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Double Glazing Blogger: April 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Site Transition Update

According to Google, the transition of http://www.doubleglazingblogger.blogspot.com/ to http://www.doubleglazingblogger.com/ could take 12 hours, or three days. So, the site might be up and running by the time you wake up on Friday, or might stutter into life my Monday morning. What I'm anticipating is the site to appear, then things like comments to gradually find their way to the site a bit later on, but new comments should be able to be published no problem.

Hopefully, by getting my own domain, the site can attract more traffic and perform better in SEO.

For now you will be only to see the front page of the current .blogspot site. If I have any further updates I'll post them here.

UPDATE: comments are back, but you still won't be able to view them, sorry! Healthy debate will be back up and running as soon as possible!

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New Site Address

My new site is: http://www.doubleglazingblogger.com/ I hope I've set it up right!

Google told me that it can take up to 3 days maximum for the site to be available all over the interent. So if you can't get on to the .com site, keep using the .blogspot site for now.

Also, my comments have disappeared! Can someone tell me if this is normal!?! If I can't get them back I'm going to need you all to start commenting big time again!

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WordPress or Google?

This blog is soon to grow up and become it's own website. Something which perhaps should have been done a while ago, but there we go, time makes fools of us all.

But I just wanted to ask a quick question and I'd like a bit of feedback. Both WordPress and Google allow you to create your own domain.But I'm having problems with WordPress as the username I want apparently is already used. I think I tried to create this blog on WordPress so thats my fault! Should I go through Google? Or should I persevere through WordPress? If I go through Google then the address will end in .com. If I go through WordPress I can use .co.uk.

Either way this is going to be sorted before the end of the weekend!

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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Visitor Numbers All Over The Place!

Looking back at my blog, it has become obvious that there aren't many pictures on here. So I got to thinking, what picture/graphic can I put on here which could be slightly relevant? So here we go:





This graph is timed from 1st August, roughly when I was first discovered by RCG, up to today. What is visible is that my visitor numbers have risen steadily as a trend. And also that more people visit this site at the beginning of the week rather than at the end.

Hopefully this trend will continue to rise. Maybe I'll even get to the dizzy heights RCG did!

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This Is Why The Industry Is A Joke!

I've just read an e-mail sent by FENSA setting out information about the coming changes to Part L. On the last page of that e-mail it goes on to say: "It is generally anticipated the revisions will require at least a BFRC 'C' energy rated window and probably an equally demanding alternative method to demonstrate compliance".

So there we go. We can just about guarantee that we are either going to have to register and pay for certification, or go back to showing U-values to show that everything is above board and legal. But, because the A-G energy rated scale is recognisable to the general public, the BFRC can almost guarantee that nearly everyone will sign up to their method of compliance and make an absolute (and devious) fortune.

But it goes on. FENSA are nicely putting on a whole host of seminars to aid businesses into this transition, ready for 1st October. But you have to pay £25 + VAT per delegate. What a rip off! So they want us to pay hundreds of pounds for a certificate that hasn't even been proven to be accurate yet, then pay through the nose to be told roughly what we already know already! Frankly I think some piss taking is going on round about now. With the money the BFRC are going to make, it would have been nice to have a few free seminars, or at least some shiny new booklets explaining everything to us.

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

How Much Money Can Energy Rated Windows Actually Save You?

Every month, more and more marketing materials gets released telling us how much money our customers can save by putting in energy efficient windows. The problem is, every time we get this new material, the numbers are all different!

I've had materials telling me customers can save £180, £200, £461, £600 or even £800 a year on energy bills! Obviously from a salesmans angle, thet want to tell the customer how much they could save per year, it acts as a big selling advantage. But the credibility of the information starts to suffer when other salesmen tells the same customer different figures.

This problem contributes to the overall discussion going on at the moment about the reliability of how scientifically accurate the methods were when testing energy rated windows. What the industry needs is a reliable figure, give or take £10 or £20, to be able to say to the customer 'this is how much you could actually save'. Until then, customers are going to be a bit sceptical.

What I would like to know is who managed to work out that one household could save £800 a year on energy bills!

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Monday, April 26, 2010

Whistle Blowing

The subject of whistle blowing on bad double glazing companies is a tough one. On one hand, lots of us feel that it is only right to name and shame the companies which tarnish the reputation of our industry with their bad practices and poor customer service. On the other, if your company appeared on the site, then you would do all you can to make sure your name is removed, possibly going to court to do so. But is this right?

