My partner and I have saved up for 8 years to renew our windows, doors and conservatory and we decided in May 2018 to have the work done. After much deliberation and different companies proposing to us, we settled on Everest because they said they were the “ Everest fit the best” and we believed by paying a bit more and using this well known company, we would get the best as was promised. In May we were assured, with great cetainty that the work would be done before Christmas because in 2019 my partner and I would not be in the country. I currently live and work abroad for a period and my girl friend is due to join me before Christmas so of course installation would not be possible after Christmas and during 2019. Of course considering the amount of time between May and December who would think this would ever be a problem. Especially when you have the self proclaimed “the best” doing the work. So we paid more than we could have by going with a small local company, for the peace of mind and to get as they advertise. The best. One of of the ways offered to reduce the total price by 5% was to sign up for finance with Home Solutions, who have a deal with Everest to provide such a discount and then I was told before the first payment, or in between the first and second payment, i can’t be sure exactly, I would Pay off the full amount to them and therefore we would apparently not be subject to the interest imposed by taking out the finance, due to a consumer credit law that enabled this. Sadly, I’m ashamed to admit I did sign up with this agreement, however it didn’t sit comfortably with me at all, so on the 28th May I sent a text to the Regional manager to say as much and insisted that this financial agreement must be cancelled as I was inside my cooling off period of 14 days, and to increase the price by 5% and I was happy to pay. We had saved hard for 8 years and had the money. I didn’t want to be party to such shenanigans. As a result the contract was amended on June 28th to reflect this, plus a few other minor work related changes everything was still going ahead as agreed. The Minor changes was to do with the “sunroom” that Everest had to rethink, and re-quote for. On July 13th the first of the surveyors visited and said to my partner before he walked through the doors, “is that window being done?” Pointing to an arched window, and Said, “we can’t do that love”. My partner text me straight away saying about his dreadfully negative attitude and poor customer service, and he didn’t even perform a survey on the sunroom. The salesman pointed out the the surveyor is “a bit doom and gloom at times” and for my partner to send a complaint in by email and a customer service form. We didn’t bother to do this, because my partner was worried he might have to come back. On 18th August we received notification that the conservatory would be provisionally booked to be installed on 8th October. On receiving this, I booked a flight home to be there for the installation. At this stage, We still hadn’t heard a single thing about the installation of the windows and doors. My wife and I were calling regularly with no success so I reverted to contacting the salesman through WhatsApp to find out what was going on. On August 1st, more than two months to installation, I was trying to establish what progress had been made regarding the windows and doors. I was told it was with the tech team. We tried to get through to speak with someone at Everest for updates in August and September with no success. On 21st September I text the salesman and asked for an update. Not one person had contacted us. I could literally only get a response from The salesman through text message for updates and information. In one of the many texts I was told that communication is something that has been addressed in the company and it's not only ourselves that were having problems which he added probably wouldn’t make us feel any better, and apparently there's been a big turnover in staff at the call centre. I’m going to not bore with details of when and how often my wife and I tried to contact Everest to speak to someone from operations but it was a lot, and ending up having to revert back to old fashioned text messages with the original salesman for information and updates. It materialized that there seemed to be a problem for constructing a simple portal frame for the bifold doors to go into the sunroom. Something that is so simple to do, even people at Everest couldn’t believe why the problem existed. Since it was with paramount importance to get the work done by the end of the year, I was getting concerned that the widows and doors wouldn’t be installed in October. On the 24th September I was told that a local engineer could construct the portal frame within a week. The next day 25th September, I was informed by text that the order had been given to the director because of the trouble it had caused us, and it shouldn’t be a stressful process, especially considering the money we have spent. In the same text we were told that he had spoken to the area manager who decided to get senior management involved, and they were unhappy as they think they are the best but they hadn’t achieved that. He went on to say that the project would not be installed on the 10th October. We were so disappointed. Why. After over 4 months, could a company be so incompetent, as not to be able to do something so easy. Windows and doors and bifold doors. That’s all. We weren’t asking them to build the Eiffel Tower. Just to say up to this point, no one from