"Zenith never again!"

A review of Zenith Staybrite by Len written on Thursday 26th of February 2004

In September 2002 we had windows installed by Zenith. The day the installation team were scheduled to arrive, they did not. It was not until I phoned the installation centre that I was informed they would not be coming at all that day! One day of holiday lost and nothing done as an apologetic gesture of goodwill. However we consider ourselves reasonable people and accepted it as a minor hiccup in there system, being the highly reputable company that they are.

August 2003 we ordered a new conservatory with Zenith to replace our severely deteriorating one. After being told that one supporting wall would need to be replaced, and it would inevitably cost more, we decided to cancel the roof, to install a lighter flat roof instead, but still have the windows and doors. By September we were offered a new, lesser, price which included the new wall. We accepted, then troubles began.

Tuesday December 8, the day before work was to begin, I personally phoned to ensure that a team would be arriving the next day, in light of what had happened the previous year. Again, day one of scheduled work nobody arrived, another day of holiday lost.

Monday December 15 the first team arrived and they informed me that they had informed the installation centre, on Monday December 7, that they would be unable to commence work for us on December 9. And yet I was specifically informed that they would be with us. This was the first of many communication problems from the installation centre to myself (the customer) and the teams doing the work. The first team were to dismantle the old conservatory and erect a replacement wall. They informed me that they would only be erecting a second skin wall to assist the existing wall. After I informed them that the surveyor had dismissed the existing wall as usable they erected a new double skin wall. They were also unaware of the type of conservatory we were having and began to talk of pitch for the roof. I had to inform them that the roof being placed on top would essentially be a flat roof and needed no pitch!

Friday December 19 the second team arrived to erect the conservatory. We ordered woodstock, to match the windows, they arrived with a white conservatory! They promptly left! Another day of holiday is lost! Christmas for us was ruined because the conservatory is not a status symbol to us but our dining room and we had made plans for family to have christmas dinner with us!

Saturday January 17 the second team return with the remade conservatory. Everything was now the right colour apart from one strip down one side of the windows and doors which was still white! We had also asked for the skylight in the roof to be in the centre which it was not. They removed the guttering from our existing roofline and then informed me that the roof was the wrong size. They temporarily fixed it all together with screws and promptly left!

Tuesday January 20 the installation manager and surveyor came to re-measure and informed me that the roof was the right size but the installation team were not used to installing this type of roof and did not know that they had to take off the soffit and fascia! I asked why they were sent to do the job if they could not do it and was given the reply, 'because you had insisted on it being done on a saturday'. Not true. Indeed, I had stressed that I would rather it were done on a saturday, so that I would not risk losing any more holiday time from work. But I also stressed that if that was impossible then we would have to work something out. But this was beside the point as it was exactly the same team who arrived with the white conservatory on the Friday before Christmas! They still would not have known how to erect that type of roof anyway, no matter what day of the week it was!

From December 15 to February 16 we were unable to use our dining set to eat dinner at, something we thought would be out of action for a maximum of about one week. And from January 17 to February 3 we were kept awake by water pouring off of the tiled roof where the guttering had been removed.

Friday February 13 the third team arrived, with a new roof seeing as the previous one had had two screws put through the ceiling area and the skylight was in the wrong position. They informed me that the previous team had made a very bad job of things and that they would have to return on Monday February 16 to finish the work. They also seemed a little upset, to say the least, telling me that ours was just one in a long line of bad jobs that they have had to rectify and that they would be going on to rectify another bad job after ours!

It is now Thursday February 26. The installation manager visited Monday evening to discuss what still needs to be done to finish the job and also, amazingly enough, to ask if we would be paying that very evening. We said no. The work is not finished. There is still some rendering to do to seal the outside of the new wall and underneath the plinth. There is a slow leak in the skylight whenever there is a build up of water on it. There also appears to be a slow leak around the down-pipe area of the guttering system. The doors do not shut properly when the sun shines on them and they also do not fall flush to each other when they are shut. We've also been informed that the new wall will not be plastered on the inside, even though the old one was, and the roof line on the inside also looks unfinished!

We have waited six months for this to be done and it is still unfinished. Zenith want us to pay something now when their own salesman informed us that we rightfully do not have to pay anything until work is complete and we are satisfied. The only goodwill gesture they have shown is to re-imburse us for holiday time we have lost. We have had to make repeated phone calls to find out what is happening. The installation centre manager has not returned my last three phone calls to him. Both he and the installation manager have a tendency to talk over me when I am speaking to them which I consider to be extremely rude and offensive. This last point being the installation manager in particular, to which I expressed my concern for this and he apologized, but then proceeded to continue doing it. We have been kept awake at night not only from water pouring off the roof but from the severe stress this has been causing us. All in all it has been a complete sham! They have tried, at times, to make things right but it just seemed to make things worse. We thought we were having work done by a highly reputable and professional company, instead we feel like we have been lead along by amateurs who do not truly know what they are doing. I now find myself wasting my evening typing up this essay of a complaint which highlights only the main points and disregards many of the minor points.

I have been fair and reasonable all through this nightmare. I have kept my calm where most other customers would have flipped, I know that for a fact because I have worked in retail and have been confronted with unfair customers making impossible demands. And yet for all my fairness and the installation managers remark about me being the best unhappy customer he has ever had the pleasure to deal with, Zenith have continually made things difficult for us through this whole ordeal.

We have a wide circle of family and friends, some of which were interested to see our finished conservatory in the mind to have their own. Zenith have lost a lot, and I mean a lot, of custom today!.

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