In my eyes, if your company has performed badly, and mistreated customers terribly, then you only get what's coming to you. But because of the society we live in today, the person who whistle blew on that company is the one that stands to receive the most punishment! How can this be? From the business point of view, they don't want their name described badly as it will harm their business, but I don't think that argument stands if they have acted terribly towards the customer. They have to accept whats coming to them. For those in the industry, we all know of a few cases where certain members of the public are actively speaking out against companies where they have been treated badly. But not one of us can report on it, for fear of getting stuck in the legal proceed ins ourselves.

How is it that if a company has been down right out of order, they have the most protection and we, Joe public, can't say a single thing out of fear of court action?

Ideally, what I'd like to set up is an anonymous site where people can leave messages and name companies, explaining how they have been treated. However, I know this isn't possible. Surely some law can be put forward to stop giving the cowboys of this industry protection?

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New Blog: www.dgframeology.blogspot.com

I'm following a great new blog: http://www.dgframeology.blogspot.com

His topics are relevant, and he's started his blog to try and raise the profile and image of the double glazing industry as a whole. I applaud the sentiment, and if every blogger put self gain second, and the industry first, then perhaps this could be an achievable aim.

I particularly his post about explaining why PVC-u is the correct term, not uPVC!

Hope you will all follow him.

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Friday, April 23, 2010

Could The iPad Be Used For Demos?

I've been looking into Apple's new device, the iPad, and I want one terribly! However, for about £500, I'm going to need to use it a lot to get my money's worth. So I was wondering how I could use it for work purposes.

Firstly, we are going to start using a new IT package which will allow us to price on laptops, or in this case an iPad. But there will be also online updates, again which the iPad can take advantage of. And because the iPad is an impressively quick device, pricing should take no time at all.

Then there is the demo itself. I could show DVD's, but also pictures. I've looked into the iPad's picture abilities and they are fantastic. Swapping pictures is immediate and can be done with just a swich on the screen. And the resolution is very high quality, so the pictures we show will be crystal clear.

We use our own folders for demonstrations, going through with them page by page. I'm wondering how easy it would be to let them hold the device and flick through the same pages but on the crystal clear screen. Obviously I couldn't leave it with them, but would it be a more modern way of doing a demo, or just over complicating the issue with the need of wanting a new device for the sake of it?

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Internet Can Be A Dangerous Thing

As the interent has grown, so has the whistle blowing culture. The internet has been an avenue for people who have had bad experiences with companies to vent their fury and frustrations. The obvious problem for companies is that everyone in the world can read all about that person's horror stories.

The main victims of people broadcasting their problems have been the nationals, Anglian, Everest and Safestyle. Usually, whenever there has been a customer actively voicing their concerns about a particular company, legal action follows. Then whatever is said about the company or the problem in particular, any comments on forum websites have to be removed. Now to me this looks like the company in question has something to hide.

Companies have to question themselves when these cases arrive and ask: "how did we get to this point?" At some point there must have been a breakdown in quality customer services, otherwise the consumer wouldn't feel the need to go on the web and advertise their upset. Even if the customer is in the wrong, the company has to do their best to make sure the problem has an amicable conclusion, therefore cutting out the risk of the consumer bad mouthing the company.

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

How Many Of You Out There Are Still Selling 'E' Rated Windows?

There are still many in the industry that report that only a quarter, perhaps a third maximum, of all companies are actually actively promoting and selling energy rated windows. We took the decision a while back to sell only 'A' rated windows as standard, which was made easier by our manufacturers dropping the energy rated surcharge. And since then we have had our competitors producing all sorts of lies and stories to get around the excuse that they simply don't sell energy efficient windows.

So a bit of honesty if you will please. How many of you out there still only sell windows that fall in the minimum 'E' rating catagory? If you are, then why? There is still a lot of questions being asked of the WER system, so explain if it is that. Or are there manufacturing/selling issues?

I want to try and get some idea as to why so much of the industry hasn't lept on such an easy selling tool. In October the bar is being raised to 'C', it's obvious that there is much work to be done if we are to get our house in order.

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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Flight Ban Highlights Problem

The flight ban has highlighted a subject which I have written about in previous posts.

In the future, we will have to consider a time where we don't have Kerosene, a fossil fuel which aircraft require to fly. We rely so much on flight to help with the day to day running of the world, what happens when flying doesn't become an option?

I'm not saying the world would shut down, but things will take much longer to function. Take the business world for example. The men in suits wouldn't just be able to hop on a flight to attend a business meeting. Car, train or ferry travel would be the only forms of realistic transport.

The enterntainment world is another industry where progress would be a lot slower. Acts on tour who rely on flying to make sure they pack in as many dates as possible would struggle to keep large amount of tour dates they want to complete.