operations had contacted us whatsoever. All our information and updates were from the one salesman. Can you imagine? On the 26th September I was told by text that the reason for this was due to one of the companies making the portal frames had pulled out last minute and they are looking for another company to replace them, and now that the director was involved things should get resolved fairly quickly. Nothing happened. No one contacted us. We tried to get in touch with someone, the only person we were able to talk to from customer services was as frustrated as we were because she couldn’t get any information for us. During one particular conversation on the 2nd October with customer services my partner was told the windows, doors and sunroom contract had been completely cancelled due to the problem with the portal frame and she asked hasn’t anyone got hold of you. Of course nobody had. Not one person from Everest had called us since the contract was signed back in May. We were the ones fighting for scraps of information. So back to WhatsApp to the salesman to inform him of what we were told. On 3rd October, He informed me by text message that it wasn’t cancelled and the situation has been brought to the attention of every manger and the CEO in relation to operations mistakes, and that operations had been bombarded with emails and calls from his managers and if they don’t call us, he wouldn’t like to be in their shoes. He went on to write that, he was embarrassed with what’s happened and that it was a joke. He wrote that there were certain people in the company that had really let them down and ruined their reputation not to mention causing us and other customers an unbelievable amount Of stress. I’m sorry to say, we were becoming incredibly stressed. We had never experienced such incompetence from any company in all our lives. The “provisional” installation date of the conservatory was changed from the 8th October to the 10th. I flew back to the UK on the 7th October specifically for this, using two weeks annual leave, anticipating installation of Windows, doors, sunroom and conservatory. By now it was clear that only the conservatory would be installed in October so I came home especially for that. On 8th October I spoke to operations who called me, but didn’t shed any light on what was going on but would get back to me. shortly after I spoke to the regional manager on the phone. He told us that hand on his heart, in all his career with Everest he had never known Everest let a customer down or treat somebody, the way they have us. That he himself sent out 30 or 40 emails and he’d even sent a grievance complaint to the CEO regarding what operations have done and how we have been treated, and that the only reason operations called me was that the CEO made him do so. He also said that if the windows and doors couldn’t be installed to hold off on the conservatory because obviously everything has to match. He said that if the windows and doors couldn’t be fitted we would be entitled to receive our deposit back because the company has broken the contract. He also added that when all the work is done I should be asking for some kind of compensation for the shoddy customer service and he would help us with that and we could get some recompense for all the nonsense and messing about we have endured. He said he was completely speechless with what has happened. We didn’t want to cancel anything. We didn’t have time. Despite what had gone on. We needed the work done before Christmas. Then On the Morning of the installation of the conservatory, 10th October, I received a phone call from the installation team to say they won’t be installing the conservatory now, and it was postponed. Apparently the ridge was damaged. We were devastated. Let down yet again. We couldn’t believe it. I came home from the other side of the world and both my partner and I had sacrificed our annual leave for 2018 for nothing. We were mortified and now becoming extremely stressed. A few days later operations called me to say that the sunroom also couldn’t be done. They had run out of ideas. We were between a rock and a hard place and I told them to just deduct the sunroom off the contract and I would find someone else to do it, in order to get things moving. Of course we were not happy and It was now going to cost me more than they reduced the price by and we were very angry and frustrated because if they had told us from the beginning, they couldn’t do it, we would never have gone with Everest. We wanted one company to do the whole job. Conservatory, Windows, doors and sunroom, to benefit from bigger job, better price factor, and of course so everything matches. Materials, style and glass. One company only . We were desperate. We needed the work done so I managed to book a week off in December. So contract reduced. More inconvenience having to find someone else as well to do a simple sunroom. As this account of our treatment by Everest is becoming long and I’m sure a bit boring for those of you who are still here, I’ll just say from October 11th until now we heard absolutely nothing from the conservatory department. Not a thing despite me leaving messages and calling all people. Nothing. I was speaking to a gentleman from the windows and doors side of the business who was trying to arrange that side of it. He told me he would get someone to call me, to no avail. Eventually on 14th November the operations gentleman called me to say that unfortunately they had supply chain problems with manufacturing certain arched