Glazing ruse smashed
It’s been a bad few days for the double glazing industry.
Zenith Staybrite Ltd has been ordered to pay fines and costs of £330,000 after being prosecuted by Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards.
The company admitted breaching consumer protection regulations with ploys such as quoting an initial inflated price before applying discounts to give the impression of a bargain.
This is the firm that was caught out last October after one of its sales reps, Mark Gibson, tried to flog £6,000 doors to 81-year-old dementia sufferer Heather Collins, in Colchester, Essex, who only needed a £50 handle to fix her old door.
Zenith insists it “continues to adhere to industry-leading customer service practices”.
In a separate case, Safestyle UK was hauled over the coals for a series of 60% discount deals.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled them misleading because the cut prices were available almost as often as the full price. “We did not consider that the intervening periods between the promotions were sufficient in length to establish that the higher prices of the products were the usual prices,” it stated.