Tonight the BBC aired Watchdog which included a 6 minute feature on Everest. Problem is, if you’re on that program, its for the wrong reasons, not the right ones.

The piece featured a woman who spent a whopping £33,000 on a new conservatory! The roof leaked from day one, and still does despite it being up 4 years! A window actually fell out when she opened it! The roof physically wasn’t on correctly and a roof panel was replaced 3 months after the conservatory was put up. Generally a very poor build with poor workmanship with issues still to be rectified. One of the main points here is the ridiculous amount of money they charge! £33k for such a shoddy conservatory is one massive rip off! I’m all for companies making a good profit margin, but that price clearly doesn’t reflect the workmanship or what is a pretty shoddy product.

Did you see the frames? Frankly they look awful and terribly old fashioned! Chunky, dated and certainly NOT worth £33,000! At the end of the feature they feature a man who spent another whopping £23,500 on new windows and doors – again, well over priced – to be told that the windows upstairs weren’t safe for children and should have had restrictors!

Another installation had wring handed handles, wrong colour trims, wonky windows, doors that won’t open. Generally very poor all round.

A feature like this is the last thing Everest needs after the purchase of the company by Better Capital LLP. I wonder what was going through their heads when they found out that this program was going to air tonight? I know if I was them I would probably be thinking slightly uncomfortable thoughts. It surely won’t do their sales any good. Their sales in 2011 weren’t good by all accounts and so this is the last thing they needed.

The other thing to consider is the amount these people pay. £33k for a moderately sized conservatory, £23.5k for a full house of windows and doors. These are extraordinary amounts of money for what is a poor product, badly fitted. If these people had done a bit of shopping around and not been roped in by their poorly chosen “Fit the best, Everest” slogan and what was probably hard sell, they may have been able to avoid the company. Not that I’m blaming them. You pay that sort of money you should expect a very high level of service and quality.

Should pressure be put on Everest to address their pricing policies and their methods of work? For years everyone knows that their product has been over priced. Time for a re-think?

You can watch the feature here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2012/04/everest.html