You see where I'm going with this. Every industry would suffer a slow-down, not a complete stop, but enough of a slow-down to create a negative effect. It's situations like this where you realise how much the word relies on air travel, and in turn fossil fuels. Oil is soon to run out, and if this hasn't been a big advert for extra investment in renewable energies then I don't know what would be.

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RCG Put On Ice

As a fellow blogger in the same industry I felt obliged to comment on RCG's latest, and possibly last post.

For those who are unaware, myself and RCG work for rival companies in the Wakefield area and have had a 'healthy' rivalry. I stumbled on his blog at the beginning of 2009 and found it an interesting read. The industry didn't really have an outlet for opinion and this was the first proper hub for it. But what pushed me to start this blog was not for rivalry purposes, but because it started the spark in me to do something similar. I'm quite an opinionated person, so upon finding RCG I went ahead and started my own. It took me a while to get off the ground in terms of views and comments but they steadily grew as time went by, thanks to a helpful mention on the RCG blog, so a thanks has to be made there.

Hearing that RCG is to be put on ice is a shame. What was written was always worth reading, even if it wasn't always on topic. His posts however grew ever more conservative in their wording, this is probably due to the numerous threats of legal action he has already mentioned. I can say now that I know exactly how that feels! I know myself that the things I write may ruffle a few feathers from time to time, but despite any threats that may arise, I will continue to write in a free and flowing way, and will always try to bring any bits of gossip to readers (while trying to keep on the legal side of things!). RCG tends to have a wider range of contacts than me so gossipy bits might be a bit few and far between.

Hopefully a few of RCG's readers will find their way over to this blog. I have no plans to stop writing, and will only stop if people stop reading and leaving comments. So best of luck RCG.

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Monday, April 19, 2010

To Suit Or Not To Suit?

The double glazing industry has long had different approaches as to how sales reps should dress.

Some, like ourselves still wear suits. We get a lot of positive comments about the way we dress when we go into a customers house, especially the older generation. Comments like: "it's so nice to see young men dressed so smart", are ones we get quite regularly. I think customers are quite impressed when someone has made the effort to create a good impression by wearing a suit.

Alternatively, others prefer the more casual look. Jeans or trousers, with a company shirt and no tie. Again quite smart, just not as smart as a full suit. However, customers probably feel that they are dealing with a relaxed company, one thats not too pressuring. This option is the easiest way to distinguish one company from another. Sort of like a uniform.

The third option is the typical labourer. Jeans, scrappy t-shirt. This is the image the double glazing industry wants to get rid of. It smacks of 'cowboy'. I've always failed to understand how people dressed so poorly can win orders. But then, do we really want to stop that image? It makes those of us who choose to make the effort look even more professional!

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Icelandic Volcano Starts To Cripple

Could all this disruption to European flights start to have an impact on the overall economy?

Freight isn't being delivered and the shortage in fruit and veg from overseas is starting to become apparent.

Airline companies and travel agents are losing millions of pounds a day because of the flight restrictions.

Businessmen and women aren't getting to their destinations and materials used in the construction and manufacturing industry are likely to be affected.

When something on the scale of what is happening now occurs, you then realise how much Europe and the rest of the world relies on the airline industry to keep things functioning.

Hopefully this won't last long enough to have an effect on the double glazing industry!

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Friday, April 16, 2010

Volcanic Ash Proof Windows!

The double glazing industry is always looking for ways to boost sales, so how about:

"VOLCANIC ASH PROOF WINDOWS! PROTECT YOUR HOME FROM THE RAVAGES OF THE EYJAFJALLAJOEKULL VOLCANO. ASH PROOF. PYROCLASTIC FLOW PROOF. LAVA PROOF. THE ULTIMATE IN PROTECTION FROM MOTHER NATURE!"

What do you think? Just rolls of the tongue doesn't it!

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Loads Of New Things To Report!

The title is a bit deceiving. I attended on Thursday a major product and marketing launch down at The Belfry in Birmingham. Without wanting to say what these new products and marketing tools are (I don't want to give information away to my competitors straight away!), what I can definately say is that it is going to put us back at the forefront in the area where we operate. About 95% of everything we sell/use has been either updated radically or has been completely re-designed, with plenty of I.T. support on top of that (thanks to Jon Twigge!)

The one big thing I was reminded off today was that if you have a good enough product, backed up by the right support from your manufacturer, you can still sell with a healthy profit margin. This is something we think our competitors may have forgotten as they all seem to be selling their jobs for nothing! Some it seems have pressed the panic button and slahsed their prices hoping it's going to get them the business. And yes it might, but all that profit that's been taken off will only compound the problems of paying the bills at the end of the month. What this presentation reminded me, and probably all of us in that room is that if we remain positive, have the best product to hand (which we now have!) coupled with good marketing support, we don't have to cut profit levels like everyone else is doing at the minute.