windows they had quoted for, and that the work could not be done until 2019. This they knew was not possible as they knew we were not going to be there. Besides. We have lost all faith in Everest. I wouldn’t want a company this poor erecting my greenhouse never mind touching our home. By this stage after having previously written complaints to customer service, and receiving the obligatory, “has been received, we will get back to you” reply, I decided that enough was enough and We couldn’t go on anymore. I was and I still am suffering a lot of stress and depression due to how we have been treated, as more worryingly to me, has my girlfriend. I contacted the customer service department and requested our deposits back due to what has, or more accurately, hasn’t happened. This was declined and we were told that we should allow access for them to do the work. That they are willing to go ahead. This would be next year. We are not here next year. In 2019 we are not going to be in the the uk. They knew this in May 2018. We arranged this long time ago. Nothing has happened. I have now filed a smalls claim court proceedings against Everest. Even though I am getting legal advice and told many positive things, if any body has got any further advice or information to help us out, it would be very much appreciated. All we want are our deposits of £6,686 and for Everest to get out of our lives. We are fair and straight people. In 7 months. Nothing has been done. Despite all the messing about by Everest. Buying a ticket Flying to the UK for a cancelled installation and wasting two weeks leave. We just want what is ours back. £6,686. We don’t want extra compensation although everyone we talk to says we should. To tell us that we should let them continue is insulting. I’m depressed. Having to goto court to get our money back is going to cost us money. We will have to fly to the UK for the day to go. Which we will. But all this disruption and extra cost to our lives because of the incredible incompetency of Everest Limited. On this particular website it mentions that we should record all phone calls. We will regret it if we don’t. Fortunately I have recorded all calls for my personal use. I always do this with companies where details are given, so I don’t have to write things down and for reference. How can these calls be used, and also WhatsApp messages. The legalities. Are there any other good forums such as trust-pilot, etc that I can post our Everest experience, because we genuinely don’t want another family or couple or or anyone suffering how we have, and people should hear about our experience before they give their hard earned money to Everest. It’s been the worst experience of our lives and i don’t want to be dramatic but it’s effecting my health now. I can’t sleep or keep my mind on anything. It’s because I feel like we have been robbed. How can a large company like Everest get away with treating people so badly. I hope that no one else has to suffer like we have. Thanks for your help in advance and thanks for reading. And. Please. Avoid using Everest.

Been having problems with Vodafone all year - they just get worse and worse! I called in Feb to report poor network coverage. They assured me it was just 4G upgrades and would be over soon. They promised that once the maintenance was finished they would refund my monthly tariff, back dated to when the problems started. In March, I was still having problems (ironically even the call to complain failed from my mobile as I had no signal!). Same story but conveniently they had no record of my previous call and compensation promise. However they offered £15 goodwill and a months tariff. Pretty poor considering I had only been able to communicate via imessage / whatsapp (anything using wireless but not Vodafone's line!) 90% of the time since December. In May I had had enough and with my contract up in June I called to discuss leaving. The representative I spoke to gave me my PAC code and explained that it's activation would be the start of a 30 day notice period. We agreed this would work fine as my contract was up on 6th June. I passed this code to my new supplier on 9th May and they activated it on 12th May. An subsequent online chat with another rep after this was the most dreadful customer service experience of my life! He was rude, sarcastic and unhelpful. I had got in touch again as my credits had not been activated. He agreed to arrange these then he also then told me I would have early termination fees added to my final bill! After 2 hours (!) online chat, he and a superior assured me that this would be waived due to the advice their other colleague had given me. So, obviously, on Sunday I received a bill including termination fees. A phonecall got me nowhere. The rep (again conveniently) could not see the online chat transcript promising to waive the fees. So I got back on online chat and the rep checked the transcript and again arranged to waive these and resubmit my bill. I am yet to receive the recalculated bill and struggle to believe that it really will be changed. Pretty sure they will take the money then I'll have the mother of all fights trying to get it refunded. More time, more stress. I don't think I can put into words how shocked I am that such a company has such terrible procedures and gaps in communication between departments. Never, ever again will I go back. Vodafone has a long way to go in terms of customer service (bordering on aggressive in some situations) and also coverage for their customers. They really do not care!

