Window installation: FAIL!

A few months ago, my friend Meg over at Sleepy New Mommy posted a rant about a poor customer service experience she had with a Philips flat screen TV.  Today I’m posting my own rant about the poor service we’ve received from the folks who installed our windows this spring.

When we bought our house, all the windows had been replaced except for the windows in the front of the house; the large picture window in our living room and the small row of windows directly below them in our basement.  With the impending deposit of our economic stimulus check, we decided to call Jack’s Wholesale Windows and get an estimate.  Both my grandma and our best friends recommended Jack’s.

The sales rep visited in April and the windows were installed a few weeks later.  Nathan took off work for the installation, and while I was on the phone with him that day two of our windows slipped out of the back of the installer’s truck and broke.  Luckily only the middle panes of the triple pane windows were damaged and the windows were able to be installed while new ones were ordered.

The new windows arrived in June and were able to be installed on a day I had off from work.  Of course this was not the end of the saga because one of the outside screens had been manufactured incorrectly.  The installer was able to jerry rig the screen to fit, but said he’d put in an order for a new one.  He indicated it should only be a couple of weeks and that we wouldn’t need to be home for the screen installation but that they would call so we would know they were coming.  That was back in June.

After not hearing from Jack’s for nearly three months, I finally called them last week and inquired about our screen.  After a little investigation, the young lady I spoke to said the screen had come in and was sitting in their warehouse with a note that indicated the sales rep needed to deliver it.  The thing is, our sales rep had up and left the company since we last spoke to him in May.  How’s that for customer service?  Apparently no one over there was too concerned about who was going to deliver our screen or when.  Had I not called, it would still be sitting in their warehouse.

But here’s the kicker.  The replacement screen was also built wrong.  We had an installer come out yesterday, another day Nathan needed to take off from work because one of our window latches wasn’t locking correctly and needed to be replaced.

The whole procedure, from ordering the windows to having them installed, was only supposed to take a few weeks with a final inspection from the sales rep to take place within two weeks of installation.  Here we are though, four months after the fact and the installation still isn’t finished.  What’s more, when Nathan asked about the final inspection, he was told there probably wouldn’t be once since our sales rep had left the company.

I am so unhappy with this company right now.  I do realize the broken windows were an accident, but everything else that has happened since then is just bad customer service.  If you live in Michigan, Illinois or Indiana and are looking for replacement windows, please think twice before patronizing Jack’s.