Anglian Home Improvements

I rarely write reviews but feel compelled to alert potential future clients of Anglian Windows of the shocking service we experienced. This will seem a long review but in no way reflects the protracted list of issues we experienced from start to finish over 14 months, however I will try to keep this succinct. We chose Anglian after several quotes and lots of research because of their assurance of “unparalleled levels of customer service” and quality of materials and workmanship. Regrettably, nothing could be further from the truth. We placed our order in May 2021 and a survey was completed in June, we scrutinised this and found it to be incorrect, the revised version was also incorrect so this took 3 attempts. The installation was delayed until Sept and during and after this a large number of snags were identified by both the fitters and ourselves. These included scratched windows with scuffed/chipped upvc frames; faulty locking mechanisms & handles; so called ‘easy-clean’ openers were almost impossible to budge; some windows badly fitted with twisted rubber seals and water pooling after first rainfall. The scaffolding was unsafe according to the fitters and I spent weeks scraping up silicone sealant from the perimeter of the house. We were asked to send comprehensive evidence including a list of all snags and images which took some time. We then spent the next couple of months chasing this up with little or no response, and finally got an engineer visit to rectify the faults in Nov 21, which unfortunately only rectified a few issues as the engineer had not been properly briefed and had forgotten the correct windows and parts to replace. This was followed by a further 4 failed engineer visits up to June 2022, all with equally similar experiences. Communication over this protracted period was shocking, I tried relentlessly to contact the NW branch, based in Stockport, the phone is never answered (I since learned the national team can never reach them either). After many e-mails and phone calls I escalated to the national customer support team who were very supportive, however the regional branch has full autonomy in handling their own complaints so when it goes wrong the national team are in effect powerless to intervene. At one stage I wrote a polite email to the NW branch expressing our disappointment and copied this to the Senior Customer Services manager, Director of Operations, and 11 other senior personnel and didn’t receive a single response from anyone. When I eventually reached a senior customer operations manager from NW branch, he told me in a rude manner he was too busy to deal with this and it was also proven on two occasions I was deliberately misled by this manager. This appears to be a culture which is deeply embedded within the NW branch of Anglian. I finally wrote to the CEO in Norwich and thankfully was contacted by their national lead for customer operations who was very helpful but also was unable to really expedite the protracted issues or resolve the problems. By now I had lost approx. £700 in lost salary taking time off for engineer visits (they say they can arrive anytime between 8am-5pm and normally arrive around 4pm if at all). I politely requested some compensation as this was entirely out of my control and they offered me £50 – I declined and chose to seek legal advice, after which they eventually offered £250 which I accepted in protest as I was completely exhausted with the whole experience. Even this was a shambles as they incorrectly completed a cheque which my bank invalidated, and Anglian didn’t even pay postage so I had to retrieve it from the Royal mail sorting office and pay their fees!...you just couldn’t write this!! The snags were finally completed almost 12 months after installation, after experiencing a year of significant stress, inconvenience and lost salary. Finally, if you do go ahead and trust the other reviews in Anglian’s glossy brochures (like we did) make sure you receive your FENSA certificate and guarantee, something else we had to chase up for months, not suprising given the appalling quality and shocking workmanship / customer operations from the NW branch. My advice…don’t consider this shambles of a firm for a single second!!!