Virgo Home Improvements - www.virgohomeimprovements.co.uk
Value For Money
Virgo Home Improvements - www.virgohomeimprovements.co.uk
User Reviews
Value For Money
Disgusted, Waste Of Space
New roof very nice, went downhill rapidly from the moment the plasterer came. First day arrived after dinner no plaster etc went off to come the following day. No steps borrowed ours and ruined them - no compensation. Had to use our dust sheets made a total mess on them - no compensation. Was still here after 1.00am in the morning - neighbours were asking what was happening. Total mess with plastering no tape used on joints when I asked about it just said does not need it. Garden left with plaster all over. Had to come back for a terrible state of plastering but still no tape used. A slightly better finish at the time. 15 months later cracks everywhere AND plaster falling off in small chunks. Had to come back and this time used tape saying " I think I know what I am doing now" which did not inspire confidence but a worse mess than the previous two attempts was made. Bare tape showing in a lot of places, lumps dangling no smooth joint to wall and whole room needs redecorating. The repair manager came out and said my comment off "disgusting" was not correct saying "I w0uld not say that". Agreed something had to be done and sent a chap with instructions to put some caulk in the corner. The chap said he could not do that it needed plastering and that was not his trade. 6 days later we have not been contacted by the company which is an atrocious behaviour. Again another dust sheet of ours had to be used and ruined. Still waiting for a reply after sending them a recorded letter as instructed by citizens advice/trading standards. We cannot use our living room properly and the child cannot have her toys out as we never know when it all needs moving. A TOTAL DISGRACE AND WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THEM. I have plenty of photos of the work attempted
As mentioned above we now have another issue with the roof tiles moving which makes me think of cost cutting again as it looks like only one nail was used per tile instead of the two. If two were used then the tiles could not "swing" around.
Not sure I understand this comment? Which building control? When Virgo came to see the interior after 2 more attempts at plastering it was still not good but we did not get a conclusion as yes Virgo did pay for a full redecorating of the room but the issues were only noticeable AFTER painting. It took a few days of upheaval to get decorated and we are fed up of having to remove all furniture outside for days while plastering was done twice then decorating.
We now have another issue with the outside roof tiles moving out of position.
Typical of this company, I am in contact with trading standards and suggest you do same
as the roof been passed by building control if not it could be made to take it down
Value For Money
An Outfit With Questionable Practices......
I used safestyle windows for replacement windows and was pleased with the results, so when I wanted a UVPC door, I contacted them again. sadly I was passed over to Virgo who quoted £120 for a wooden effect door, which I duly ordered. A few days before the installation date, I was contacted to advised they had mis-quoted for a white and the cost of a wooden effect door would now be £1500. I therefore cancelled the order and contacted a local firm who subsequently completed the work to a high standard. They did advise that they had received a number of complaints of other potential Virgo customers, who has also been 'mis-quoted'. It would seem this is a common practice for Virgo in order to secure the work.
To add insult to injury, I still receive cold marketing colds on a regular basis from Virgo trying to quote for further work. I have repeatedly advised that I would not touch their firm due to my past experience and to delete my details from their records. The callers often then become quite aggressive and I just hang up on them. This does not prevent further calls. I wish I knew how to get rid of their nuisance calls once and for all.
Value For Money
Disgusted! The 10 Year Guarantee Wasn't Worth The Paper.
I had this 'outfit' install new soffits and facias at my property in spring. I now wished I'd read some reviews first! The first proper winter storm ripped the phone line down along with a 12" piece of facia at the corner of the bay. The phone line was on the original wooden facias and had been all the time I've lived in the property (25 years plus) I thought the fitters would have at least secured the bracket using a block secured behind the facia or on a roof joist but it was screwed straight on the facia with screws so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what's going to happen when you get ice on the line and a good wind, any DIY guide will tell you that you don't fit a telephone line bracket direct to your facias.
I called Virgo and they said they would come and look at it, which they did taking away the broken facia. The person who came took some pictures and said someone would be in touch. I waited almost a week but no one called, I phoned Virgo and was told that someone would come and do the work the following Friday (today) Two guys arrived expecting to see a scaffold and said that they wouldn't be able to do the work and would call their boss. One of the workmen said that Virgo were "probably trying to do it on the cheap by not putting up scaffold". They put the ladder back in the van and after a phone call they left 15 minutes later after a good look at the telegraph pole (my partner was watching them through the window)
I was at work and my partner received a call from a man saying that the work would be chargeable because the damage to the facia had been caused by a car striking the telegraph pole! Which is laughable.