hi I recently decided to switch car insurance to save myself a few quid, wish I never bothered, I went with a company called Motor Quote Direct, ( Bedford Insurance, Wimbledon). After sending off proof of no claims, and driving license, all I keep getting is return letters saying they will cancel my policy for not providing documents, I have now resent copies to them using Special Delivery, costing me £6-22. thing is my temp cover runs out tomorrow, and they still not responded to my official complaint to them ( earlier in week). I guess my next step is the FOS ? anyone else had crap dealings with these cowboys ? (if you have lots of praise for these people , then fine, please go sing their praises in other posting. This is not what I want to hear in this posting, thank you) I want to hear if others have had similar dealings with these people, and how you dealt with them

I recently bought a Royal 400 Solo Gas Fire from warmorwet.com (Thermagas Ltd). When my Gas Safe engineer came to do the installation it became clear that the fire was faulty. He diagnosed it as a faulty gas valve. I suppose I should have then smelled a rat when I contacted Thermagas to report the fault, as they said they were not responsible and directed me to the Sirocco Fires (the manufacturer) premium rate support line, which charges £1 per minute! Eventually however, after I said I was not prepared to pay for a premium rate telephone call, and that it was their responsibility to resolve the problem, they agreed to call the company themselves. A couple of days later I got a call back from a Sirocco engineer, who said that he could not come out for at least two weeks, but doubted that it was the gas valve. He said it was most likely an electrical fault and said he would send out the relevant part, which turned out to be a battery box. Please remember that this diagnosis was done on the telephone without looking at the fire, and totally went against what my Gas Safe engineer had diagnosed from a full inspection! When the part arrived I called my gas engineer back, and again, nothing worked. His view was that they had just sent the cheapest part in the hope that it would "do the job" and save them having to come out and properly diagnose what was wrong. I contacted the retailer and manufacturer again by email, and eventually the Sirocco engineer rang again. This time he said that he would order a full "tray", and when it arrived he would arrange to visit. I asked that he contact me with an update, as I did not want to allow the issue to drag on too long. Two weeks passed by, and no call. I then rang and left a message with the engineer (no reply), and also contacted Thermagas by email. After a second email I got a promise that a message had been sent to Sirocco asking them to get in touch. This morning I had an email from Arthur Wright, CEO of Sirocco, with an address in Poland. The email said that the parts were out of stock, and I would have to wait for at least a month before the parts would arrive in Poland from Italy, and then be sent to the engineer. He also had the nerve to suggest that I would have to give them my Credit/Debit card number!! I would warn anyone about buying this type of fire (or indeed any Sirocco fire) as clearly if you have a breakdown it is possible that parts will have to be sourced from Italy via Poland. I could understand it if the gas fire was old, but this model is available from numerous suppliers. I would also suggest that for Thermagas to direct its customers to a £1 per minute premium rate telephone number, rather than seek to resolve issues themselves, cannot be said to offer good customer service. The item was faulty when supplied, and I have to say that Thermagas Ltd (trading as Warm or Wet, Leigh St, Chorley) have tried every trick in the book to deflect me from my rights under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended). I have no doubt that they have a stock of these gas fires from which they could obtain the required part, and could easily have arranged to get an engineer to visit and resolve the matter during the last month. Instead, I have been played between retailer and manufacturer. I have now formally rejected the gas fire, and advised them that I want the matter resolving this week. I will update as things develop. It is worth adding that this has been going on throughout the coldest March on record.

