Turning our garage into a useable work space seemed like such a good idea at the time. You know those tiny new build garages that turn into dead storage space because even if you can squeeze a car in there you can barely open the door wide enough to get out?
There were a couple of very important criteria in choosing a builder to work with. Nothing unreasonable or out of the ordinary, indeed budget wasn’t even a real consideration when weighed against having somebody reliable who would turn up on time, do what they needed to do and get things right first time.
Dunraven Windows Bridgend seemed to tick all those boxes. We’d seen examples of their work elsewhere, they were a local company who seemed to treasure customer service and they were able to produce doors to a particular spec.
Three sales appointments, three surveyor’s visits, two builder’s visits and three sets of doors later . . . the finished product, by anyone’s standards is beautiful and Dunraven employ some very talented and hardworking tradesmen. But my God, I I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such disorganisation, poor communication or just plain incompetence when it comes to planning and organisation!
Welcome to my Dunraven diary . . . chronicling two months of pain and frustration.
First Contact
Sales visit was arranged via Dunraven Windows’ central office. We explained in detail what we wanted done and that it was a fairly simple job – either removing a garage door and installing a set of French doors in its place or possibly knocking a side door through and partitioning off the existing doors.
Sales appointment 1 – 29 April
Cancelled due to salesman being unwell – It was a wasted evening arranging to be home at a particular time, but not a huge issue. These things happen and at least we received a phone call to let us know.
Sales appointment 2 – 30 April
Sales call was moved to the following evening.
For some unknown reason the salesman originally thought he was coming to quote for windows and a porch. We put this down to some problem with the handover from the cancelled sales visit and we spent time explaining again what it was that we actually wanted.
At that time we requested a quote for each of the two options.
- Knock through and addition of external door allowing side entrance to garage
- Replacement of garage door with French doors giving access to the front of the garage.
The salesman was fairly new to the job and a little out of his depth with this. In fact, he seemed reluctant to quote for second option, but did eventually agree to measure up and quote. At our direction he also added the cost of two courses of brickwork to the quote.
We were very happy with both quotes and requested some time to weigh up the two quotes and decide on our preferred option – despite the old “let me offer you a discount if you sign the dotted line today” ploy!
Sales appointment 3 : 6th May
We finally agreed on going for the French door option, but before we could contact Dunraven to give the go ahead, we received a call telling us that we needed a second sales visit.
This one really is a mystery to me as well as apparently to the salesman who arrived not to mention a total waste of an evening.
We were told that we needed a second visit because the first salesman had failed to submit his prices to the office.
However, the second salesman seemed to have no idea of why he was there – he said that prices never get submitted into the office and he’d been told he was quoting for internal French doors because we’d been unhappy with the initial quote???
This really should have been the red flag that communication within Dunraven was pretty poor, but we went into the third explanation of what we actually wanted done anyway.
After lengthy discussion he removed the part of the quote for brickwork, stating quite emphatically that there was no need and that the doors could be fitted directly onto the existing foundations despite my misgivings.
We agreed to go ahead with the quote on the assurance that this was just a day’s work and could be accommodated at a weekend to avoid us needing to take further time off work after already losing three evenings.
Booking
We were given a confirmed date of Saturday 21 June for all the work to be completed and at this point were actually starting to get excited about the project.
Surveyor’s appointment : Thurs 22nd May
Disappointingly, despite requesting that a phone call to inform me when the surveyor was on his way so that I could coordinate any plans for the day, this didn’t happen. Although I was home I had a prior client appointment booked in which I had to postpone at the last minute when he unexpectedly arrived.
On looking at the work to be done, he was baffled that there seemed to be no costing or measurement for brickwork in the quote (if you remember salesman #2 removed this after I’d asked for it to be included by salesman #1). Thus ensued another hour’s wait while he tried to contact the office to get a quote to add it into the price.
At this point, I explained that if the work was now going to span over a few days to allow the brickwork to set we may have to reconsider. All our planning for the week preceding 21st June was based on the work being completed on that Saturday and it’s not always easy to reshuffle diaries and move work commitments at short notice. I was assured that it shouldn’t be necessary to move dates because the bricks were non-weight bearing so the brickwork and fitting could be done the same day.
