Consumer Rights - Warning for UK Residents - Thermal Roof Coating

In a weak moment, I was conned into having work done to the roof of my house by a ruthless company of rougue traders. The work was shoddy, the product ineffective and it took around 9 months to have my roof look resonably acceptable. The company? AQUASHIELD, based in Glasgow, UK but operating under the guise of a national company by using multiple franchises. After/during my experience I wrote and article over at Squidoo to warn others in the UK about this company and the sneaky ways in which they manage to escape any recourse for their unscrupulous methods. They are now operating as PROTEX THERMAL SOLUTIONS and PROTEX ENERGY SOLUTIONS, THERMAHOME, PV SOLAR and FREE ELECTRICITY 4 U.

The company phones me on a weekly basis, even though each time I tell them that I KNOW they are Aquashield and that I want my telephone number remover from their list - it is now bordering on harassment.

A full account and photographs of the terrible experience that I AND many other people have had can be read at: http://www.squidoo.com/AquashieldCowboys

Please do not let these people sucker you or your loved ones into having any work done.

The new company claims on their website "For your total and absolute peace of mind Protex is a reputable company and has over 30 years experience in the roof and wall coatings and UPVC replacement industry." Yet the "Protex Thermal Solutions" company was only formed in February 2011:

And "Protex Energy Solutions" in May 2011:

What they fail to say on the website(s) is how the previous companies owned by the same people were HIGHLY disreputable and how they simply operate multiple franchises in order to get out of fixing their mistakes or refunding customers.

The Postcode Lottery Hook

I just received yet another 'invitiation' to join the People's Postcode Lottery. It's a regional lottery draw based upon your postcode and a 'personal' number, costs £2 per ticket per week and you have to pay by direct debit from your bank. The info they send out encourages you to purchase 3 tickets, that's £6 per week, as the more tickets you have, the bigger the share of the pizefund you will receive if your postcode is selected. The top prize for a street draw is £30,000, and the amount you receive is proportionate to how many tickets are held in that street. If you have one ticket and your neighbour has 2, no-one else in the street holds any tickets, you get £10,000 and your neighbour gets £20,000. Both decent sums of money in the current financial climate, but honestly, £10,000 is not a life-changing sum of money anymore.

With the regular lottery, if you don't play and you don't have numbers, you can't feel bad if you don't win. But with the postcode lottery, they are trying to 'hook' you - if your postcode is drawn and you don't have a ticket, you just have to sit back and feel lousey while your neighbours celebrate. I resent that BIG TIME. I'm currently trying to survive on £90/week and may soon be on even less than that, I don't get any rebates on council tax or rent (I pay a mortgage), I smoke (an addiction that is completely my own fault but none-the-less an addiction) and I cannot afford £6/week for a lottery. Would it be nice to be handed a cheque for £10,000 - oh yes! But I still cannot afford to enter the draw. So to the People's Postcode Lottery - stop ramming the thing down my throat and encouraging me to gamble money that I just don't have!!

Okay, rant over.