2 websites have just sprung up illegally displaying our logo and our content.
Please be aware of a site called npasolutions.com and also a site purporting to be a complaints website for npa. THis site has been set up by someone called jim bibby. He was a franchisee of someone in spain who we provided sales enquries to. Unfortunately, this person seems to think that the spanish company were part of us. Typical, i wish we had never entered the spanish market.
They will eventually be removed, but nevertheless, do not deal with this comapny. They have posted negative info about the person they had a franchise with (fair enough, they are entitled to do that), but they are doing it under the good name of NPA which they cannot do and are breaking the law.
watch this space for more updates…………….
POSTED 8TH MAY, FINALLY THE ABOVE COMPANY CAVED IN TO LEGAL PRESSURE FROM BOTH US AND FROM ANDURA.COM, TO REMOVE THEIR ODIOUS LITTLE SITE, WHICH THEY NOW HAVE DONE.
Please remember if you are designing a website for an exterior wall coating company, please respect people’s copyright and do not copy or take images or text from our website or from Andura’s website.
………..in fact if i see a well designed and original wallcoatings website, or maybe you have just published one yourself, I would be happy to look at it and advise you, for free.
DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES AS THE 12 OTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN BANNED FROM THE NET AND SEEN THEIR WALLCOATING WEBSITE VANISH………………ALL BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO COPY US.
Doesn’t matter who for, and it doesn’t matter who you vote for but please vote today without fail, no matter what views you have. There is far too much voter apathy in this country. People have fought wars and been killed so that you and I have the right to vote so please do so. If you are unsure where your nearest polling station is, contact your local council, they will be able to tell you………….
…..even our manager john from our south coast office is running a polling station today, so dont say NPA doesnt get involved with the local community!
I’m here of course holding the fort although an unusual and rare quiet day today.!
In addition, if you sell on ebay, be aware of the sellers strike starting from today. Please, if you care enough about all the small sellers ebay has kicked in the teeth, please show your support and dont list or buy ANYTHING on ebay.
Well, ebay are slowly screwing everyone over, but why are people still selling there?
THERE IS NOT AN ALTERNATIVE TO EBAY…………………..
PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO AND THEN EMAIL GOOGLE AND ASK THEM FOR AN AUCTION SITE. LETS BLOW EBAY OUT OF THE WATER. SELLERS WILL NOT BE TREATED LIKE DIRT ANYMORE!
..and remember, please DON’T list anything or buy anything on ebay on may 1st. Support the worldwide boycott.
Julia Reid
Sky News reporter
Updated:06:51, Tuesday April 29, 2008 The auction website eBay says it is not worried by the prospect of a global boycott by sellers and thinks their complaints are ‘unfair’.
Hundreds of sellers are expected to stage a strike starting on May 1, over changes they say are crippling their online businesses.
No more negative buyer feedback
From mid-May they will no longer be able to leave negative or neutral feedback for their buyers.
They are also angry about the increase in eBay’s final value fees - the amount paid as a percentage of an item’s final sales price.
Guy Bell from Plymouth used to be a Power Seller on eBay. He had a positive feedback rating of almost 100% based on nearly 4,000 feedback comments.
He says the increasing fees caused his online collectables business to fold.
“They keep raising the fees and we keep giving back to them a massive percentage of what we earn. The sellers do all the hard work and pay the fees but eBay couldn’t care less.
“We have gone from a large online store to a carboot sale scenario. There are lots of buyers that don’t pay. It is a lot of hassle and we need good protection and to be able to give feedback.
“There are lots of alternative auction websites with cheaper fees but they don’t have enough traffic. If there was a viable alternative, loads of sellers would leave eBay like a shot,” he said.
But an eBay spokeswoman told Sky News good sellers have nothing to fear from the changes.
“We have increased the final value fee, but we have also reduced the insertion fee by a third, so it is cheaper and less risky to list an item.