Contact with Dunraven Windows’ central office : Thursday 29th May
With all these changing stories about needing / not needing brickwork, more doubts about Dunraven’s ability to do this job were creeping in and I also had my concerns about the brickwork and fitting being done the same day . . . but Dunraven are the experts at this and it’s been 15 years+ since I worked in surveying so products and practices may well have moved on.
Money really wasn’t the issue here, more than anything, what I wanted was the reassurance that all the necessary work was going to be done, done properly and that things were in hand with the team.
However, we took a leap of faith and contacted the central office to confirm that we would accept the revised quote, subject to confirmation around the timing and plans for this work.
- Pricing
We were assured that the surveyor was correct and the brickwork was definitely required but since it was an error on Dunraven’s part the cost would be waived – only to receive a letter and a phone call a day later asking us to confirm that the revised quote was acceptable and adding it to the bill!!! Serious alarm bells about Dunraven’s internal communication are now ringing.
- Timing
We’d also specifically asked for confirmation that this could still all be done in one day, to which we were told that we’d have to wait until after the builders’ meeting the following week. Not particularly helpful to us with coordinating arrangements, but I was still clinging to the hope that we’d finally been given correct information about what was required and how it would be implemented.
Follow up – post-builder’s meeting : Monday 2nd June
Despite being told that we’d get a phone call back after the builders’ meeting with details of what was going on, Dunraven then went silent on us and it was left to us to follow up for a reply.
To add insult to injury when we finally got through to somebody, we were told that they’d been trying to contact us but couldn’t get hold of anybody! I really find that hard to believe. Dunraven had two contact Email addresses, a landline and two mobile numbers to contact us on – all of which had been free and available all day and none of which showed any missed calls or messages.
Even more disappointingly, the upshot of the conversation was that they had no answers for us because the builders didn’t actually know what they were supposed to be doing?!?!
Apparently the surveyor had failed to take photographs and make sufficient notes so somebody else had to come out and do that before they could tell us what the plans were.
Surveyors Appointment 2 : Tuesday 3rd June
Not much to say about this. The second surveyor came while we were at work to photograph the property and make a note of the brick match.
Follow up – post-surveyor’s appointment
Again, Dunraven went silent and it was left to us to spend time following up and chasing around to find out what was happening.
We were finally told that the brickwork needed to be done 3-4 days prior to the fitting to allow it to set – despite previous assurances to the contrary when that specific question had been asked.
Not only did that leave us with the problem of taking time from work at short notice, but also the issue that a garage currently used for storage was going to be left unsecured for a period of time.
Another frustrating round of phone calls followed until we could get somebody to talk to us and agree that they could arrange for the builder to secure the garage with plywood for the interim period between the brickwork being completed and the doors fitted.
By this point, we were incredibly close to pulling out of the whole thing, but we’d come so far and now dates were arranged and work agreed we thought the worst of the pain must be behind us. We agreed on a date of 17th June for the brickwork and 21st June for the fitting and actually set out in an Email confirmation of step by step what jobs had been agreed.
Builders Appointment 1 : 17th June for brickwork.
The builder arrived two and a half hours late for the appointment due to previous job overrunning. Not an issue in itself, but again the total lack of communication was apparent – we were left chasing to find out what had happened rather than anyone contacting us. And yet another day off work sat waiting around.
On arrival two issues became very apparent :
1) The builder had been given the incorrect brick type to match with the rest of the property.
2) The builder was shocked that the garage was going to be left unsecured for four days – apparently, despite repeated calls and an Email confirmation nobody had informed him that he was supposed to be boarding up the garage and making it secure once the work was done.
Builders Appointment 2 : 18th June for brickwork part 2
This was far too short notice for us to cancel arrangements and be home for the day, so we had to call in some favours to make sure that somebody was there.
But finally !!!
Somebody who did what they said they were going to do, when they said they were going to do it and took pride in their work.
Superb job – and surely now we were in the installation phase it should all be straight forward from here on in . . .
Fitter’s Appointment : 21st June
Again, really can’t fault the fitter for his help and professionalism when he came out. He was on time, organised and took real pride in what he was doing . . .
