Complaint Review: Garage Door Service Company

I had a new garage door (16X7)installed on May of 2004 w/ Lift Master garage door opener at my house in Colorado. On September 12, 2004, the garage door was only closing halfway and was operating extremely rough.

I finally could not get it to work at all and had to manually open it. I called the garage company and they came out and said that I needed new springs. I thought this would be covered under the warranty. The technician said they are old springs and were never replaced. I thought this would be standard? He said that if I didn't replace the springs it would wear out the motor in the opener. He quoted me $450 to replace the springs and labor, but he would give me a $100 discount. This sounded extremely high. Not using my best judgement, I told him to replace the springs. In the meantime, I checked prices on the Internet. The prices ranged from $17 to $70 for springs. (I told the technician of my findings and he said that was impossible.) I ended up paying $376 when it was completely installed.

On 9/13/04, I called the manager in Colorado, Earl, of the Garage Door Company to dispute the cost of replacing springs and he said that I couldn't find a spring for less than $150 if I called everyone in town. Also he said that these were lifetime springs and the manufacturers springs were cheaper and would only last 2 years. He then kept talking about how cheap I got my garage door. I was not disputing the price of my door. I was disputing the price of the springs. He was extremely rude to me and at one point I thought he was going to hang up on me. I feel that I have definitely been ripped off, but I do not know how to proceed as I did not pay w/ credit card, but by check.

I will proceed by calling companies in the city to compare prices as Garage Door Company guarantees the best prices, which might be difficult as Earl or the technician would not tell me the brand or model of the springs so it will be hard to compare.

Shelley
Littleton, Colorado
U.S.A.