I called Virgo's customer service dept to ask what was going on, I told the lady what had happened and she said that they where waiting for the report from the fitters which I found strange considering my partner had just had a call from someone saying "that the work would be chargeable because the damage to the facia had been caused by a car striking the telegraph pole" I was so shocked I didn't know what to say although I did say "I can see where this is going"
I wasn't wrong because later after reading a few reviews on here and seeing that some people had had some luck after talking to a guy called PG. So I thought I'd call and ask for him. I wish I hadn't bothered because he said that the neighbours at 17 where witnesses to a car hitting the pole and that they told the fitters. He then suggested that I needed to go through my insurance company. I had already called my insurance who came out the day after the storm and the assessor said it did look like a workmanship issue, I mentioned this to PG and his response was "insurance company's say anything to get out of paying" pot and kettle anyone.
I was shocked and started to get a bit stressed so I asked how much Virgo wanted to repair the damage to which PG said £300 and that they could be there at 1pm the following day. Initially I agreed and said I would get it done but after thinking about it I thought why should I let a company that has just tried get out of sorting shoddy workmanship get more money out of me. I was just leaving work so texted my partner asking her to cancel the appointment for tomorrow. I told her to ask for PG. She called and said that we don't want the work doing and that we would get some quotes to which he said that it would void our 10 year warranty. What is that about?!?, It looked like our warranty wasn't worth the paper it was written on!
The phone line came down in the night we heard it but didn't know it had taken the facia with it till the afternoon when I came home from work. The car hit the telegraph pole during the day (skidding on ice) but the damage to the pole was superficial and only to the steel wire protector. The engineer from BT said that the lines were brought down by a combination of ice on the lines and strong wind, I spoke to them when they came to reinstate 3 of the 4 downed lines. The damage was so superficial that the pole isn't even being replaced so that tells you exactly the extent of the damage to the pole and in any case how could a car hitting a telegraph pole take out 4 phone lines on houses in opposing directions unless the pole had come down.
My experience with Virgo is that once these people have your money you can forget about any customer services.
Incidentally the aforementioned telegraph pole was also struck by a car 2 years prior and it didn't result in anyone suffering damage to their fascias and soffits nor did it take out any phone lines.
I will be leaving this review every where I can so that others get an idea of the sort of company Virgo really are.Update 1 February 2017
I can confirm that a representative from Virgo has been in contact this
afternoon. They phoned my partner on my landline at 14:30 and said they wanted
to talk about the feedback being left on Facebook and online surveys and would
like to come to a compromise. By this time we'd already got a roofer who was
actually making good the damage. We were worried because some bad weather has
been forecast for the next few days and we didn't want water getting in. The
roofer who was actually doing the work when Virgo called. He had told my
partner that he'd never seen anything like it and although he didn't like to
criticise others work he said the standard was rediculously bad. My partner told
the representative about this along with the rest of the things the
roofer had found and because of this we didn't want them near our property, too
which the representative said "so that's it then" my partner responded with "no
you will be hearing from us" in view of what the roofer has found we are now thinking
of taking this further. The roofer also found that the roof of the bay hadn't
been secured after Virgo had removed the fasteners to fit the facia and that the
facia they had used was 9" but they had cut it down to 6" this he couldn't
understand because not only does cutting the facia down weeken it it's not
nessaccery because 6" is readily available.
To say I'm upset and dissapointed is a understatement and if my review helps one
person that will be a good thing.
Thank You! I was looking at getting my soffits and facias done by this company. Not any more. I will avoid them like the plague!!
Known Cold Calling Offender
Just had a 'Cold Call' from this outfit's call centre. Nice young lady on the line, unfortunately these calls are completely against all Telephone Marketing Legislation. In the background, a person identified as 'The Manager' by the young lady, could be heard cursing and swearing at the staff. This company has already been fined £33,000 for cold calling offences, seems to have had no effect. Any outfit needing to use these methods is clearly not to be trusted. Reported to TPS and ICO, which is always recommended. These companies need to understand that if they use cold calling, we will fight back - by any lawful means necessary. They need to be shut down so that decent outfits can fill the market place.