. . . but the whole catalogue of errors continued . . .
Doors were built to the wrong specification and did not match up to the front of the house as was very clearly stated at the point of ordering. It was even written on the work order.
Plus the order only appeared to be half complete – no internal trim or fittings had been included in the work order, leaving the interior of the space in a completely unacceptable state.
(click images to view full size)
The fitter temporarily fitted the doors that had been provided and contacted the office with details of the issues.
We were promised a call back either later that Saturday or Monday morning.
Monday 23rd June
No call back from Dunraven by lunchtime. Several calls were made to them during the afternoon, and despite promises to call back with an update . . . nothing.
At this point, we were regretting not pulling out of this earlier and I sought legal advice about where we stood.
Tuesday 24th June am
Formal call made to Dunraven Windows to give them advice of a reasonable time period to complete their side of the contract to an acceptable standard before I commenced with a claim through the small claims track.
Tuesday 24th June pm – Surveyors Appointment 3
Finally, somebody got back to us and notified us that they would be sending the surveyor back out that afternoon to measure up again and assess what needed to be done – yet more time off work to finish early and rush home, but this really must be the last of it.
Surveyor measured up and took details of what was needed to complete the job internally.
Tuesday 24th June evening
A follow up call was received from Dunraven . . . unfortunately not to apologise or to tell us what was going on. This was a follow up call for customer feedback asking us whether we were satisfied with the work that had been completed !?!?
Apparently, we were on the call list and nobody had updated the records to say that there had been an issue with the work. We gave the short version of what had gone on until now and were promised that he would follow up on the problems for us and remove us from the call list.
Sunday 29th June
Still no call from Dunraven with any news on what’s going on . . . but yet another follow up call to ask whether we were satisfied with the work that had been carried out.
Absolutely unbelievable!!! We have part of Dunraven Windows believing that the work is complete and the other part who are supposed to be dealing with issue, disappearing into a black hole!
At this point, any credibility that Dunraven may have retained had evaporated for me. The only option left was to by-pass the office that we’d been dealing with until now and Email managing director Andrew Brace directly in the hope that somebody would take ownership of the problems and get it sorted out, else we’re proceeding with the legal route.
Monday 30th June
Again, we seemed to be getting somewhere today.
We received a flurry of phonecalls from the office to apologise and from the fitters’ department to arrange to come and fit correctly measured doors on Saturday.
Meanwhile, we also had yet another call from the ‘after sales’ team to ask whether we were happy with the work.
Fitter’s Appointment 2 : Saturday 5th July
Two further calls from the ‘after sales’ team (that’s now 5 in total) but the fitter did arrive with the doors. Yet again though, there has been another breakdown in communication within Dunraven.
Instead of adjusting the measurements by 6 inches from the incorrectly measured doors that were currently fitted, the adjustment of 6 inches had been made off the original correct measurement resulting in the windows now being 6 inches too high.
On a positive note, this time the bar in the windows was the correct width and interior trim was provided, but the whole thing absolutely beggars belief!
(click image to view full size)
The fitter was very apologetic and assured us that he would put an order in for correctly measured doors and arrange for somebody to fit them at 9:30am on Thursday 10th July.
The parting words were to assure us that we would get a phone call back before Thursday to confirm that the doors were ready and everything was going ahead as planned so that we could finalise arrangements for more time off work.
Wednesday 9th July
Well, here we are on Wednesday and still no phone call from Dunraven. More time booked away from work to be home tomorrow and yet again we’re left dangling and trying to get hold of somebody. Another direct Email required before we get a call back to confirm arrangements.
Fitter’s appointment 3 : Thursday 10th July
A big thank you to the fitters for doing a fantastic job with this final installation!!!
I wish I could say that it was party time, but we’re too exhausted with the whole thing to even think about celebrating.
If only this could have been done first time I’d be singing Dunraven’s praises from the rooftops – as it is I’m left feeling worn out, deflated and just relieved that this is over with.
Fantastic quality, beautiful workmanship . . . but such a battle to get to it done.
(and now to start on the interior!)
*Photos of the finished work coming soon.
Dunraven Diaries 