“If the seller was trading enough he would have been getting good discounts. It is often postage and packing costs that are too high and let people down.
“All the changes are unashamedly focused on protecting buyers and great sellers will be rewarded with incentives, discounts, and more buyers.”
“We don’t want to be dismissive of the boycott, but a similar one in February only involved a small number of sellers.. It is a vocal minority.” she said. Some sellers will boycott the site
Disgruntled sellers have set up sites on MySpace and Facebook to unite members who share their concerns.
They are calling for no selling or buying from May 1 and claim that eBay is trying to push out smaller traders.
But other sellers support the changes. Chris Dawson sells full-time on eBay and has a blog about the company.
“Ebay is the only business where you can leave negative feedback for your customers. You can’t do that in a hotel or a shop.
“If the sellers going on strike were serious about their eBay business they wouldn’t be able to afford to boycott.
“There is still protection for sellers. They can report the buyer to eBay and eBay can terminate their ability to buy.
“They have also introduced discounts for business sellers on final value fees.
“To get a 20% reduction on the final value fee you only need to be making £750 a month as long as your customer satisfaction rates are high enough. I don’t think the strike will make any difference,” he said.
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Well, that was what sky published today, although i feel that the person from tamebay was not the person to get the alternative new, tamebay are renowned for positive comments about ebay, but they are high volume, high value sellers so the changes dont affect them, however i have spoken with Chris dawson from tamebay and he let me know that the SKY journalist edited his comments to appear that Chris replied to me but he actually didnt. DONT BELIEVE WHAT YOU READ ON SKY NEWS IS ALL I CAN SAY!. What do you think? Send us your comments below……….
The bbc reports that a major housebuilder in the UK has stopped building; Is this the first of many? The report below is from the bbc, the original article is at the url http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/7366504.stm
New builds stopped as sales fall
Persimmon said cancellation rates had increased in recent weeks
A leading house builder has abandoned plans to build homes on new sites until mortgage conditions improve.
North Yorkshire-based Persimmon said the lack of cheap mortgages and a fall in consumer confidence had resulted in a loss of business.
The firm said housing market activity had “deteriorated” significantly and sales had fallen by 24% from 1 January.
Work on about 30 new sites nationally - including some in the Yorkshire region - has now been postponed.
The company, based in York, has about 500 sites operating nationwide, with about 20 in West Yorkshire and others in the Humber and South Yorkshire areas.
Because of the uncertainties in the global economy and the UK lending environment, it is difficult to predict when the market will improve
Work will continue on these developments but Persimmon said building would not start on future scheduled sites until further notice.
A spokesman on behalf of Persimmon said the decision was unlikely to result in job losses.
In its annual general meeting statement, Persimmon said: “Because of the uncertainties of the global economy and the UK lending environment it is difficult to predict when the market will improve…
“Against the current backdrop we have postponed the commencement of scheduled new sites until the mortgage market improves.”
The housebuilder reported that total sales revenue for 2008 was £1.37bn, compared with about £1.8bn last year.
In its statement, Persimmon said it believed the Government should raise the stamp duty threshold, which starts at £125,000, and cut interest rates to help market conditions.
The firm said it was “difficult” to say when things would improve and more support was needed for first-time buyers.
But it added that the picture would improve “at some stage” given the underlying demand for more housing in the UK.
Filed under “questions to me”. A user writes…………..
Dear Sir,
Very impressed with your paint website.
(thank you,:editor)
Do you work in the London area?
(yes we do:Ed)
I have a 5 bedroom end of terrace house in London. We have awful problems with the damp coming in, especially when it rains, and as such, there is black mould growing on the walls, which my friend tells me is very bad and bad for our health.
(yes that’s true, the spores from mould on internal walls can get into your lungs and is actually worse for you than smoking…)
Can you solve this problem for us? al though the outside is painted brick, it looks awful an hasn’t been done for years. Can you contact me to arrange one of your reps to come around and talk to us and of course take a look at the outside of my house? A price would be good too. I look forward to hearing from you
Oscar.