Hi
Thanks for getting back to me, you say you had a giggle about this "manager" but im sorry I don't see the funny side, Managers should not be doing this and as I stated previously all calls are recorded and I would like to listen to the call so I can deal with it personally. All calls to TPS numbers are blocked so I also want to confirm this call was from ourselves and not some bogus company.
You also say people don't want to give their details, im happy to give you mine as I would like to sort this complaint out and confirm it is our company that's made this call.
We have spent thousands to stop this happening so I want to make sure its working, the only way I can say its not is if I listen to this call, so I would be very grateful if you could contact me direct and pass on the details. Again its a free phone number, or alternatively you can go online to our home page and chat live. Either way is absolutely free of charge.
Looking forward to hearing from you
Thanks again
Hi Phil, and thanks for the comeback.
The whole 'Cold Calling Menace' as it has become known causes so much damage to companies using the technique that it is difficult to understand why any responsible company would actually do it. You become associated with the 'Indian Gent' saying he is from 'Microsoft', with the wide range of fraudsters who plague the whole telephone system, with the constant battle that ordinary people have with telephone fraudsters. (refer https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166980 ). I can only recommend that you cease from the practice altogether - you only have to look at your own feedback to see what it is doing to you.
Re: the 'Manager', the young lady I spoke to and I, had a minor giggle over this, ('don't let I worry you - Managers are sometimes like that ! )
We, on the receiving end, are often subject to verbal abuse when we try to pin down exactly who is making the call - mostly they want our details but don't want to give theirs, so the battle is joined ! All cold calls are routinely reported to TPS and ICO when we can obtain useable info.
If you were to spend the same outgoings on responsible advertising, I feel sure you would see the benefit, although your name has already become badly tarnished.
Regards .... D
Hi and thanks for the comeback.
The whole 'Cold Calling Menace' as it has become known causes so much damage to companies using the technique that it is difficult to understand why any responsible company would actually do it. You become associated with the 'Gent' saying he is from 'Microsoft', with the wide range of criminals who plague the whole telephone system, with the constant battle that ordinary people have with telephone. I can only recommend that you cease from the practice altogether - you only have to look at your own feedback to see what it is doing to you.
Re: the 'Manager', the young lady I spoke to and I, had a minor giggle over this, ('don't let I worry you - Managers are sometimes like that ! )
We, on the receiving end, are often subject to verbal abuse when we try to pin down exactly who is making the call - mostly they want our details but don't want to give theirs, so the battle is joined ! All cold calls are routinely reported to TPS and ICO when we can obtain useable info.
If you were to spend the same outgoings on responsible advertising, I feel sure you would see the benefit, although your name has already become badly tarnished.
Regards .... D
Good Afternoon
Thanks very much for the review, unfortunately as I don't have your details I cannot check your number to see if this is the case. As you say we had been previously fined for calls so since then, we have spent thousands on a new system for this to stop happening. So if you are registered with the TPS, our system shouldn't be able to call your number so I would love to hear from you so I can look into this matter further,
Taking aside whether its TPS registered or not, no caller should hear any form of obscenity in the background and no "manager" should be swearing at the staff. As this isn't the case normally and all calls are recorded, I really would like to hear from you so I can listen to the call myself and deal with any person not behaving in the correct manner personally.
Please contact me on our Freephone number.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks
Value For Money
Rude Cold Call Mithering
Regular phone contact pushing to allow them to visit to provide a quote. Can't seem to understand that we don't want a quote. Generally very rude.
Hi,
Thanks for your help on the phone just now, just wanted to confirm the legitimacy of the original review and help you to resolve.
This customer is actually genuine, they contacted me direct and I have done as they requested and we now know this was a genuine review. Please, if your telling the truth what have you to lose? Please do the same and contact me direct.
Id be happy to speak with you.
Many thanks Phil
Hi, Ive still not had any response from you or any other person claiming we call them all the time? I have checked our records and cannot find any body who matches what your saying. If I don't hear anything, I will have no choice but to ask for the review to be removed whilst we take further actions.
All reviews given have come from an IP address, our solicitors will be requesting all of these prior to ourselves taking legal actions against the people leaving false reviews. All our calls are recorded, so anybody leaving a genuine review will have a number we have called. If this is the case, we will apologise and will be more than happy to deal with any genuine complaint people may have.
