My experience with Regent Windows of Cheltenham has not been a positive one although I really wish it had been.
I contacted Smart Head office and asked for a list of suppliers near to me. I did my research before placing my large order of two Eastleigh Smart doors and 10 Smart windows with Regent and can see from the reviews left that they are more than capable of doing a good job. However, from my experience, when things do go wrong Regent's idea of customer service leaves a lot to be desired.
After being made to wait over four and a half months for my Smart doors and windows following my site survey and then only getting an installation date when I threatened to cancel my order, my windows and doors were finally fitted in mid October. This very long delay had a huge impact on my annexe renovation leaving me with no choice but to postpone all my trades and having to store all my cedar cladding in a dry warehouse for over six weeks.
My two Smart doors were to be for my very elderly parent's annexe entrance and the new back door for my house. From the start the thumb-turn locks were very hard to use and my elderly parents and two young children (aged ten and six) could not open them without adult help.
At the same time as the Smart doors and windows, I also had a large sky lantern fitted. This was left with exposed screw heads showing and leaked a week after installation. I was finally issued with my ‘complimentary trim’ three months later on 2nd of January 2020 as part of what Regent called a 'gesture of goodwill’. It still leaks.
Two weeks after being fitted the thumb-turn on my parent's annexe lock snapped and stopped working from the inside, which trapped my parents inside the annexe because the door could only be opened with an external key. After over one week of reporting the fault and being told the lock would be sent back to Smart to ascertain the problem, a new lock arrived and was fitted by Regent to the annexe Smart door.
Unfortunately, less than two weeks later, the lock on my back door snapped with exactly the same fault which I again reported to Regent. I was told that a new one would be ordered. Following this, the replacement lock snapped on the annexe again which meant we now had three locks fail. Regent called me on Friday 20th December 2019 with a date to fit my new lock on 2nd of January 2020. This meant we would have waited five weeks for Regent and Smart to change the second broken lock, which was not an acceptable timeframe in any circumstances. I informed him that I had already changed them because the lack of functionality was both a security risk and fire hazard to my family.
The failure of 3 locks in a short space of time on brand new Smart doors is a quality issue and should have been investigated by both Regent and Smart.
We went back direct to Smart Systems who are now organising a home visit to check the standard of Regent windows work and replace the two locks on our Smart doors.
If you have had a bad experience with Regent Windows in the past then its not to late to contact Smart Systems on 01934 876100 and ask to speak with Steve Fitzpatrick or email erobinson@smartsystems.co.uk
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