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.”

NINE

MORE EMAILS, MORE BS.

In the last “chapter” of this nightmare I showed you what the “A Team” of EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS deemed to be an acceptable finish. Anyone who thinks that the works are acceptable are welcome to enter into a contract with EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS but I would sincerely hope that they would instead agree wholeheartedly that the standard of work falls a long way short of anything that is to be considered that of a professional standard carried out with due care and skill. Obviously I could not accept that this was the way it was going to be left and so I again had to enter in to more email conversations with NICK FLANAGAN and endure more of his BS.

Whilst having to repeatedly communicate with NICK FLANAGAN which I have been keeping via email or letter for obvious ‘paper trail reasons’ I have also been trying to make headway with VINCE HYLAND from the Trading Standards office in Exeter. I have given a stack of paperwork relating to this fiasco and also explained how we were essentially mis-sold the conservatory by way of the misrepresentation of the cost. We were deliberately made to believe that it would not have any VAT added which was a saving of over seven thousand pounds. The fact that the build was no where near completed to an acceptable standard despite EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS returning to put right the defects. That it was over a year past the completion date which, whilst was stated was an estimate, was so far past any reasonable timescale and in any case past the completion date set by EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS following my letter giving time of essence (which was apparently not acceptable). That it had not been built to a professional standard or with due care and skill and that there were bits missing, that Trading Standards must intervene and investigate. They should investigate also as it was common place for EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS to behave in this way and to prove it I sent a stack of reviews taken from their own review site. Something else I made him aware of was that EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS display the Trading Standards seal of approval for good work standards and this alone should be at the minimum something that TS remove. Lets be honest, EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS being given a TS seal of approval is like giving ISIS a seal of approval for being tour guides of the Middle East!

So from, (in my experience thus far), a waste of public money that is Trading Standards I continued my struggle with NICK FLANAGAN and was concurrently communicating with the ONLY person at the circus that actually wanted to do the job properly, DEAN WANT whilst also speaking with the CAB and my solicitor. Eventually I did manage to get NICK FLANAGAN to agree to attend our house so he could see for himself the shocking state of the build and that we could start to address the subject of what compensation they were going to offer. I was not shocked that he had agreed to a meeting finally after dodging it for so long as it was the belief that the conservatory was finished. I did insist on DEAN WANT coming. I have covered this in part seven but I will be revisiting some of it in this instalment.

In an email dated 27th July 2018 I wrote to NICK FLANAGAN and informed him that we still had a major leak and that I wanted DEAN WANT to attend the meeting as “…the building works land squarely in his area of expertise.” and that “Further refusal on your part to allow MR WANT to attend the meeting will in my view be one of disbelief and seen as you simply hindering the compensation process.” I wanted DEAN WANT to come so he could see the leak and try to figure out where it was coming from. What I received from the head clown of the circus was nothing short of incredible and after I read it twice to check I was not seeing things, made me so angry that I gave a short reply and then I had to stop writing to him. So this was the final part of his reply, do you think I was wrong to be angry??? “In terms of your leak, normally this would be carried out under the terms of an active warranty, yours is currently suspended due to the existence of the outstanding balance, I shall however, as a gesture of goodwill, be pleased to refer this request to Mr Want whose team shall arrange for attendance to the leak, he may not need to attend personally and neither he or his fitting team need attend at the time of our meeting.”   As I said, I could not believe that this had actually been written. The short reply I gave was this… “You are entirely incorrect in your view that the leak be under a warranty issue Mr Flanagan. It has already allegedly been fixed and as such the build is incomplete. 
I refuse to go round in circles with you any longer. 
Mr Pas”

Realising I was going to continue to achieve the sum total of bugger all squared I wrote to my solicitor and asked for her advice on my intention, having given the opportunity on several occasions to allow for the works and the build to be completed, to exercise my right to have third party contractors come and carry out any works required and claim them from EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS as I no longer have any faith in their ability to carry out works to a professional standard or with care and skill.

So on the 8th of August 2018, the illusive NICK FLANAGAN finally graces me with his presence at my house. He offered his hand to shake, which whilst you may call me ignorant for, I refused to take especially as the words that came from his mouth were; “Pleased to meet you” which, essentially made me want to tell him to turn around and f*** off back to his office. Such a smug holier than thou, I am above the law attitude which he has clearly perfected over the nineteen years he has been at EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS he actually made my skin crawl. He gave the softly “oh am so sorry” bullshit lines which he has clearly said so many times before and every minute that he stood in front of me made me more and more angry but I kept the “George grenade” under control, the pin was definitely pulled but I managed to keep the fly off lever in tact which was no mean feat believe me. I made it perfectly clear to NICK FLANAGAN that I was not someone who would simply roll over.