Many thanks Phil
I genuinely believe you are from another company trying to make us look bad and hiding behind a made up name. If that's not the case, please feel free to ring me direct, I will be more than happy to play all our calls to the number you say we are calling, this way we will both know its not just a false review like the others,
I have been in contact with the site managers on here and are taking legal action against people who write false reviews, the IP addresses will be made available to the police and our solicitors.
If you don't contact us, I guess we both know you're just another false review. If not, I would be more than happy to apologise to you when you phone me direct. Lets see if you do?
Many thanks
We have exactly the same problem with thiws company. I believe all the staff act on philgales instructions. If you call him personally he probabably will remove you from the call list but what about all the other sufferers of these nuisance calls. Do the right thing and report this company to the TPS and ICO. If he is telling the truth he has nothing to fear.
Cold Call Pests!
I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY! Although the doors and windows are of good quality, the cold calling is extremely annoying. Even after asking the customer services/call centre staff to remove us from their database, we are still getting called nearly every day! We are using the Telephone Preferencial Service (TPS) but we are still being phoned by this company even though it is illegal for them to do so. They came and quoted us for some guttering but were too expensive. This company doesn't understand the concept of NO THANK YOU!!! We are sick to death of them and will not recommend them to our worst enemy. They should be ashamed of the way they pressure sell to boot! It is very intimidating for elder people, never mind someone my age. I will NEVER use this company again, even if they themselves paid me a million Pounds to do so.
Virgo did our new porch last year - they did a great job for us and apart from one phone call a week later to check we were happy with work they haven't called us since.
Hi, because of how many details you have gone in to, I believe it may be a genuine review but at the very end you say its the only way we listen to the public?
I have stated on so many "reviews" that I am happy to speak to you, happy to deal with your complaint, happy to deal with any member of staff we have that has spoken to you and not dealt with any of your request correctly. I don't like getting bad reviews every but I don't mind helping them out, if it is a genuine review, please get in contact, let me sort your problem and by all means, keep the review on. Im not asking you to change it, im asking you to let me solve the problem.
What you do with the review is up to you but at least I will have sorted the problem and we both will know it was a genuine review. I wont ever ask somebody to remove a genuine review, if we are doing something wrong, I want to know about it so I can stop it happening in the future. Without your help, I cant and it just looks like another made up review.
Please feel free to contact me and I will genuinely be happy to help.
Many thanks
Phil
Hi,
This is not a false review.
Both my father and I have spoken to the call centre staff who phone us, asking them to remove our phone number from the database. We originally had doors and windows installed by SafeStyle, who did a wonderful job over 6 years ago. Not long after that, we were contacted by Virgo Home Improvements, who were, at the time the sister company to SafeStyle with the odd phone call wanting to know if we required any further jobs doing. This carried on for a period until we were receiving a phone call at least once a month for the last six years. Each time, we asked for our number to be removed from the database as we didn't require any work. This did not materialise and we still kept receiving calls. During one of the most recent phone calls, I was told that Virgo was now under new management and no longer affiliated with SafeStyle. However, I didn't realise that my father was considering getting a quotation from Virgo for some new guttering on the front of the house. When the call centre contacted us a couple of days later (this was in January), my father answered and asked them to come and give us a quotation, which a salesman duly did. He quoted us a price that was too expensive. Unfortunately, my father misheard him (he wears hearing aids) and accepted. It wasn't until the salesman had finalised the paperwork and requested my father's signature that it all went down hill. We couldn't afford the £2,612 price tag for a 5mt length of guttering. My father is a pensioner and I am unemployed. Therefore, he apologised to the salesman for wasting his time and he left without my father signing the contract. This was at the end of January/beginning of February. We did ask them to re-quote when the sales supervisor phoned the next day wanting to know what the problem was, but when they asked us what we would consider to be a viable quote to get our custom, I told them they would need to reduce the quote by £2,000 before we would re-consider. This, as you can imagine, was met with silence. After that, we were phoned nearly every day until Tuesday (8/3/16) this week by call centre staff. They haven't phoned since I wrote this review. I do not begrudge them, as they have a job to do. But, if a customer (potential or otherwise) requests to be removed from the telephone database, they should do so, or make a note not to call that number. I also cannot bar them from contacting me, as the number for the call centre is withheld. I am registered with the Telephone Preference Service and, although we have dealt with Virgo (or SafeStyle), they should check regularly to see if any of the customers they are calling are on that database. As far as I am aware, it is illegal for call centres to contact phone numbers that are registered on the TPS system. There has also been new regulation that call centres are not to withhold their numbers. If you want customers, you will have to change the way your call centre works. Allow staff to remove or bar numbers from being called in future when asked to do so. This will stop unnecessary phone calls to customers who want nothing to do with the company and save Virgo money too in the long run with the phone bill. I am seriously considering reporting Virgo to the Trading Standards, as this may be the only way forward if things do not change.
