It has been announced that industry review site doubleglazingcompanies.com is to close by the end of the year. This is the statement that has been released by Alan Burgess, founder of the site:

It is with much regret that virtually 9 years to the day, I must announce that I have decided to close doubleglazingcompanies.com Ltd.

Sadly, the review website has not performed as I hoped and in spite of a considerable investment on my part and a few loyal installers support, it was never profitable. There have not been any drawings or dividends, and without any employees, every last penny has been reinvested into the business to improve the website.

The site will stay live until the end of December 2019 when it will close.

After this date, it will not be possible to obtain any information; the site will be removed from the internet.

The site was envisaged as a promotion site for best practice, to explain some of the terminology to consumers so they could make better judgements about the conflicting claims of the industry. Whilst I am delighted it never accepted any form of advertising, it rejected offers to PPC, lead generation and sponsorship, ultimately there were insufficient installers willing to pay to promote their business.

On behalf of everyone involved I’d like to thank you, especially users of doubleglazingcompnaies.com, who believed in site, those who trusted the independence of the process and those who supported the project financially.

Sadly the directors could not see the business becoming profitable.

Independent sites needed

I am sad to see this go. I have written in the past on DGB about sites like Google, Tripadvisor and others where it is all too easy to leave blatantly false reviews, often bad ones, doing hard and damage to the company. DGC was different, in that it was independent and reviews were verified. It was a platform dedicated to UK fenestration, so could have been something to grow and help filter out the bogus reviews on others sites online.

As with other ventures, including this site, it needed money to make it viable and grow. As it was, it seems only a few were prepared to pay to help sustain the platform. We should look at this as a missed opportunity. A chance to build something not only for ourselves but to be able to use for home owners to allow them to make a more informed, accurate decision.

Luckily, we live in an age where technology is accesible, and if there is a need for such an independent site like DGC, it can be created once again.

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