Cata GCLED60 Chimney Hood Repair- they expect us to remove the cooker hood ( at our cost ) prior to completing a repair!! We purchased the above chimney hood from B&Q for our new kitchen in January 2013.It was installed in mid February 2013. The lights on the hood suddenly stopped working at the end of January; less than 1yr from installation. We contacted the customer service number as listed in the Cata product manual, and were provided with a date of February 6th for an engineer to attend. My husband took time off work for this appointment ( I am self employed and unable to take time off ). The engineer informed my husband that the control board had to be replaced. He stated this would be ordered and available within 5 days. After 10 days we had heard nothing from the ISDAL number. We contacted them and were told the part was 'just in' and they would contact the engineering dept to arrange an appointment with us to come to fit it. We did not receive a call, and so, yet again, we made contact. A further appointment was made for February 31st between 1500-1800hrs. Yet again, my husband took time off work to ensure someone was in. The appointment date was not one of our choosing but we weren't given a choice of dates. The engineer failed to arrive. I contacted the company again at approximately 1900hrs to be told “the engineers have all gone there is nothing I can do until Monday". The representative asked if there had been somewhere for the engineer to park, had someone been at home, which we assured her was the case for both questions , & she promised she would personally return my call Monday afternoon with an update. Needless to say, she did not. We made contact again on Monday March 3rd to complain. We were told that the engineer had failed to attend, (it was so reassuring to know we weren't lying!) and that he had logged the reason as 'heavy traffic prevented him from making the appointment'. It was a Friday afternoon, so you shall have to understand my cynicism that that had more to do with his failure to attend, than any traffic problem. We asked why we had not been contacted and informed of this on the day, and were told that “we just wait for the customer to get in contact again"..... I was flabbergasted at such poor customer service. We made a further appointment date for Wednesday 5th March. Again, my husband took time off work. Someone was to arrive between 1500-1700hrs. The same engineer as the previous visit arrived. When he tried to install the control board he told my husband he could not continue with the repair as some other element within the unit was completely burnt out, and that we would need a new unit. He assured my husband he would file a report straight away, and that we would receive a call the following day to re arrange a further visit. On Thursday March 6th, no one made contact with us, so yet again, we contacted the company. We were given a different number to contact and speak with 0800 repairs direct. Once we did get hold of them, the report had not been filed, so we had to wait & recontact the company again. The 0800 repair company, as of Thursday 6th March had refused to re attend to repair the unit until we get 'someone in to remove the cooker hood from the wall prior to arranging someone to attend and complete a repair'. I am flabbergasted at this. There is clearly nothing in the manufacturer's guarantee which states this to be the case prior to any repair!! The engineer had informed my husband that the unit needed to be replaced not repaired!! Apparently he has written something completely different on the report according to 0800 repairs. I have never heard such utter rubbish & nonsense. When I made it clear that none of the documentation stated anything about the customer having to remove a hood, and that it was a preposterous situation to ask us to remove an electrical item from a wall I was told “we are not the manufacturer's of the product and you have to remove it and pay for it to be so” & that “under their company's terms & conditions I, the customer have to get someone in to remove it," , & I assume re install once fixed. When I read out the manufacturer's guarantee the operative still insisted it was not their remit to remove the hood prior to repair, and therefore, not adhere to the manufacturer’s guarantee. I was told to speak with Cata if I had a problem. When I queried all of this, I was eventually, at my insistence, transferred to someone supposedly more senior. She also reiterated the same, and stated " I was not going to get what I wanted, and that if I was not prepared to pay someone else to come in and take the hood down, she would close down the repair". I assume the manufacturers l have contracted the work out to this company & also assume they are supposed to work within the guarantee Cata provide. I find the level of unprofessionalism from within all areas of this company, quite shocking to say the least. Never have I heard of anything like this regarding a repair to an electrical item. I contacted Chiswick B&Q to have this product removed and returned but to date,I have not had my call returned despite leaving my contact details with the operator in B&Q. I have now written to 0800 repairs