London
Dear Oscar, thanks for emailing to us. You did not leave a phone number (which is why we have posted this on our blog, for a response) as of course we dont post emails to us on the blog (!), but please go to our main website (the link is below) and use the CONTACT form and we will arrange it for you. and yes i’m sure we can give you a good price to have the outside of your painted!
The following is a dire warning to anyone wishing to purchase an exterior coating as there are some highly dodgy companies out there just waiting to scam you! Here at NPA, we pride ourselves on our quality of service to the customer, and to each other, that’s why we have been a successful organisation since 1986!
If you are looking to get some building work done to your home, especially painting and decorating, make sure you choose a professional, and always, always, get a written contract. Go to our main website to read more article written for YOU, the consumer, to make an informed choice when having home improvements done.
Please be advised of course they are nothing to do with us and never have been. This article originally appeared in the mirror newspaper and is printed for information only. Any comments, forward them to the mirror, not us!!!!
WE think we’ve found out how Wallcare Protective Masonry Coatings can promise to “make exterior maintenance a thing of the past”. By cocking it up and then doing a runner…
For around £5,000 they’ll coat your house in a product “up to 20 times thicker than conventional paints” and then guarantee it for 15 years.
But according to customers they won’t come back to fix problems when the job goes hideously wrong.
Kenneth Whitmore paid £5,200 to have his bungalow in Daventry, Northants coated in 2002 - but they missed a bit.
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He got a letter from Wallcare promising to solve the problem once the weather improved. They never did.
Wallcare at that time was owned by Farnbrough Ltd, with Harvil Shaw and Nigel Shackleton- Burton as company directors.
Two years later, the coating started to fall off and Mr Whitmore complained again.
But Shaw and Shackleton-Burton had quit and the company was dissolved. The 15-year guarantee was now worthless.
Rosalind Varley of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Notts, paid Wallcare £4,000 to coat her house in 2004, but after 15 months was in big trouble. “The coating has completely failed, is letting in damp and is now dropping off and we can’t get them back to do repair work.”
Renville Enterprises Ltd - trading as Wallcare - also offered the 15-year guarantee. The directors were Roy Western and Shackleton-Burton, but they’ve both quit - again - and the firm’s accounts are overdue. Trevor and Denise Beacock, from West Stockwith, Doncaster, paid Wallcare £5,250 for the same treatment in 2003.
This March, the coating started to peel off and Wallcare carried out some emergency repairs.
They promised to finish the job - but six month later that hasn’t happened. It turns out that Wallcare Protective Masonry Coatings is a trading name used by a string of firms all run from the same office in Newcastle-Under-Lyme by Nigel Shackleton-Burton.
In fact, Shackleton-Burton has been a director of 17 different companies since 1992 - and only four of these are still active.
Western has been co-director of nine and Shaw a co-director of two - illegally because he was supposed to be serving a 15-year ban from acting as a company director.
“I thought it was a 10-year ban,” he feebly explained to us. “I resigned immediately when I realised.”
ASTAFFORDSHIRE Trading Standards spokesman told us: “We are very aware of the problem and the individuals are known to us. We are currently actively looking at the options available to us.”
Outside his home in Wrexham, Western blamed Shackleton-Burton as the boss and sole shareholder.
“It pays a wage,” he said. “You’ve seen my house - I live in a council house. Now look at his home.”
Shackleton-Burton blamed staff shortages for the problems - but revealed that Wallcare was going to “stop trading” after running up a £22,000 debt to Yellow Pages.
“We are still putting Wallcare jobs right but not as quickly as we would like to,” he said.
And he told us that he wasn’t that fussed about what we would write because only 10 per cent of his customers were Daily Mirror readers.
Because of the uncertainties in the global economy and the UK lending environment, it is difficult to predict when the market will improve 
