My interest in this is that my father in law was caught by them.
He's 90 years old and his wife is 85.
They'd a crappy old conservatory round the back of the kitchen which they wanted replacing when out of the blue a piece of junk mail arrived from Nationwide Windows and Conservatories advertising just what they were looking for.
They replied to this and a very nice man came round and said he could supply them with everything they wanted, total amount £5224. They said there was an "efficiency subsidy" of £1000.  They added on £150 for skip hire making a total contract value of £4224.  He paid a deposit of £1056 then and there. This was on July 26.
In early September, I don't have the exact date to hand, some plastic frames arrived and they rang him and said they wanted another £3000 paying by bankers order. He got this and a man arrived in a large car and took it, September 13 or thereabouts.
The only contact they had was a phone number,0870 4451670 which they kept trying. sometimes it was number not recognised, sometimes it rang without being answered, sometimes an answerephone saying they'd get back to them, but of course no one ever did.
It was only at this stage I found out what they'd done, and then I found all this on these web forums.
I've told the old man I'm afraid he's been taken for a ride and he admits he's been a fool.
We're trying to find someone else to do the fitting, and also to get the glass made.
The firm that supplied the frames is Polyframe Trade of Gibbet Street, Halifax, HX1 4JR.
tel 01422 330460.
I rang them but the guy that answered the phone didn't seem to be aware of any this.
I said I hoped his firm had been paid and said he hoped so too, but that wasn't his department.
As there seem to be some ex employees of Nationwide reading this thread, I wonder if they could tell us how many people worked there and what they did?
Did the firm do any manufacturing or was all that sort of stuff ordered from other firms, and have they been paid?
How many reps were on the road? What was the turnover?
If they employed several people doing nothing but answer the phones they must have been getting a fair number of orders.

Sheffield_Dick wrote on Oct 13^th, 2007 at 4:51pm:

The elderly are particularly vulnerable and I appreciate that my previous post on here did not take into account that they may well be taken in by someone knocking on their door or phoning them.

Sheffield_Dick wrote on Oct 13^th, 2007 at 4:51pm:


firstly can i say that polyframe have nothing to do with this all they did was supply windows to them and i also know that mr hill owes polyframe a considerable ammount of money not thousands of pounds but tens of thousands yes maybe they can stand that amount but he hasnt only dine that to you but he has done it to them aswell as for fitting your frames i will do the work for you if you would like it done POLYFRAME DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH NATIONWIDE

the fitters probaly threatened to walk because they where getting dicked about by the firm
eniarrol wrote on Oct 12^th, 2007 at 7:51pm:

they threated to walk when new frames were in but no glass.... after i paid i got the glass but no sealant, as they "forgot to bring it"...... a week and a half later i got inside sealed, but they are still unsealed outside. they didnt announce their arrival, i was knocked up at 7.30 one morning, me and my nine year old were still in bed. when i complained, they said do you want it doing or not?? this is the level of service i have received... you decide...

Lifestyle North is the new company that Robin Harrison has set up since he resigned as Director of Nationwide. Appaantley he resigned his directorship 1 hour before they stopped trading on Tuesday 9th.

sherbert wrote on Oct 14^th, 2007 at 6:05pm: