BEWARE.Signature windows gone into Liquidation. Any lost money to theses con artists? HELP!!!

Sorry to hear this. I read of a customer contacted for the balance of 15k order and they found out the day after payment. Sickening

Any chance you paid the deposit with a credit card? You might be able to do a charge back.

Yes, me. I've paid in full for our windows. I got a call from one of their installation companies yesterday (sub contracted) saying they could give us a quote to install our windows if we could get them from the factory. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Then he explained that Signature had gone into liquidation. It was a bit of a shock, to say the least.

I called Signature but they're not answering, so I emailed them and got this message:

Signature Window & Doors have ceased trading and the appointed liquidator will contact all creditors to notify them of the up coming creditors meeting.

For any clients who are due to receive product in the near future a representative will be in contact to discuss this with you.

If you have any Service/Warranty issues with regards to your product please contact the following :

I will post here when I hear anything. It's a nightmare.

Do you know if your windows have been made yet? Or have you just paid a deposit?

Details here for the Receiver if it is Alan Fitzpatrick ?? (may be out of date if he has moved in recent years) A Liquidator is unlikely to have been appointed yet.

Update... Signature never handed over our final payment to Megrame. I paid them in September!!!The windows and doors are in their factory and they want €11K final balance before they will ship them. Then we have to pay for delivery and installation, on top of the €35K we've already paid???? I feel sick.

Administor is definitley Alan Fitzpatrick. He is taking over tomorrow and is supposed to be contacting customers.

You should hold your head here and be really strong with Megrame. Consider engaging a solicitor if you’re not making progress with them. Presently they have your windows but considering it’s a bespoke order they’re not worth very much to anyone except you. If the total fitted price to you by Signature was €46k, then I doubt Megrame were ever getting more than €40K from Signature in the first place. Focus on getting your order delivered from Megrame even if you have to pay them some of the balance, maybe €5K incl shipping ?? Fitting won’t be a big cost and presently there’s a few ex-signature fitters out there that would be glad of some cash work I’d say. You may eventually get something back from the receiver but don’t hold your breath.

Thanks. That makes sense. I'll let you know the receiver details, no problem.

What's annoying me the most is that Signature had my money for nearly 3 months and didn't send the final balance to Megrame. I can't see how that's any different to stealing, when they must have known that the business was in trouble.

I have a contract that says the windows are my property once the final balance is paid. I think I might get some legal advice....

Yes of course they are. It's a mess for everyone involved.

This suggestion is the basis that Megrame have got their % of the €35K paid earlier and that made to measure product isn’t worth much now unless you’ve got opes to suit.

For what its worth, I had a similar situation when building in 2016, not quite the same but the basics resembled your situation. I kept the fight going as I stood to loose €17k, I eventually did get my windows and rescued the €17k, however it was to date one of the biggest mistakes ive made in my life, 9 months of a stall on site, all trades which were lined up took other work and I have to get alternative contractors causing further delays, between rising construction costs and extra rent I reckon it cost me an extra €40k + at the time. It put a massive sour taste on the build process, hated the house for the stress it caused for a long time afterwards and it also eventually contributed to my marriage breakdown (although that would have prob happened anyway)

If I had my time over I would have suffered the €17k and just moved on with my life, much less stress. My advice to you is to ensure delivery of the windows as quick as possible, ensure they cant just walk with the 11k and pay it and keep the build going, believe me the stress is not worth it and you'll be lucky to reclaim 10% from the receiver

I think this would make a good story for a newspaper circulating in Wicklow?

Anyone been contacted by the liquidator yet?

No contact yet but I expect customers with current outstanding orders will be prioritised. I’ll try ringing him again straight after Christmas, didn’t get a chance to ring again today.

Thanks for the update, if you have the appropriate contact details to hand, can you send on via pm please ? Thanks

As I posted previously, I’ve been lucky and got my Megrame order delivered and partly fitted by Signature before they closed. My understanding is that the 10 year warranty is with Megrame but obviously they currently don’t have an agent in Ireland which probably means they don’t currently have someone to carry out warranty repairs. I have been in correspondence via email with Megrame in relation to 2 faults to be rectified on my order. They haven’t directly refused to resolve the issues but have already come back with the usual rubbish that it may be an installation issue, they were fine when they left the factory etc. I’m probably going to struggle with them but I’ll keep trying.

Megrame are obviously playing tough to say they won’t cut a deal but made to measure windows are pretty worthless to anyone except the original customer. MJ for example often sell windows & doors from cancelled orders for about half price from their factory in Ballydesmond. This is your only bargaining chip. If Megrame are not willing to deal on the rest of your order, I’d suggest you engage a good solicitor to get a delivery of whatever % of your order that Megrame have been paid for. Organise your own installer to fit these and threaten to order the balance of your windows from a new supplier. This route would be a pain but it’s not your fault that Megrame have been caught for money by Signature. I suspect this was brewing for a while as my order from Megrame via Signature took more than 20 weeks to arrive rather than the 12-14 quoted when my order was placed in May. I got lots of excuses for the delay but in hindsight now, it was probably cashflow related.

Megrame are probably owed a lot of money by Signature but they’re a huge international outfit. They need to write off the bad debt, find another Irish agent and move on if they want to continue selling product into Ireland.

I got an automated email from Signature saying that 'the appointed liquidator' will be in touch.

I contacted CRO to tell them that Signature hadn't registered their new status with them and they told me that they have 21 days to inform them....not sure if that's 21 working days or calendar days.

Liquidation works on a format. They will not rush things. It is unlikely that there will be anything left for unsecured creditors.

If you paid by card you can do a chargeback.

Seems these are the same crew as Marvin Windows who no longer trade here

I am trying to contact the liquidator because I got an email saying the liquidator would contact me and they haven't.

I've had no contact from the company at all... just various stories that I definitely won't get money back, or I might get money back.

Point is, I've had no official communication from anyone representing the company and am very nervous about doing a deal with the manufacturers until I know where I stand with Signature.

Not sure if I belive that. I'd guess that guy is a bit more senior than he's making out.

This stinks of reckless trading so the likelihood is that the likes of Revenue and their banks are owed a lot of money too so it's unlikely there will be much left for unsecured creditors.

If anyone wants the director details send me a PM.

They contacted me on 4th January, but they are looking for money, so I guess I'm higher up on their list as I think your issues are with their warranty.

No progress with the liquidators... zero contact from anyone :(

IIf MJ sell cancelled windows for 50% of the full value. Then that’s likely the value they are to Megrame too and not worthless to others as people keep claiming.

In which case, they’d be better off selling them than collect an outstanding 30%. Very hard to make a case for them to had them over and increase their losses.

Anyone paid in full should obviously receive their order.

Paid in full in that instance would only include orders where Signature have paid Megrame their full share. ie they shouldn’t be able to offset against other signature orders that are in debt.

Its really shįtty that Signiture withheld payments from Megrame. But it’s a hard to expect Megrame to take the additional hit instead of the customer.