logging a formal complaint.This letter also contained reference to trading standards, and their breaches of their own Code of Conduct (thank you to whoever posted that info on another thread on here!!) I have already made contact with Cata ( Friday 7th March via email at 0200hrs regarding my position.They were copied into the same letter as was sent to both 0800 repairs,and Pacifica, who own 0800 repairs. Interestingly, I have had an email from Cata this evening asking for my details and a contact number to discuss further with both myself and 0800 repairs. Another complaint letter is being sent to B&Q. I wrote the letter of complaint to the CEO of 0800 repairs, a Mr Paul Feek. Today, Friday 7th March I received two phone calls from the previously mute 0800 repairs to inform me that they had " read my complaint and having talked to the engineer they are able to repair our hood without us removing it from the wall, and because of this engineers poor service they will not be paying him, and our repair will be passed to one of their specifically trained engineers"... so who attended our house on two previous occasions, if he was not a trained engineer!! The company still insist that under their terms and conditions it would be our responsibility to remove the cooker hood from the wall, but this would invalidate our guarantee!!?? I have found forums re this company with many many complaints not dissimilar to my own.Please be advised never to use this company, and i would also be grateful if anyone else has successfully had an appliance repaired after complaining. This company have stated they will attend our home on Thursday 13th March to repair our hood...I am not entirely sure this will be the case. The customer service has been appalling,but more worryingly, the insistence that we the customer have to remove the cooker hood from the wall is ludicrous and dangerous. My feeling is this is being done to ensure that any guarantee is invalidated,and therefore no repair/replacement will be carried out by 0800 repairs. Or am I just cynical I have attached the letter sent to all relevant parties for your perusal and comments. Many thanks.

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who has a contract with T-Mobile that has another year to run. She sent her phone for repair way back at the beginning of the year. It was away for over two weeks and when it came back the problem was still there so she had to send it off again in July when they told her it would be "between two and four weeks" There was no offer of a replacement, even though it was the same fault that hadn’t been fixed properly before, and they have continued taking to monthly charge out of her account while she has been without the phone. She is having to use her old PAYG phone and this is obviously costing her as well. The phone has now been away for six weeks. They are still taking direct debits from her account and, although a very nice lady promised to refund 30 quid which has not yet been done, they insist that they are not in breach of contract and she has to keep paying the monthly charge irrespective of whether or not she has the phone. I suspect this is rubbish and that they are just quoting their ‘policy’ and ignoring Consumer Law. I think, if the phone is not returned forthwith, fully working – ie; tomorrow – she should tell them they are in breach of contract and demand, at the very least a new phone and, more fairly, the option to terminate the contract. Further if the phone is returned and the same problem resurfaces as it has in the past, the same should apply. Does anybody have any thoughts or experience relevant to this situation. We’d love to hear from you Thanks Andy

I booked and paid for a car to be delivered to my home address at 5pm tonight. It didn't arrive. I called Europcar at 5.45pm to ask what's going on. He said he's sorry but his colleague forgot to inform the branch of my address, so they couldn't deliver. He said the branch has now closed so there's nothing he can do. So I'm stuck for the weekend without a car and have to cancel all my plans. I pushed but they said there's nothing they can do. After around 2 hours on the phone and a huge amount of hassle... He re-arranged delivery for this Monday (2 days away), and said that there's nothing he can do to prevent me from being stuck without a car this weekend. He also said I have to call up on monday morning at 8.30am to remind them just incase the information gets lost He then went on to say these are my only other options:- a.) I leave my place of work now and pay for a taxi (from my own pocket) to go to Gatwick airport to pick up a car, which is god knows how far away - probably would cost £100 in a taxi, I've never been there from here. He said I might be able to claim back the taxi cost from europcar, but he can't make any promises! b.) I find my own way to pick up a car from a branch a few miles away that is a huge engine and will cost me more than double the amount in petrol for my planned trip next week. - And still they won't deliver it to me, I have to drop everything and make my own way there. Seriously? Do these companies not have to pay any sort of legal fines for doing things like this to customers?