We had a very poor experience with LDC. My one star goes to the fitters, surveyor and painters who were good and easy to deal with, and for the door itself.
The administrative and communications side of the company is shambolic. In our original consultation we were told the work would be done in 2 consecutive days – door/frame installation and painting. In reality it took 129 days from the day of the original installation, to the final paint job. We factored the speed of a matter of days in to our decision to go with LDC, as we have a baby, and wanted minimal disruption with noise and paint fumes. In reality we had fitters in twice, and painters in 4 times.
Save your money and mental health, and choose a company that cares about its customers, and can provide more than a sub-standard level of customer service.
Long version of our experience:
To go back to the original installation day, we were given no confirmation of arrival time on day of fitting. Not the best start. We were told after the fitting that the decorators would be in touch swiftly, they weren’t and I had to chase up myself. 6 days later, they arrived to do the painting, without telling us they were coming, and at an inconvenient time. They said they’d come back the following day. They didn’t, I chased up with the operations manager & the comms team, multiple times before I got any clarity. After making a complaint I was promised that the ops manager would call me to discuss the final balance – never happened.
Our painter came 3 weeks after the original fitting date. Our painter was unable to paint over a blemish on our door, and after he kindly visited 3 times to paint our door, the blemish was still there. Not the type of quality and finish one expects when paying over £3k for a door! We got an email demanding final payment, despite the paint job not having been completed to a satisfactory level - I replied to say the job was unfinished and to complain AGAIN about the poor communication. I received no reply.
After more chasing, our surveyor came to help smooth things over. He assessed the door, recommending the door be replaced. It was replaced a few weeks later. 1 week later we had another demand for payment from the finance team. As far we were concerned, the job isn’t complete until it is painted properly - which we had been assured it would be before installation... it wasn’t and this second door needed further painting.
Our surveyor worked as a go-between to contact the office on our behalf to arrange the paintwork. (Presumably because nobody in the comms team was competent enough to resolve our issues). After 15 days we heard nothing. I contacted our surveyor again, and again he chased the planning department. We received a call 2 further days later booking us in for a date chosen by LDC, that wasn’t discussed with us and one that was inconvenient for us. Eventually we arranged a date, 5 weeks after the second door had been installed.
Finally the door was completed, over 6 months since we first met with the salesman. We were very disappointed such a simple job took so long and took up so much time and energy to chase up. The communication from head office was woeful throughout, and sometimes non-existent. LDC reduced our final amount owed, which while we paid, we felt was inadequate. True to form, after I detailed our full experience to LDC, they took over a week to reply (after I had chased them). A small apology via email was all we got for 6 months of our time wasted and a dire customer experience. Not once did we get a phone call to apologise, or an indication that they will review their working practices. An utterly gutless and abysmal company from a comms point of view – avoid them at all costs.
Laughably, while writing this review, LDC accidentally emailed us an invoice meant for another customer, who was also getting a reduction on their bill! Not great from a GDPR perspective. The level of incompetence at this company knows no boundaries.