Hi there (sorry for the long post ), just had my whole house fitted with new double glazing units. All Pilkington K glass with a mix of 6.3mm and 8.3mm laminated glass which I picked for sound insulation as I live on 2 busy roads!

The local company I got to do the job did not make the glazed units and I have loads of marks/scratches on the glass.I went round and marked all the defects I could see as they suggested. They came out today with a rep from the glass supplier and agreed to replace about 2/3 of the units right away (there are about 72 units in total). However we had some disagreement about what should be acceptable and practical manufacturing defects. Most of my complaints center round what I would call "squeegie" or "roller" marks which I gather is to do with their glass washing machine. There are other marks which look like greasy smudges often in lines or arcs and a fair number of scratches too.

The marks are extremely obvious in the direct sun but much less so in the shade and the supplier kept harping on about how the GGF test for acceptable defects was only in daylight and not sunlight. Surely the rules can't be so lax as to allow these sort of marks just because they show up more in sunlight? To me it looks like the units have been made without proper care to cleaning and the "washing" machine should not leave noticable vertical bands should it?? Hope to manage to attach a couple of images if it works, though it's not easy to photograph the marks!

I haven't paid them anything yet and feel like I want to ask them to use a different glass supplier as the one they have now has been so bad! Obviously this isn't possible and I need to give them a second chance but the rep kept saying that he couldn't guarantee the replacements would be any better, which really worries me.
I really need to get back to them tomorrow as I have currently reluctantly agreed to put up with a number of the faults as "acceptable imperfections"
Any help/suggestions much appreciated
thanks,
Nigel

Attached Images

	Window-faults1.jpg (85.1 KB, 5 views)
	Window-faults3.jpg (43.7 KB, 4 views)
	Window faults2rgb.jpg (62.8 KB, 4 views)

....anybody got an opinion??

Assuming your supplier is a GGF member, maybe get in touch with the GGF, and see what they reckon? They have a customer charter which their members are required to follow, and they offer an arbitration service for dissatisfied customers of their members.
It may be that just mentioning to your supplier that you're dissatisfied and intend to take the matter up with the GGF will encourage them to get a little more co-operative.

You might also want to do some looking into the consumer protection legislation, been a while since I looked at it, but I seem to recall there's some stuff in there about products having to live up to reasonable expectations.

__________________
Energy Saving Trust ~ BBC Homes ~ Looking at double glazing

Thanks for your help Paul, I have not managed to find out if the actual glass manufacturer is a GGF member and because I'm mainly dealing with my supplier/installer I don't know if it's really my remit to sort of bypass them. I contacted Certass who the supplier are registered with but they have not bothered to reply!
I was hoping that someone here might be able to say if these sort of marks are generally thought of as acceptable or normal - I've been given a few days to let the company know if I'm still not happy with any of the other units but it seems that it's going to be a bit of a dispute about this looking in the sunshine business

I definitely wouldn't say this is acceptable and would certainly bypass the fitters and go direct to the source, if you are not happy with the smudges then don't take them - you are the customer and they should do whatever they can to satisfy you!

Be sure to name and shame them!

__________________
Black and Decker - Power Tools & Garden Tools

If you had a random problem in one or two windows I think that might be acceptable, but you have a a number of similar issues. I dont think it is reasonable to see cleaning/ a number of smudge marks on windows that will be there for years and cant be cleaned by you; the point of cleaning is to remove the marks that the manufacturer cant avoid; streaks are avoidable, if they werent there would be lots of posts along the same theme. I think IMO under the Sale of Goods Act you would have a case that they werent made with reasonable care irrepective of any industry standard.