This is an open letter to the Safestyle board, administrators of SafeGlaze UK Armstrong Watson and any other persons with remaining connections to the SafeGlaze company or management.

The battle between Safestyle and SafeGlaze this year has been one of the industry’s biggest talking points, which has dramatically come to a conclusion over the past several weeks.

We have seen in SafeGlaze what a company with specific drive, funding and the right people can do to a rival. Certainly a market disruptor, attracting staff from their main rivals as well as others, growing in all departments at an astronomical rate. A company is nothing without it’s staff, as we all know, and I think that if I was working there in the early days I would be forgiven in thinking that I was working for a company in the midst of a revolution. How quickly that has now soured for those same staff, and indeed the customers of the company.

Communication required urgently

Over the past week or so I have been inundated with emails from both former staff at SafeGlaze and customers of SafeGlaze. Staff were asking in the run up to the administration announcement if I had heard anything about it, what to do, who to speak to etc. Customers have since been asking me if their windows and doors are going to be installed on their pre-arranged date. If they’re going to get their deposits back. If service engineers are going to come and repair poor work carried out at their home. When they’re going to get their CPS certificates.

There are no numbers to ring. Email addresses to send messages. Thousands of people (I estimate) are currently in the dark with no information available to help them move things forwards.

Some are asking if Safestyle are going to be taking on the orders from SafeGlaze and fulfil them. I haven’t heard that this is the case, but as an outsider looking in there is very little I am able to tell these home owners and ex-staff members.

So, to Safestyle, and to Armstrong Watson taking care of the SafeGlaze administration, I am urging you to reach out to me via this website with a statement I am happy to publish on here to help give people at least some information and guidance as to the current position of the administrators, SafeGlaze and Safestyle UK.

I have seen only fleeting references to this saga on other industry websites, some not mentioning this latest news at all, which staggers me considering the impacts this is having on so many people. This has been a timeline I have tried to cover as closely as possible on DGB, which I guess is the reason why people are choosing to get in touch with this website, which is really only merely reporting on developments. Unfortunately, there is very little tangible information I can give to ex-staff members and home owners.

DGB People

Deposits and future lessons

It is law for installers to include an insurance backed guarantee (IBG) along with their own company warranty. These should also act as a deposit protection scheme. For home owners who are worried about their deposits on contracts that are now going to go unfulfilled, the IBG provider should be able to help with this.

As an industry, we should be taking this as a good opportunity to take a very close look at this whole process and the effects it has on staff and customers. I would love to show you all the emails I have had privately about this. It’s by far the most I have ever had on any single issue I have covered ever. Trust me, this is a huge mess. To have to read people’s frustration’s and anger at what is currently ongoing is saddening. Sad for them, sad for us. Imagine the damage that is currently being done to our sector. A sector that has worked very hard in the past few years to turnaround what was a shoddy reputation in some parts.

This should be a case study to learn from and change how people are dealt with when things like this happen. People like staff members. People like customers. So many people did not know this was coming, so many people are still totally in the dark as to what happens now. There’s been no information or statements from anyone in authority other than the one made by the SafeGlaze management on the Armstrong Watson website. There’s nothing on the SafeGlaze website. Nothing on their social media channels. Do we think this is the right way to handle this?

Again, I urge those taking care of the shutting down of this company to get in touch with me via this website with any new information I can pass on to people who are desperately trying to find out what to do next. You can get me by clicking the Contact page at the top of this site, or you can email me on info@doubleglazingblogger.com

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