uPVC windows and uPVC doors will make the world of difference when added to your home and will transform its appearance. Guests will immediately notice the changes made when they visit your home as uPVC will gleam in all weathers as they are weather resistant and will stand up no matter if it is rain or shine. By changing your windows you will also benefit from greater views from the inside as the glass used provides a bright outlook on everything going on outside. When combined together they really will give you a new up to date look.

New windows and doors are also unaffected by rotting or fading, so you do not need to worry about constantly maintaining them. The cost of replacements may be more than what you paid for your original windows, but you will find that they have a longer lifespan and may never need to be changed again. They will also make your home energy efficient, as they are good conductors of heat and allow virtually nothing to pass through the glass or frames.

Another way of transforming the exterior of your home is by looking into conservatories. A conservatory will stand proudly in your back garden and make it a much nicer place to live and spend your home life all year round.

This scheme would allow householders and landlords to scrap their old poorly insulated windows for a cash incentive of £1,000 to be used against the purchase of new professionally installed energy efficient windows.

The Scheme would allow for an improvement to the existing housing stock to reduce Carbon and CO2 emissions and cut household energy bills. The Scheme to be open only to companies who professionally install windows with a C Window Energy Rating or above and who responsibility recycle the existing windows that are removed.

Government response
The Government agrees that energy efficiency has an important part to play if we are to achieve our carbon reduction targets. The benefits of energy efficiency for households are clear: saving money on energy bills, reducing reliance on imported energy and helping householders reduce their carbon emissions.

However given the high cost of replacement windows (typically £5,000 to £10,000 for a small home), the marginal improvement in performance, particularly when replacing like-for-like double glazed windows; and given that band C windows will be the minimum standard permitted by building regulations from October 2010, a window scrappage scheme is unlikely to be cost effective on energy efficiency and carbon savings grounds.

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from energy efficiency measures and the energy bill savings they can bring. However, we also recognise that the cost to retrofit homes can be substantial – our ‘Green Deal’ will allow consumers to fund the upfront cost out of energy bill savings. It is expected that double glazing will be one of the measures that can be installed under the Green Deal.

The best time of the year to enjoy your garden is without doubt during the summer time and there is no better way of making use of it than with Veranda conservatories in Bristol and Veranda conservatories in Cardiff. We have designed them so that you have a Veranda area outside of the conservatory which is still covered by the glass roof. This means that you can literally sit outside and admire your garden even on the wettest of days without having to worry about getting soaked. You can access the Veranda via a set of bi fold or sliding doors, so you can flit in and out as often as you like and with the minimum of fuss required.

The looks of a Veranda conservatory really are something to behold and you will be hard pushed to find anyone who has something similar in your neighbourhood. Like conventional conservatories in South Wales, not only will they add value to your home, but there are so many different ways in which you could utilise the space offered by it.

Take advantage of this very special offer on Veranda Conservatories before it is too late – contact us online to arrange an appointment with one of our design consultants or call us for free on 0800 163 369.

One such product is our range of patio doors. When placed in a home they will provide you with the very best and elegant entrance into your back garden, while also bringing in an enormous amount of outdoor light. They will slide open so that you can let in the outside air on those days when the temperature is too warm inside. You also need not worry about your children gaining access to the back garden when you want them to stay indoors. This is because the doors come fitted with a locking mechanism that can be locked and which is extremely difficult to force open.

We construct our patio doors using uPVC material, so that maintenance is kept to a minimum, leaving you with plenty of spare time to complete other tasks you may have in the home. They will not rot or flake paint, so you do not need to repaint them at any time. Just give them a wipe down every so often and you will notice that they will continue to look as good as when they were first installed.

We have several dealerships across the country, so pay a visit to your local showroom where you can see all our windows, conservatories and French doors in the flesh.

The DGCOS scheme’s founder, Tony Pickup, found himself in the coveted position of discussing the scheme on BBC One’s Breakfast. The reaction to this was “overwhelming”, and Tony followed this up with a slot on Simon Mayo’s Drivetime show on BBC Radio 2.

However, not all BBC shows were as flattering, and BBC Two’s Working Lunch programme made “a number of incorrect and misleading statements as well as implying that the scheme was not a proper Ombudsman scheme”, DGCOS said in a statement. The programme’s editor apologised, and a ‘clarification’ was made on air the following day.

“This ‘clarification’…falls a long way short of the very specific apology we had earlier from the programme’s editor,” explained Tony Pickup, “and we are pressing the BBC to set the record straight with a detailed apology.”

DGCOS accused the presenters of being poorly briefed, and using a tone that was “negative and potentially damaging”.

About Glasstalk
GlassTalk has taken the window, door, conservatory and flat glass industries by storm, simply by recognising a simple human trait: people like to talk and meet other people with similar interests. GlassTalk, therefore, simply provides a forum, a mechanism, through which people can express themselves, make new contacts, develop original ideas; it is the people that join GlassTalk that are the real success story.

