Complaint Review: Duramade Windows And Doors

To be fair to the owner Mr. Gary Delia and potential customers of Duramade Windows and Doors, I feel that I owe a report after the installation of 23 windows the past Friday because I found a report and owner's response here while Duramade sales representative was in my house making a sale about one month ago. It made the purchasing process a lot simpler.

I want Mr. Delia and Duramade Windows and Doors to do well and I want you to have more happy customers. But with the errors and mistakes and broken promises as I have experienced, I can only see more and more complaints with BBB and other media. I urge Mr. Delia to consider adopting an ISO Quality System and improve the workforce quality.

Door to door salesman needs to know the address:
While I was working outside, a door-to-door pre-sales man walked up to me and asked me if I would like to schedule a presentation of the great Duramade Windows. Since I needed new windows, I said YES. Then he started to ask for my address. Shouldn't he know the address and the house number he was walking into? Anyway, we booked an appointment on the following Tuesday.

No show:
We came back home on that Tuesday to wait for the salesman to show up, but there was no show and no call.

Broken promise:
Some days after, Duramade called me up and wanted to schedule another meeting. I asked him about the no-show on the past Tuesday. They apologized and promised that they would give me $500 to make it up. Then another person called to confirm the appointment, and mentioned about $500 again. Unfortunately, nobody ever mentioned about the $500 any more. I brought it up to the nice salesman who made the actual sale. He did not seem to know anything about it.

Huge errors:
If you do a Google Search of 1/8 Duramade, you can easily find the following page.
http://www.goduramade.com/custom-window.htm

It is what the sales person stressed over and over again that Duramade windows were measured and made to be within 1/8 of an inch tolerance and will tightly fit into your window slot. Unfortunately it was not the case with our windows installed on Friday July 24th, 2009. There were two windows that are inches too short. These two windows are in the row of nine windows facing the inner coastal water. They were supposed to have the same height. There are four other windows which are about to 1/2 too short.

We replaced a door. There were about to 1 gap on each side. A thief can easily pry it open because the lock bolts are fully exposed to the outside.

Threaten to bring in the lawyer and tear down the installed windows:
I asked the installation crew not the seal those windows because I wanted somebody to take a look first. By the way, they were using caulking to seal the windows with a piece of thin vinyl on each side, regardless how big a gap was there. Not to mention the poor insulation, a thief can easily cut the screws and remove these windows with simple tools.

The general manager and a field engineer came. I showed them those windows and told them that they are too short needed to go back to the factory. I was promised to have a tight fit, to be within 1/8, but the gap was too big and I would not want them to seal them as they proposed to do. They did not show any willingness to take the windows back. The general manager even threatened to bring in the lawyer and tear down the windows they already installed.

Compromise:
I was extremely disappointed. As a business owner, I have sympathy for Mr. Delia. I could not see how his business was going to survive if the crew keeps on making this kind of mistakes and betray their customers. I gave Bob, the general manager an option. The salesman and I missed one window in this full house window replacement deal. It is a small window, about 1/8 of the size of the two windows they should re-make. I asked Bob to give me an estimate. He gave me a rough price that was about 3 times of what it should be based on our research. Anyway, I offered to him to replace it for free and I would let the crew seal the other windows with some liquid form or other insulation although I really did not like it. In the end, it was the deal. It saved them at least 3/4 of the cost and trouble.

Son gave me hard time:
One of my sons is visiting us. He started to give me hard time. He said Dad, the two shorter windows in a row of nine windows really makes the view ugly. Why would you even consider giving them a compromise like that? They made a mistake and you should just ask them to take the windows back." The kid was born and raised in USA. I guess that the American way is to do the same right.

40% energy saving and other promises:
I want to say that the nice salesman Don gave us a great demonstration and a good price for the Gorell 5300 series windows. There is a 40% energy saving and some other promises if you replace the whole house with their windows. Supposedly heat and noise would not penetrate these 3-layer windows. It is still 5-digit price and expensive compared to the Gorell windows deals I can find in some customer reports in other areas, but it is a relatively good deal in our area.

During Don's demonstration, he used an infrared light, and we could not feel the heat going through the window. However, at this moment, we can still feel sun radiation coming through the windows and we still hear air conditioning running the same way like before. I don't know how to explain it and how Duramade is going to keep up with their promises.

Hope this report will help both the company and potential customers.

Wang, July 26th, 2009

JB wang
Clearwater Beach, Florida
U.S.A.