I told him; “Having read the reviews from your own website, it is clear to me that EVEREST treat people how they like. Everest don’t care when people threaten Court action and Trading Standards because you work on the fact that people can’t afford to actually take a big company like yours to Court. Rest assured MR FLANAGAN, I CAN afford to take you to Court, and I WILL, you just have to figure out if I am bluffing.” I continued… “If we go to Court and I win, you lose. If we go to Court and I LOSE, you lose on a scale you cannot imagine because I WILL ensure it is on the internet for all to see and what they will see is that once you enter in to a contract with EVEREST, you can do what you like, take as long as you like and leave as big a mess as you like and there is NOTHING the Consumer can do about it. How many people will want to use you then?”

I also made it VERY clear that I would be putting this fiasco on the internet. I showed earlier when I sent the information and pictures to BBC’S WATCHDOG and Trading Standards that I don’t bluff although now I know why he wasn’t bothered by that. TRADING STANDARDS aren’t interested and BBC WATCHDOG won’t get involved, I am assuming that this is because they tackled EVEREST in 2012 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1dnwn9yRZHpNqplkjxR1zcW/everest-not-always-the-best )for exactly the same problems and in seven years NOTHING it would appear, has improved so it would not look good for the programme for people to see that it made no difference. Judging by the response given by EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS https://grapevine4you.blogspot.com/2006/12/everest-certainly-not-best.html I would say that either it is a standard worded response or it was NICK FLANAGAN who wrote it. I did manage to get him to agree on the points I had made and that he would allow me to get the works completed and carried out by outside contractors however there were no figures presented to me for compensation. He left having agreed, on return to the office the following day, to write me a letter with the various things he had agreed before I was willing to instruct any contractors, needless to say, this did not arrive so I had to chase it.

“Dear Mr Flanagan.
I write with reference to our meeting on the 8th August 2018.
As yet I have not requested tradesmen or companies to visit my property to obtain quotations for the correctional works required to the conservatory.
I have held off of doing so until I have received the letter from yourself agreeing that Everest will “pick up the tab” for the works. Also the letter explaining why the Time of Essence letter I sent to you was not legally binding and the information and instruction given to me was incorrect. Once I have those letters I can of course act on each accordingly.
With kind regards. 
Mr Pas”

I had asked for him to explain to me why my legal advice was incorrect as I had paid a lot of money for it and if it was wrong then I wanted to take it up with my solicitor. Oh, I forgot to say, despite the fact that EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS https://www.reviews.co.uk/company-reviews/store/everest had shown what an unprofessional company they are and the fact that I had now seen their so called professional builds and how they “fit the best”, he wanted to compensate me by, get this, PUTTING DOUBLE GLAZING IN TO ONE OF MY RENTAL PROPERTIES. WHAT THE ACTUAL F***???? I told him straight that there was no way I was going to let his company cause damage to another property and that I would not allow my tenants to be subjected to problems with windows knowing they would not be fitted correctly and that any problems would not be fixed. HOWEVER, to gauge how serious he was with a compensation figure, I said to him… “You can do this place if you like! 33 windows and doors. So, yeah, do this place.” There was clearly no way on this Earth I was ever going to let them put windows in my Daughters wooden play house let alone this place but it would be interesting to see what figure he was offering by way of compensation, more on that in a bit! Anyway, his reply.

“Dear Mr Pas, Apologies, I was waiting for your communication prior to returning to you. Thank you for your time and frankness during our meeting.  As advised, I wish for nothing more than to be permitted access once again to attend to the installation issues that remain.  In fairness and notwithstanding the fact that they have taken far too long to reach this stage, the remaining issues are relatively minor. That said, if it is your wish to have these works attended to externally, I shall be pleased to agree to this, and shall, subject to a sight of all relevant quotes and in advance, Everest shall meet the cost of your doing so. In terms of the letter making time the essence of the contract, I repeat that the letter does not correspond with the requirements of the contract either in terms of the period of time that must be provided to complete the works or the penalty in the event of default.  I confirm that if any legal advisor has advised you to the contrary, they are simply incorrect.  I do not have details of any advice that you have received either from the CAB or lawyers, but confirm that had I received advice to issue the letter dated 8^th February 2018, and that such advice had been provided having seen the contract document and that such advice indicated that this was the correct and appropriate manner in which to make time the essence of the contract, personally I would have considered the advice to be negligent. Turning very briefly to the suggestion that a resolution to this matter may rest in further works at ******* House, perhaps you would agree to our surveyor attending and taking detailed measurements and specification for the replacements so that I may factor this into any potential settlement discussions. I look forward to hearing from you further regarding the tradesmen and access for a surveyor. Kind regards“

