Think twice of replacing existing garage door from Glenmore Door
The good or bad of a company is often defined by the after sale service. Glenmore Door was good, until something goes wrong, then you fully recognize what the company is like.
My experience with Glenmore Door is not a good one.
1. Replaced my old garage door by Glenmore Door in April 2016. Work done included removing my old door, install new tracks , door, garage opener. Paid $2331.
2. Jan 2017, the 2 by 4 wood (see photo) the garage opener track attached to cracked and splited. The piece of wood was not part of the garage's frame, it was a piece of wood used to connect the garage door opener track to the garage frame.
3. Contacted Glenmore door and was told the 2 by 4 was the original wood. Glenmore door claimed the 2 by 4 was not part of the warranty because it was part of the framing and they wanted $125 to have the problem fixed. Glenmore said to meet half way and reduced it to $95 (since when half way of $125 is $95?!). I did voice my concern that they should not be reusing that piece of wood in the first place but they said it was good when they used it. After all, they are 40 years in business and the installer had 25 years experience.
4. The solution. They removed the 2 by 4 wood and mounted the garage door track directly on the garage frame as the fix. Made me wonder why this was not done in the first place. If the solution is simply removing the piece of wood, I would argue that the installation was problematic to begin with. After all, they are 40 years in business, they knew what they were doing.
Lesson learned. Avoid Glenmore Door. They are a great company if nothing goes wrong When things go south, well, here is my example. They will tell you their side of the story, you be the judge of their response. If you still want to go with them to replace your old garage door, make sure they don't re-use any existing mounts. If the old part fails, Glenmore will likely respond claiming it is not part of the garage door and the door owner has to pay for it. They are very specific in what constitutes part of a warranty. In addition, you will lose your use of garage and you will have to take time off from work to meet the installer again. And yes, you will be paying for the repair.
Why I still pay for them to have it fixed? I almost didn't. Being a new door, I would expect it to carry some sort of warranty, now I was looking at the quote and did not see any mention of warranty. I guess they will refer you to the steel door manufacturer for warranty. You see, it is pretty hard for the steel door to go bad. You get the idea. Having someone else worked on the door would just give Glenmore reasons to question whether it is other people's work that causes problem.
Photos. Before the fix, you see the cracked 2 by 4. Glenmore door decided to mount the new garage opener track to a piece of old wood left over from previous installation.
After the fix and $95 later, the piece of wood was removed. This should have been done the first place, I suspect.
See my cross posting on google review if the pictures do not show up.
PS. Glenmore Door followed up with a phone call the next day asking how the service was. I told them I am not happy why I should pay for a job for which the new garage door track is mounted on an old wood from the previous garage installation. Glenmore Door insisted the piece of wood in question is part of the garage frame and asked me should they replace the garage frame as well?
What would you say to a question like this?
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Update.
Thank you for responding so all people can read the response from Glenmore Doors, people can now read both sides of the story. I encourage all to read Mr. Corner's response, you can get a glimpse the frustration I have with Glenmore Doors. The frustration of dealing with a door company who is now more like a legal firm engaged in word play. In case the response gone missing, I capture the response, so it is fair to listen to Glenmore Doors' side of story. Please read it.
You be the judge whether I am a person who want things done free or a desperate customer who is fighting for work to be carried out as part of a warranty on a job done 8 to 9 months ago. See the pictures, read the response from Glenmore Doors.
Here is my story in short. I paid $2331 for a new garage door installation in April 2016 after my wife back into my old garage door. Glenmore Doors asked for my credit card information before the service call ( I still maintain it a warranty claim), Glenmore Doors charged $95+GST to the credit card. I owe Glenmore Doors nothing.
The contention. Glenmore Doors decided to use a piece of wood left over from the previous garage door installation and now that piece of wood cracked and could not bear the weight of the garage door operation. I demanded that work be carried out under warranty, FREE of course, but Glenmore Doors claimed that piece of wood is part of my garage frame and refused to do the warranty work. If you look at the pictures, the piece of wood was clearly a spacer put between the track and the actual garage frame because the old garage opener track was a bit short. The piece of wood was clearly a hack to make the old garage opener track to fit. This piece of spacer became part of my garage frame under Glenmore Doors' definition. The fix Glenmore Doors implemented was to remove the spacer (wood) and mounted the garage opener tracker directly on the garage frame. This should have been the proper way to mount the garage opener track to begin with, hence, I say it is a warranty claim and should be FREE of charge.