And if Jon Twigge is reading this, I don't know if you know who I am but I was there also! Some pretty impressive kit on display that we are interested in. Was a good days event all in all.

Naturally I can't, and won't be giving any hints away as to what these new innovations are as I don't want my rivals finding out so soon. Realistically I know it won't take them long to find out, but for when they do, I hope you all enjoy being back on the back foot again!

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Now For Something A Lot Less Controversial

One of the areas of industry that I think people need to be putting more focus on is the spiralling cost of fuel. At the moment oil is $85 a barrel, and the average price of diesel is above £1.20 a litre. The average yearly cost at the moment to fill a standard delivery vehicle stands at £33,000, and is going up throughout the course of the year.

If the price of oil continues to rise this year we could be paying £1.40 a litre for petrol or diesel, maybe even more than that. The oil companies are blaming a struggling currency for rising oil prices, despite oil being much lower than it's peak of $147 a barrel. In the future, due to increased transport costs, we can all expect the cost of everything to rise. This includes food, clothes, public transport costs, and of course PVCu frames. While this is going on, haulage companies will struggle even more to keep their businesses afloat. Imagine the yearly cost of keeping your trucks on the road if it costs £33,000 if you have only one, now imagine the scenario if you have 10, 12 or even more.

In five years time we are going to rich the peak point where the demand for oil starts to out-run the supply of it. When it gets to that point we can expect the price of oil and therefore fuel to go through the roof. What we need to be doing now is to plough more time, funding and effort into hydrogen fuel technologies, and to try to find a way to make the lorries more energy efficient, otherwise transport could start to splutter into great difficulties.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Removal Of Two Posts

Regular readers will find that I have had to remove two posts due to the threat of legal action. Claims were made that these posts were libellous, in my opinion they were only voicing my opinion about the health of the conservatory industry and how companies can be doing so well despite the difficult trading conditions. However, the company which took it upon themselves to get involved in the conversation threatened legal action, so I had no choice but to remove the posts. Thankyou to all that had left comments, but in the future I'll have to take more time in considering what comments to publish.

It is a shame in this day and age that instead of talking about certain issues, people/businesses resort to legal action to find a solution. Apologies to all that had left their comments. Send me an email next time or something!!

Update: I won't be publishing anymore comments about this subject. There are too many trap doors and I don't want to let this blog, which started out as a small personal venture, become bombarded with legal action threats. RCG has said a similar thing in the past! I want to carry on with this blog un-threatened and unpressured, this will allow me to write the best material I can. However, if anyone has any gossip for me or wants to vent their frustrations about a company and their practices, email me at glazingblogger@googlemail.com that way I won't have to be put in front of a judge!

Again apologies to those who have commented, this wasn't my wish but I have to think of the repurcussions.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Votes So Far

At the minute my poll is showing that Labour and the Green Party have recieved the most of the few votes that have been cast. What did get me thinking though is how the double glazing industry would get along with a Green Government.

Would they support investment into PVCu recyling? Would they be interested in pushing the benefits of energy rated windows? Or would they hit out at the PVC industry because of our heavy reliance on the use of oil to make the PVC polymers?

I think they would do both. I think they would support us in our efforts to make energy efficient windows carry a 5% or 0% VAT rate. And I think they could also provide some sort of grant scheme to help boost the industry. But I also think they would put money into finding better, more sustainable ways of producing the polymers required to make PVCu windows and doors.

But, that alone wouldn't get my vote. Economically they aren't experienced, and their other policies don't inspire me with confidence.

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

Spring Lures Out Customers

This weekend has been a great weekend in terms of new leads coming in. This could be put down to the fantastic weather we've had. This has been the first decent weekend of the spring and it seems to have made all the difference. This industry is dictated somewhat by the weather so the longer the sunny, dry weather continues the better.

Only a short one this one, think I'll let the 'death of the conservatory' issue rumble on a bit longer!

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

'A' Rated Windows Doesn't Always Mean Quality

What is becoming quite obvious to me now is that customers are confusing energy efficiency with quality. This is a common misconception. We all now it is quite easy to achieve an 'A' rated window if you have the right ingredients; argon gas, super spacers, low iron, low E etc. But this doesn't mean that the window is very secure, or that it's going to last a long time, or that the frame is reinforced. You get my point. WER's add to the OVERALL quality of the window, and this is what we need to be getting across to customers in order for firms to differentiate themselves.