So he wants me to allow them back AGAIN to do the correctional works which he considers to be minor. Consideration needs to be given to the fact that the window sills need to be removed AGAIN and cut correctly. The whole thing needs plastering, gutters removing in fact EVERYTHING that they did not do the last time. He goes on to say that the advice given to me by the CAB and my solicitor is negligent and then he asks about a surveyor coming to measure for windows. I have read the reviews from victims of EVEREST WINDOWS https://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews102845.html and there was no way that they were going to fit them to my house but I wanted to know the figure involved for obvious reasons. I realised that waiting for FLANAGAN to actually approve quotes would likely take a couple of years and that there was no guarantee that he would actually pay the contractors and I could not have that on my mind, I had to again bite my lip and exercise both restraint and diplomacy in a response to this horrible, manipulative excuse for a human being.

“Dear Mr Flanagan.
Please accept my apology for not getting back to you earlier. Being the children’s school holidays we have been somewhat tied up and time has passed quicker than I had realised.
I appreciated you taking the time to visit.
During the meeting at our house I felt that the points I had made were taken on board and majority accepted by yourself. Some points we disagreed on and indeed will likely not agree on.
The remaining issues are as you say in the grand scheme of things minor, but as you are aware and accept, should not be there considering the time scale. In any case, after speaking to my Wife we are willing to allow Everest one last opportunity to correct the discussed works and to hopefully fix the leaking roof. We have decided on this course of action to save time on getting quotes for the work and waiting for the workmen to become available and also as I do feel that you genuinely appreciate that the finish is not up to the expected standard of your company and that you want to put it right. We do ask that the works be carried out sooner rather than later and look forward to receiving a date from you.
Regarding your request to allow a surveyor to visit our house for measurements, we are happy for this to happen so again, if you could suggest some dates we can arrange for them to visit.”

I am sure you will agree how difficult it was for me to write this email to him but I know how he works and we needed this finished and finally put to bed. Sadly I knew full well that he was feeding me more shit and he had no intention of sorting it out but what could I do? Get quotes, never get answered, don’t pay the contractor and they will chase me. Allow this shit show of a company to come again and wait and wait for them to not show and if they do, accept that it will be a waste of time and not done properly. In any case, I needed to get this clarified so I could at least take it to court. These two emails were from NICK FLANAGAN on the 24th of August 2018…

“Dear Mr Pas, Thank you for your email, I have asked Dean Want to address the repair issues asap.In terms of the survey, I have discussed this with both our Operations and Sales teams, and it may be that we send a surveyor, or a sales manager in either case this will just be to take a record of your requirements and will not include any discussions regarding the cost of the works on site – that will come later and be through my office. I will return to you once they have determined how they prefer to obtain the details of your requirements.”

“Good afternoon Mr Pas, I have spoken to all parties and they have arranged for a Sales Manager to attend and take the measurements and spec for the main house.  They will not discuss price with you but will bring the spec back to me and I will factor that in to our final discussions.The sales manager, I believe it will be Paul ***** shall contact you direct to appoint his attendance.” 

So I have someone else coming to measure ONLY for the replacement windows and doors in my house but will NOT know a price and I have an assurance that contractors are coming to fix the problems in the conservatory asap. Now to anyone else asap would be as soon as possible, that meaning quickly. NOT the case with this lot though. I think it is what I refer to as EMT, EVEREST MAYBE TIME. Anyway, I get notification that a contractor is “working in the SW…and if he could address the roof vent…” so they are not making any special arrangements to get this sorted and the contractor may turn up on the 11th of September. How utterly predictable, proof that I was right about what I had said about the meeting with NICK FLANAGAN, sad isn’t it.

Well, I will leave it for now. It is beyond depressing writing this crap and it does make me incredibly angry but I need to do it. Thanks for reading, please share it far and wide. I know it is working as I had a LONG conversation last night with another victim who got in touch with me having seen one of these “chapters” floating around the internet and I really felt for them. (That is the FORTH victim of EVEREST HOME IMPROVEMENTS that has got in touch with me.) After putting the telephone down having finished the conversation last evening it confirmed to me that I need to carry on with this so others may avoid being caught out no matter how angry and frustrated I feel after I publish to the internet.

Next time, “A visit from Paul”