The only reason that I did not give a 1 star is because the windows do look good from the exterior and interior.
We have had horrible experiences with Verdun representatives, we started with a sales person that was nice but did not explain any options about the windows or patio door (I had to research the options and added a foot lock to the patio door). He constantly made numerous errors on our quote sheets (wrong colour windows (all), then some windows were changed to the right colour and others weren’t, which affected the pricing, installation date within 2 weeks, wrong phone number, discount % did not match what we were told it would be, windows were shown opening in the wrong direction, …) that I pointed out to him and asked to be fixed before we move forward, the response times to emails or calls was also an issue. We finally had enough and called the office to speak with a manager and were directed to the sales manager. Speaking with him and outlining our issues, he said he would take care of us and noticed that the original sales person did not put the right info on our contract sheet to qualify our windows for the rebate provided by the Ontario government. He did change that to ensure we would receive the rebate (as it was the main reason to move forward with the windows at this time). After a while, the sales manager was not returning our call or emails with questions and we were then passed to the customer relations manager after I had sent another email and his response to our email listing our concerns was “Understanding your frustration and concerns we feel canceling the order would be of best interest for both parties” (exact words). This is not a response that we feel a customer relation manager should send before actually even talking to a customer, later we found out that he had thought the sales manager had called us to talk about options which he did not.
Another issue we faced was our sales person had come out to our house with another team member to perform a window re-measurement before the windows were to be made, typical practice but while they were measuring I had noticed that there were multiple changes in the window sizes. During this visit I had ask again the sales person, Verdun will match my existing trim right? And he said yes (I’ll comment more about this after). When I was dealing with the sales manager I had mentioned to him that I saw the sales person making multiple changes to the window sizes and I just want to make sure that you have received those numbers before they get sent to the warehouse to be made and his response was, “I will not approve the order until I see those measurements”. A week or more goes by and I have not heard anything, so I had sent an email asking the same question, did you receive the new measurements and I received an email a few days later saying, they lost my sheet and would need to come back out to remeasure our windows AGAIN. The gentlemen who came out was the installation manager and was very informative and understanding. I had informed him that the sales person had told me that Verdun would match my existing trim and he said yes if that is what I was told.
We finally received the call to ask us what dates would work for the installation of our 11 windows and a patio door. We gave the dates and was told it would take 1.5 days but are going to book 2 full days to be safe. During the installation, we were excited and happy with the look of the windows coming out of the truck and being installed slowly. The installation was not completed in the 2 days, which meant we needed to schedule another day for them to come back, luckily there was another day during the same week. After the 3rd day the installation was still not complete. The part that was not complete was our famous trim, the one that I was told multiple times would match our existing.
After 3 people had saw the trim, you would think that someone would take a picture of the trim to ensure that they could get it or match it before coming to site. I received a phone call from the sales person (original one, who I had not heard from for over 1.5 months) that he hears there is an issue and would like to know what can be done. I said you and others informed me that the trim would match existing and that is what I expect (as it matches other areas in our house). He said send me a picture of the trim and we will find it and get it. GREAT. I received a phone call within an hour or two and was told that the trim is discontinued and we need to discuss options. So I thought about it and decided to look for myself online AND guess what, I found the trim within 20 minutes of searching for it. So I called the sales person immediately and said I found the trim and expect the trim. Verdun did order the trim but said it would take 3-4 weeks to receive, which is crazy but at least they ordered it.
Our installation is now complete with the trim and only a few deficiencies remain to be corrected and questions answered but this process has been a fight ever step of the way and are surprised how this company that says “We hold several values that guide us in everything we do – Honesty, Accuracy and Efficiency, but we hold one value above the rest – Integrity.” we had to fight as much as we did to have good service. I had asked the original sales person for another quote upon signing the contract (months ago) to have another patio door installed and his response was just use the price shown on your current contract but we wanted a new contract number and price, so at this point and the issues we have had – I truly believe that we will not be using Verdun again nor will we be recommending them to family, friends or neighbors. It is a shame as we will have two patios doors that do not look the same but don’t believe that it is worth the headaches.