The call centre for Virgo has not done as we have requested by removing our name and phone number off their database. The amount of phone calls we have received over the past month is diabolical and smacks of intimidation and bullying. Due to this, my father and I would never consider using your company in the future. I will not remove my review either, as I feel this is the only way companies such as yours will listen to the public.
Yours faithfully
Hi thanks for the review,
Im finding this a little suspect, this is the 3rd person to say this in the last week, yet I have offered to resolve the problem for all of you and yet not one person has?
It really does look like they are false reviews from people trying to make us look bad. If that's not the case then I do apologise but I would be more than happy to speak to you and get the matter dealt with.
All our calls are recorded and I would be more than happy to listen to the calls made to you and deal with any person you have asked to stop calling and they have not. If you know we have good quality products, then you must be an existing customer so my number is on the contract. Please give any of the numbers a call and ask for myself, the last thing I want is unhappy customers or potential customers.
Please don't jus t make it look like a false review, please let me help.
Many thanks
Phil
Value For Money
Do Not Use This Company Whatever You Do They Are Appaling
My elderly widowed mother used this company and they are appalling. My mother is suffering from cancer and the stress of dealing with this company has had a serious detrimental effect on her health (confirmed by her doctors).
My mother paid £1759 for 3 windows(yes only 3) only to find that the windows didn't fit properly, the workmanship was poor and was nowhere near an acceptable standard.
The decoration which was of a high standard was left in a state of disrepair both inside and outside the house. The whole appearance of the windows was frankly shoddy and unacceptable. The windows themselves were absolutely filthy and left that way after fitting and one window was not even sealed.
Immediately after the windows were fitted we contacted the company to complain and as a result a representative visited my mother on Monday 3/8/15.
On seeing the state of the windows and quality of workmanship for himself his words were “it’s (expletive deleted) ******* awful!”
The company then sent out an independent inspector who also agreed verbally that the work was not of an acceptable standard. Unfortunately in spite of repeated requests the company refused to let us see his written report..... i wonder why?
Although after 11 weeks the work has been brought up to an allegedly “reasonable” standard it is not up to the standard my mother was expecting . She is not 100% happy with the work but is so drained by her experience dealing with them she no longer has the heart to continue.
As a cancer patient she has numerous medical appointments therefore her "free time" when she can visit friends and family is vital to her well-being. Unfortunately the failure of this company to complete the work to a required standard has meant she has been confined to the house on a least 4 occasions waiting for representatives, tradesmen etc.
This company has left my mother feeling vulnerable and exposed and she has asked whether they take advantage of frail, elderly women who live alone.
All in all It took 11 weeks to complete the work and around 14 weeks to receive the paltry, insulting offer of £100 compensation. The detrimental impact this company has had on my mother's physical and mental well-being is beyond measure DO NOT USE THEM
Finally to add insult to injury in spite of my request that no-one from this company contact my mother directly she received several sales calls.
eventually they repaired the windows but left a hell of a mess. unfortunately due to mum's ill health she couldn't take the matter to court.
What was the outcome of this? Wish I'd read these before signing with this company!!
we certainly will
I will speak to the person you have been dealing with and get what I have said in writing for you as requested.
I'm sorry for the way you feel towards the company but I can assure you it isn't the case at all but I doubt I will be able to change your mind no matter what we do. So like you say, we will have to get a 3rd party to resolve the issue for us both.
Regards
Phil
See you in court. The act was changed this year but the change is not effective retrospectively. I would like a reply in writing from the person I have been corresponding with and I suggest you don't post unless you are aware of all the facts. Finally my mum still isn't satisfied with the quality but does not have the energy to pursue the matter further. You truly are an appalling company and I will continue to post honest reviews on as many sites as I can to inform potential customers about our experience.
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