Wood spacer became framing.
Now think about this for a minute. A company with 40 years of experience would call that piece of wood 'framing' (I call it a spacer, aka handyman's hack) I will be very worried for any contractor who call that piece of spacer a frame. Don't take my word, see the picture, read their response.
Warranty became wanting free services
Glenmore Doors mounted the new garage opener track on that piece of wood, a spacer, relic from the previous garage door hack job, and the wood was cracked. It was clearly a workmanship, a poor of judgement issue, and Glenmore Doors wanted to get away from it. Now they turned a legitimate warranty claim and calling it wanting free services. The conversation I had with Glemore Doors was that they kept repeating they were not responsible for framing. No they are not responsible for anyone's garage framing. However, they are responsible for choosing to build on that piece of wood, a spacer left from a previous garage installation. They are responsible for a poor installation to begin with because they chose to build on a spacer from the previous job! You be the judge, see the pictures. Read Glenmore Doors' response.
Introduction of a vehicle impact
I wonder why this is in Glenmore Doors' response. But since they mentioned about it, I will tell you the conversation we had.
Glenmore Doors at one point mentioned that I was hiding from them the door was impacted by a vehicle. I smelled where this was going because if the new garage door were impacted by a vehicle, the old wooden spacer would not be able to hold the weight. It would easily be argued to become my fault. I stood on my ground and assured the new garage door was not impacted by any vehicle. Read the response again, they still left the impact by a vehicle bit in to cause distraction in this warranty claim.
Ransom, internet review, rating of 7 and 8.
It took time, energy to document my experience. This should have been a warranty claim to begin with. Now they shamelessly declare they deserve a rating of 7 or 8 despite all these! I would put in a negative rating if homestars allows it. I told them ahead of time that I would leave bad review everywhere because my warranty claim was denied. Yet they rebadged the bad reviews "ransom".
Whether a company is worth returning or referral is determined not only when they provide the service and get paid, that is the minimum, but rather how they deal with their customers for after sale service, for warranty claim, after they have your money. Now you can see how 'reasonable' Glenmore Door is, and how they demand its customers to be 'reasonable' too.
When we chose Glenmore Doors, we read the reviews. See what happens when the installation goes south. Read Glenmore Doors' response, see the pictures to get the full picture. I also added another picture to show the close up of the latest fix Glenmore Doors put in. Yep. The mount is not even flushed to the wall and a screw is mounted at an angle.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $95.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Company Response
Good Afternoon Timothy,
We wish you had been as quick to leave reviews over the 10/10 service you got when your door and opener were replaced the first time. But we understand not everyone has time to give credit when due. When your door and opener were replaced there was nothing visually wrong with the framing as it showed no wear and tear at that time-the initial install and original framing were not performed by us.
It is worth noting that we do not require home owners to be home for the service but just that we have access to the garage. Our warranty is clear, 1 year parts and service on all installs, that does not cover how your house was built, that would be unreasonable.
When you called in yesterday you were quoted a service call as this did not appear to be warranty, then you responded that if we didn't do the work for free that you would leave bad reviews everywhere you could. At that time I spoke to you and offered to reduce your charge as a courtesy. I agreed to meet you "part" way, not "half" way. Then you agreed and we came out and performed the service within hours of your phone call. When we were there the technician rectified the problem with your framing (there was sufficient mounting behind the wood and it needn't have been there in the first place). He then proceeded to look over the rest of the install, lubricate your door and show you how to lubricate it yourself as well.I followed up this morning as I promised I would and there appeared to be some confusion about whether or not your door was impacted by a vehicle. Regardless of whether or not it was impacted, the framing in question in this specific case was not covered by warranty. If you had been as reasonable a customer as we were a service provider then we may have even reduced the cost further for you, however we will not be held ransom by poor reviews in exchange for people wanting free services.
Maybe a 7/10 or 8/10 rating would be more appropriate as your issue wasn't with our service, product or response time...but rather because you didn’t want to pay the previously agreed upon bill.
Sincerely,
Norm Corner
Residential Manager