Simplicity is the key to the success of GlassTalk: The clear and undisguised purpose of the event is for new contacts to be made, ideas to be exchanged and business to be done. This is achieved through ‘speed networking’. Upon registration delegates are given a series of numbers which correspond with round tables placed around the room. Guests join these tables, each of which seats ten, and upon a signal those around the table introduce themselves in turn, following which open discussion commences.

Sometimes there may be a theme to the discussions but usually delegates are simply left to do what people do best: talk and seek common ground. After 25 minutes delegates are warned to close their discussions, exchange business cards, and prepare to move to the next table allocated to them on their numbered tickets. Numbers are issued randomly and calculated to ensure that as many different GlassTalk guests meet during the day, up to 75 during the networking sessions.

Double glazing salespeople are using misleading claims and hard-sell tactics to get homeowners to sign on the dotted line, according to an investigation by Which?.

The consumer organisation used undercover researchers to test the £1.2bn-a-year double glazing industry, inviting four major companies – Anglian Windows, Everest, Weatherseal Home Improvements/Zenith Staybrite and Safestyle (UK) – to provide quotes for double glazing at four addresses around the UK in March.

A senior trading standards officer and sales expert then listened to recordings of the visits and analysed the tactics used. These included claiming to be a part of a non-existent government scrappage system.

Which? also found:

• Six out of 18 salespeople made misleading claims, such as: “We’ve been tested by the government and were chosen for its scrappage scheme” (an Anglian salesperson) and: “By law, through trading standards, you can only give up to a 10-year guarantee” (a Safestyle UK salesperson);
• Seven out of the 18 salespeople offered a discount if the undercover researcher signed up immediately;
• Fifteen out of 18 offered significant savings, often half the “original” price – the biggest drop was £16,926 from an Everest salesperson;
• Many of the salespeople offered a lower price with a “credit deal” but working out how much you’d pay was incredibly difficult.
• One Zenith salesperson asked the researcher to sign their name twice to confirm he’d told her the relevant information – a psychological technique to warm up customers.

Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which?, said: “As a homeowner, replacing your windows is one of the most expensive jobs you’re likely to face, which is why we’re so disappointed to discover salespeople from the biggest names in the business making outlandish claims and using hard-sell tactics.”

Which? said it hoped the introduction of the Double Glazing and Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme, launched in May, would help increase transparency of prices.

In response to the report, Everest Limited said: “We never deprive customers of the opportunity to make an informed decision. We are extremely disappointed by these findings and reject accusations of breaking regulations. Our offers are genuine. We offer a price promise, and a seven-day unconditional cancellation period on all sales. ‘False claims’ go against our training, guidelines and documentation.”

Anglian Homes said: “All Anglian sales representatives are comprehensively trained but we do recognise that very occasionally mistakes are made and in this instance it appears that there has been some confusion surrounding the Anglian window scrappage scheme.”

It said it would “once again make it clear to all our sales representatives that the two are unrelated and there is no government-backed scrappage scheme”.

The press release states:

Dear Ian

Commenting recently (28th June) on the Renegade Conservatory Guy blog about the recent Which? report, a director of the GGF and FENSA alleged that “GGF members have their own ‘Ombudsman’”.

This distortion is more than just a bit of spin, and it illustrates why the industry so badly needs the Ombudsman Scheme. I am sure the GGF is well enough advised to know the difference, but his attempt to confuse an in-depth, compulsory, free of charge, legally binding Ombudsman (with judicial powers) with an opt-in/opt-out arbitrator with no powers of enforcement is an example of the sort of half truth that has beggared double glazing for so long.

That sort of industry self-deception has been regularly exposed by Which? for decades, along with other tricks of the trade. It’s why the industry is used by The Daily Mail, and others, as a benchmark for bad practice and dishonesty.

The GGF does not have an Ombudsman, with or without quotation marks. Let us be clear in future, please – and honest.

Yours sincerely

Tony Pickup
Founder of the Double Glazing & Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme (DGCOS)

I must admit, when I read this I did feel that Tony had blown out of all proportion the context of Alan’s comment and used it for his own benefit. These are strong words indeed.

Anyway, Alan Burgess has responded as follows:

FAO Tony Pickup

Firstly I note your comments on other sites suggesting a director of the GGF and Fensa has made comments, and has spun the term “ombudsman”.

This is untrue.

Yes I am a director of those (and other) bodies, however please note they were either “personal observations” or were written “for and on behalf of Masterframe Windows Ltd”.

They were not those of any other body. No other context should be considered.

You seem very concerned that I have spun a term, so I thought it best to obtain some definitions of the term, because that’s what members of the public will use.

Heres what I found…..

Wikipedia defines an ombudsman as:

“a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing the broad scope of constituent interests. ‘Ombudsman’, which is an indigenous Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish term, is etymologically rooted in the Old Norse word umbuðsmann, which essentially means ‘representative’.

Usually appointed by the organization, but sometimes elected by the constituency, the ombudsman may, for example, investigate constituent complaints relating to the organization and attempt to resolve them, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation.

