Revealed: dodgy tactics of double glazing salespeople

DOUBLE-GLAZING salespeople are bombarding homeowners with misleading claims and hard-sell tactics to get them to sign on the dotted line, a new consumer watchdog report has shown.

An undercover investigation by Which? found some salespeople in the 1.2 billion-a-year industry were making fraudulent claims, including being part of a government scrappage system that doesn't exist, and pressurising people to sign with financial incentives. Among the underhand tactics used were:

• Salespeople making misleading claims, as one Anglian seller did, that: "We've been tested by the government and were chosen for its scrappage scheme."

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• Offering a discount if the undercover researcher signed up immediately.

• Promising significant savings, often half the "original" price – the biggest drop was 16,926 from an Everest salesperson.

• Many salespeople offering a lower price with a "credit deal", but working out how much you would pay was incredibly hard.

One salesperson asked the researcher to sign her name twice to confirm he had told her the relevant information – a technique to warm them up for signing the final deal.

Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith 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 double-glazing business making outlandish claims and using hard-sell tactics."

Anglian Homes said: "All Anglian sales representatives are comprehensively trained, but we do recognise that very occasionally mistakes are made."