout the process." Stay away from this company - you will waste your time and money.

Apropos conservatories (formally Apropos techtronic) left us with a set of broken electronic windows. they then went into insolvency to get rid of all the previous debt and guarantee's (they have done this to a lot of people). after they started up again i tried to ask them to fulfill there promise and they wouldn't. they have cost me thousands. honestly avoid! i tried speaking to the owner as well to see if there was any care or remorse about what his company has done to me and lots of others and he wouldn't speak to me. they have to care for the customers, only after money. i have also found out that days before going out of business they were advertising in the Sunday times, amazing how they had the money to do that and not pay their creditors.

We installed a very expensive, considering the simplicity of the design, Apropos lean-to conservatory less than 18 months ago. Less than a year after installation, it began to leak A LOT -- water was literally dripping into our kitchen at both ends of the gutterbox. Apropos' response? To claim it is simply not their fault WITHOUT EVER HAVING TAKEN THE GUTTER APART TO CHECK! No concept what Customer Service or Quality looks like. We had 3 Apropos engineers out, 2 of whom definitely indicated that the conservatory itself could be at fault and the last of whom PROMISED they would disassemble the gutter to check for appropriate sealing, or lack thereof. On the day, a 4th team, never having seen the conservatory before, arrived and declared that every Apropos employee who had looked at the gutterbox up until that time was an idiot and that absolutely nothing was wrong with their clearly faultless structure. Even though it was leaking where conservatory structure met conservatory structure -- how can that be our builders' fault?? Apropos is a fantastic sales organisation with one person manning the Customer Service line and a legion of people in denial about the faultlessness of their structures. I would never recommend them to anyone as you never know when something can go wrong and Apropos will clearly never take responsibility. The last of their credibility was shredded when their employees started to tell us that other Apropos employees didn't have a clue. Why would we ever believe them?

Two years on from installation we are still waiting for Apropos to make our bi-fold doors draught proof. This follows an awful service from design, where they failed to get the measurements correct even after repeated efforts, to the wrong size doors nearly being supplied (our builder picked it up just before manufacture). On the day, the installation seemed to be smooth and satisfactory, but once the room was in use it was clear the doors were so draughty that there are times when the room cannot be used. The rest of the time a blanket is needed. We have also had a roof leak. The walls at the side of the frame are now turning black where condensation is forming on the frame (we have always said there was a problem here are we could not get the plaster dry). During warm weather we also have to plan our opening of the doors as, the single door in particular, will not lock for 30 minutes after being closed. We are not south facing either. As we were also caught by the "buy out" the "new" Apropos tried to say we were not covered for remedial work despite the Barclays finance. It was only after we read another post re this and insisted that they backed down and provided after care. However, this after care has been hard to come by and despite two visits from "Managers" to make recommendations our doors are still draughty. The last visit was in August 2013, which had taken months to arrange, a report was promised on the work needed. This has never been provided and an eventual scheduled date just before Christmas to do the work was cancelled again. We are left with a room that looks fantastic but is a constant source of disappointment and ongoing worry for the long term. A previous post highlights the need for extra hinges on over-height doors (he was delighted with the extra ones on his). However our over 3m tall doors only have 4 hinges - another long term concern for us!

Designer gave excellent advice about how I could put my ideas about the structure I wanted into a practical solution. Was kept informed throughout the process from initial drawings, detailed plans, planning permission etc. The actual installation was quick and effecient. I used a builder recommended by Apropos-the advantage was that he had done lots of work already with Apropos and had a good line of communication when necessary. On the downside I did find some calls I made to the office were not dealt with particularly efficiently. Have also found the builder to be slow in finishing off the work. He started in mid January and has still not finished. This is both annoying and frustrating. Onthe whole I found the process worked well and I am very pleased with the result. Although, I could have paid a lot less elsewhere, I think I made the right choice.