When you get a customer ring up and say: "well wibbly wobbly windows down the street say they can get just as good an 'A' rated window", we need to be asking/telling them about the other various better qualities of your product, as opposed to just focussing on the energy ratings.

WER's I think have blinded some people into forgetting or just not emphasising enough the other USP's and qualities of the product.

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Thursday, April 8, 2010

Yet More Proof The Conservatory Market Is Struggling

I've found out today that yet another conservatory roof manufacturer is struggling to keep their heads above water due to dwindling conservatory numbers. I'm not going to mention the company name or talk specific numbers but they have had to lay off staff. I know much more than this but for legal reasons I don't want to go any further.

People continue to say that the conservatory market is salvagable. The problem is that conservatories don't have a positive reputation due to lack of care and poor product quality. Couple that with only 100,000 installations last year, companies are going to be grabbing at an increasingly shrinking market share thats not going to be worth very much in the near future.

Businesses need to start diversifying their product range if they are to be able to pay the bills in the future. Conservatories provide companies with big chunks of their cashflow due to the larger nature of their contracts. Businesses will need to find alternatives to plug the gap which conservatories are about to start leaving.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Could The General Election Affect Public Spending?

Taxes have to be raised and public spending will have to be cut, but not before the result of the General Election is announced. So, will the public hold fire on their spending until they know the outcome?

Labour's approach to the deficit is to start cuts at the beginning of next year, whereas the Tories want to start their cutting the minute they get into power. From the public's point of view, if cuts were to start straight away, they may be tempted to hang onto their money. If that were the case, then consumer spending will fall and we can expect a knock-on effect for the window and conservatory industries. However, were Labour to retain power, and cuts were made later, maybe the public won't be as cautious and carry on spending their money.

In an ideal world, Labour might adopt the Lib Dem strategy of giving everyone a tax break where they don't pay any on the first £10,000 they earn. Though doubts remain how they will be able to fund such a big difference.

Hopefully the general public won't be scared into stopping spending just because there is an election on. We need the momentum that the window industry has built up since the end of 2009 to carry on.

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Which Party Will Best Serve The Double Glazing Industry?

Unless you have only just woken up, you will know that Gordon Brown has officially announced that May 6th will be election day.

Now personally, my vote will be going to Labour. The reason is that if the Tories were in charge during the recession then I'm sure we would have been in a much worse situation now. Not once did the Tories give the public any idea as to what they would do to help the country out of the recession. All they did was blame the government for all the problems, rather than lend a hand. This tells me that George Osbourne lacked in any real experience or proper knowledge, which would have made him completely useless if he were in Alastair Darling's shoes at the time. Secondly, they have been very thin on policy. I'm not going to vote for a party without them giving me a single reason as to why. All parties have been thin on policy, but Labour has at least given us a few morsels to analyse. The Tories haven't. It's all just electioneering and sound-bytes.

So for me it's Labour. They aren't going to start cutting back on a large scale immediately, risking the country going back into recession likes the Tories would rather do. They seem a tad bit more competent than the Conservatives do.

Please vote on the poll on the right hand side. It might give us a bit of an idea as to how things may pan out...but probably not!

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Month In Review: March

March has been a strange month. All guns blazing at the start, but as Easter drew closer, things got slightly quieter. We don't seem to have suffered much however. The fitting schedules still look healthy, lead levels are as they should be for this time of year and we're not sat around twiddling our thumbs!

There's no doubt that the hot topic this month has been the state of the conservatory industry. Some have said that the conservatory market is a dying one, and that we probably will never see the levels of sales like we did in 2004. Some on the other hand have been proclaiming record months for sales of conservatories. But there is one figure that sticks in my mind to contradict this. A reduction to 100,000 installations last year, from 270,000 in 2004 is enormous.

The health of the conservatory market has prompted some to consider their position in the sector. Some have left comments saying that they are thinking of stopping selling conservatories altogther. Some companies will follow through on their thoughts and leave the market. The future doesn't seem bright for conservatories and their installation numbers will probably fall until the general public give up on the idea altogther. Not very positive I know, but based on the stats and what people have said, it's hard to see any positivity for the market.

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WHS Halo & Sysneal Make The Best Window

The poll 'Who Makes The Best Window' has finished and WHS Halo and Synseal got the most of the few votes that were cast:














Because the poll didn't raise all that many votes, there are too many discrepancies to say that either Halo or Synseal is the industry's favourite. I was wondering to just keep the poll on indefinately to try and receive as many votes as possible.

On the other hand I might find another subject to create a poll about!

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