THE SAME COLD STORY - Daily Mirror Article on Coldseal

Written on Oct 28 2004

SHOCKINGLY bad doors and windows outfit Coldseal has gone into liquidation. Again.

After we ran a string of damning verdicts on this shambles last week, we heard that the company was about to fold.

So we asked the firm's spin doctor, Jemima Stiles of public relations outfit Midnight Communications, if this was true. "No, absolutely no," she told us.

The truth is yes, absolutely YES.

This lot's previous incarnation, Coldseal Ltd was liquidated in February with debts of £3.1million. Out of the ashes came Coldseal Group, which has now gone into voluntary liquidation owing £7.7million.

Almost £2.5million is owed to the taxman - that's a lot of school textbooks.

Many of the other creditors are customers who are the victims of shoddy work that they cannot get rectified.

This is hardly surprising since no fewer than 62 people have taken the company to court in the past year to get their money back.

Victims include Neil Poxon of Barnsley, South Yorks, who worked for Coldseal for over seven years and cannot get it to pay the £5,862 that a tribunal ruled he should be awarded for unfair dismissal.

We have heard from so many readers who've been had over by this company that we hardly know where to begin.

There's the couple from Baguley, Manchester, who have had to abandon two bedrooms because the Coldseal windows don't shut.

There's the pensioners from Faringdon, Oxfordshire, who ordered frosted glass for their bathroom door and got clear glass, which they can't get changed.

We could cite numerous other nightmares, but we'll leave the final verdict to a couple from Cheltenham, Gloucs, who say: "I have never known such an appalling, incompetent company."

What does the company say?

According to its website, its "dedication to long-term customer care has been recognised by independent bodies" - though it doesn't say who - and the company is one of the "biggest and most trusted" in its field.

Laugh? Cry? It's a difficult one. As for the liquidation, a spokeswoman later told us that customers would not be affected and the liquidation was "nothing more than a name change".

The new name is Coldseal Windows and Doors Ltd.

The old dire service, judging by our postbag, remains the same.

Source Daily Mirror