Ombudsmen sometimes identify organizational roadblocks running counter to constituent interests.”

Another dictionary site says,

An official appointed by a government or other organization to investigate complaints against people in authority. This position is designed to give those with less power — the “little people” — a voice in the operation of large organizations.

om•buds•man
1.a government official who hears and investigates complaints by private citizens against other officials or government agencies.
2a a person who investigates and attempts to resolve complaints and problems, as between employees and an employer or between students and a university.

Word History :
In Swedish an ombudsman was a deputy who looked after the interests and legal affairs of a group such as a trade union or business.

In 1809 the office of riksdagens justice ombudsman was created to act as an agent of justice, that is, to see after the interests of justice in affairs between the government and its citizens.

This office of ombudsman and the word ombudsman have been adopted elsewhere, as in individual states in the United States.

The term has also been expanded in sense to include people who perform the same function for business corporations or newspapers.

I then looked for arbitrator, that’s a person who…….

1.A person chosen to settle the issue between parties engaged in a dispute.
2.One having the ability or power to make authoritative decisions; an arbiter.

Sound similar, no?

Tony, please ask yourself these questions;

Is the GGF “a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency?”

Does the GGF, “investigate constituent complaints relating to the organization and attempt to resolve them?”

Does the GGF, “ act as an agent of justice?”

Does the GGF, attempt to resolve issues, “usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation?

Then it’s reasonable for people to use the term “ombudsman” or “arbitrator” in similar ways.

Tony, I did not try to spin anything, just pointing out the similarities of theses terms. No doubt you will have a far more precise, defined term, but laypeople aren’t interested, what they want is someone who resolves their problems when things go wrong.

Your scheme works for your members, it is not for the common good of every double glazing consumer in the UK, only those using your membership. Likewise the GGF is only interested in dealing with complaints involving its members.

Both offer different methods, both perform a similar role, lets get on with getting EVERY company to sign up organisations that promote good practice, instead of arguing that one is technically different to the other.

Alan Burgess
For and on behalf of Masterframe Windows Ltd

Is our industry really a benchmark for bad practice and dishonesty? Find out more on Glasstalk

You can transform conservatories in Hereford, conservatories in Gloucester and conservatories in South Wales into a second living room. You can choose the type of flooring and heating used and then install a sofa in it so that you can put your feet up in a luxurious location. When the sun creates a bright effect in a conservatory there really is no better place to enjoy the weather, so just imagine yourself with a cool drink in there.

The light that beams into your conservatory could also even end up filtering into your home, so if the interior of your home is somewhat dark, then this could be the ideal addition. The glass used in a conservatory will also ensure that you do not get overly warm, as some conservatories in the past could be unbearably hot during the summer, meaning that it becomes unusable. They will keep you as cool as possible when you need it most.

The frame of a conservatory is made up of uPVC material, which is extremely strong and long lasting, so when you have a conservatory installed you can feel pretty confident that you have made an investment for life. If the conservatory starts to look a little bit dirty, then it is not a problem as all you need in a wet cloth and after a good wipe down it will look as good as new.

Although conservatories in Hereford, conservatories in Bristol and conservatories in Gloucester, can cost a decent amount of money, that money will more than pay for itself in enjoyment and pleasure over the years. The conservatory can be used by the whole of the family. Whether collectively or separately, kids and adults can use it for so many different uses. You will also find that a conservatory can make your home look far more appealing as although it is made up of uPVC material, it will not stick out like a sore thumb.

It is not just extra floor space that a conservatory can offer your home, it will also provide you with comfort, stylishness and most importantly warmth at all times. They are also not subject to wear and tear like some extensions to a home. No matter what the weather is like outside, a conservatory has the capability to ward off such extremes without becoming damaged in any way.

Thinking in the long term there may be a time when you decide that you want to leave your current property and move home. If this time ever arrives, then you may find that your home becomes more saleable should it have a conservatory installed, than if it does not. It could help add value onto the price of your home, giving you that extra bit of lolly.

The choice of flooring in conservatories in Hereford, conservatories in Bristol and conservatories in Gloucester is especially important as there are many different kinds available. We can make your decision that little bit easier by offering you 30% off all premium flooring when you order your conservatory today. If you prefer a different design of conservatory, then our Edwardian conservatory is also available at a reduced price of £8,795, again with fitting included.

You need to make the right conservatory choice for your home as our portfolio of conservatories has been designed to suit different types of home. Greenway can pay a visit to your home and help you come to a mutual decision over which choice of conservatory would best blend in with your home and most suit your lifestyle. If you adding a conservatory for a certain reason such as due to a lack of space within the home, or just because you are seeking a new location in which to entertain family and friends, Greenway can give you all the advice and guidance you need.

We know that securing quotes from home improvement suppliers over the phone can be a chore, so Greenway are offering you the chance to request a quote online. Just fill in the simple to follow online form and we will contact you within 24 hours or sooner to discuss it further.