This issue has been rumbling on over the last few weeks. The issue being less than reputable companies being allowed to be FENSA or Certass registered, causing damage to the reputation both of FENSA, the other industry bodies and the industry in general. Well I believe that there is pressure growing and that something needs to be done to address the frankly serious issues that do need to be rectified.
Remember this image I posted in a recent update on here? Well it turns out, via @MissEmma1’s investigative work that they have a Yellow Pages advert which says they are Certass registered.
That’s right, it’s £100 cheaper than the previous advert!
@MissEmma1 did ask @Certass if they knew if these guys were registered to them. As it turns out they are not and they have been wrongly using the Certass logo. Certass have said that they will be getting in contact with the company in question and will be taking action. But, this could quite easily have been a company which was genuinely registered with Certass or any other industry body. There has been disbelief and despair at these sorts of adverts and makes a mockery of those companies who are genuinely trying to go about their business in an honest and decent way. The fact that cowboys can just easily become registered with a self-cert body as a good solid company is wrong.
So what can be done? Not quite sure, but one idea I had would be to create a two tier system. Sort of like a Grade A and Grade B FENSA/Certass registered company. A Grade A company would be classified as such if their company history was unbroken and untarnished for over a certain amount of years, their installers and other members of staff had qualifications in their line of work and so on. A Grade B company would be one without such information to their name.
This could achieve two things. Hopefully, for fear of not wanting to fall into the Grade B category, companies would make a genuine effort to improve all facets of their business, from installation, sales, customer etc, so that they could qualify for the Grade A category. Anything which forces scum out and the rest of the industry to improve would be a good thing.
The second thing would be that something like this would send a clear message to the discerning public as to who are the better of the double glazing companies out there. Again, this would force all those lesser companies to improve their business as they obviously wouldn’t want to be shamed with a Grade B listing and lose out on potential business to other Grade A companies around them.
As I said, this is just an idea. But I really do think that the self-cert bodies should be looking deeper into companies before allowing them to register and MTC’s and new installation qualifications should be a definite consideration. Whatever the case, something needs to be done as I can sense of a bit of a ground swell of frustration from all those good industry companies who feel their self-cert accreditations are being cheapened by the large amount of less than reputable businesses which also have the same badges.
What has to be done is that FENSA and Certass need to grow a pair and get tough! In my previous industry, offsite manufacturing, I was on the board of the UKTFA (UK Timber Frame Association) membership was crucial, as the revenue from members was vital for the association to develop quality standards, training, marketing support and a lobbying presence. Being a member requires achivement of a range of minimum performance standards, for example H&S on building sites was absolutely crucial. During the heyday of the industry, Pre-2008, standards were rigorously policed by a UKAS accredited body and poor performing… Read more »
I think that every reputable and professional company wants to see the end of cowboys and rip-off merchants. However the CPS Schemes eg FENSA and the others can only work within the framework that the Government has given to them. They cannot legally exceed those boundaries. The remit that they have (Up until now) has been solely to check that the windows and doors installed meet Building Control standards. They cannot by law police anything else and neither do they have the resources or the income to do so. This is changing slightly with the introduction of MTC’s (Minimum Technical… Read more »
To be honest fensa and certass are just simply Ripping off double glazing companies any way they can, i’m a window fitter by trade i’m 42 yrs old & been fitting since i was 16. Trained by my dad i always take pride in my work. There is absolutely no way am i taking this so called mtc exam when there is nothing i don’t know about it anyway, just the thought of some young collage boff coming out to check i’m doing my job right. They can stuff that where a monkey stuffs hiss nuts, for the amount of… Read more »
It is so simple .to buy a window you have to be fensa or certass registered .so if you want to buy a window or a door from a manufacturer or trade counter you give them your registration number and that goes on the invoice. If sold with out registration number. Be come a legal offence. Or membership frozen or taken away. I regurly see illegal install.. but when you tell fensa they our not interested.and you wonder why the industry is dieing