Customer fury as Dublin windows company shuts with thousands in ...

Dozens of customers of a Dublin-based windows and doors company that went into liquidation late last week have expressed anger and concern that money they paid as recently as two weeks ago will never be recovered.

One couple who contacted The Irish Times said they stood to lose close to €50,000 after provisional liquidators from Grant Thornton were appointed by the High Court to DK Windows & Doors, a company based in Dublin 12 that has been supplying windows and doors to both developers and consumers since 2005.

The company – which boasts on its website of having featured in RTÉ’s Room To Improve series – said in a petition to the High Court, that it had built up €1.5 million of customer deposits but had run out of cash.

It has also emerged that Revenue had an attachment order applied to its accounts which prompted the business to bring in Grant Thornton as provisional liquidators.

The liquidators will now seek to establish if and when existing orders can be fulfilled.

If the company cannot honour its commitment to its customers they become what is known as unsecured creditors and will be at the bottom of the queue when it comes to redress.

As recently as the middle of November the company was promoting Black Friday sales and encouraging consumers to pay substantial deposits for window and door installation promising substantial discounts. Less than a week later it was out of business.

Sonya Keating placed an order in the middle of September and paid a deposit of €15,000 before paying a further €29,750 weeks later. She was given an installation date of the middle of December.

“We are now into the second week of December and I have no installation and no product and down €44,750. ”

David MacMahon is also waiting on windows and doors that he ordered in July. “They have a €9,500 deposit from me. I issued a cancellation notification under the Consumer Rights Act 2022 on Wednesday, November 27th due to multiple missed installation dates, but am not holding out hope of getting my money back.”

Monique Webb ordered windows through DK and paid 50 per cent deposit in August and was told it would take 12-16 weeks. “We got confirmation there was a delay a number of weeks ago and told it would be December 12th for installation. However, after trying to contact them last week with no avail, we contacted an employee who dealt with us before when we ordered a door; the employee told us all staff were let go last week. There is no answer from them.”

Philip Byrne said his parents ordered a new front door in May paying €1,950 deposit and were told they would be waiting about six weeks for installation.

“Weeks passed and the more they inquired about the door fitting the more they were told different reasons whether that it wasn’t six weeks it was eight-ten or that there were delivery problems, no handles or hinges in stock and so on. The last contact would have been in November when they were told the door would be fitted on December 4th and that they must pay the balance the week before,” he said.

“My Dad told them he wouldn’t be paying any more until the door arrived to which he was put on to another staff member who changed the fitting date again. We got word on Saturday November 30th, through another window company, that they had gone out of business.”

Another customer who contacted The Irish Times said they had paid deposits totalling €8,500 on November 14th just two weeks before the business closed its doors and ceased all contact and three weeks before it entered provisional liquidation.

More than a dozen people have made contact with The Irish Times to highlight concerns about deposits and promised installations that have never materialised.

The Irish Times contacted Darragh Kane, the man who set up DK Windows but at the time of writing, he had not responded other than to say he would have to talk first to his solicitor and the liquidator.

Grainne Griffin of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission said that while it was unable at this stage to comment on the specifics of the DK Windows liquidation process, if a company is going through a formal insolvency process, consumers can lodge a claim with the liquidator.

“Unfortunately, consumers are left in a really difficult situation when a trader closes. You have few rights under the law, and as an unsecured creditor you’ll rank behind secured creditors like banks, Revenue and employees when it comes to getting any of your money back.”

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